Bagan; land of many stupas

We left Mandalay, by road, for an 11 hour journey to Bagan; the place I had been most looking forward to visiting in Myanmar.

Most of the journey was by car, and we drove through now familiar looking towns and villages, with roadside stalls. Lots of petrol stations being constructed; neighbours having seen the success of the first that were built. 

More interesting to me was when we passed miles of high razor wire fencing, complete with look out towers, search lights, armed police and at least three large police stations. Roadblocks sat along side the road ready for use. It turns out they are all protecting a Chinese copper mine. When we asked what was going on we found out that all the villages who used to live and farm in the area were forcibly moved on, given far less than the value of their land for compensation, the mine employs only Chinese immigrants and 90% of the copper goes back to China. Understandable the locals have been demonstrating, so a curfew is in place at night; hence the roadblocks. Nice to have your own police force looking after its own civilians...

We are asked about the rumour that the Chinese are building a nuclear power station in the UK, we say it's true. This is seen as hilarious as Chinese is the by word for poor quality here; but that may be at least partially due to the tactic of selling items here that are too dangerous or cheaply made to be sold in their home market... 

We broke up the drive with a visit to some limestone carved caves and shrines. Everything you saw had been carved out of the limestone rock itself, it was quite amazing

Many of the shrines and Buddha images had been damaged, apparently by the resident monkeys but I wasn't so sure.

If it is the monkeys the problem is not being helped by the fact they are fed by the stall holders and tourists who visit. You can even buy a package of food for them. The sales tactics have changed here, we are followed silently by a woman with a bag of souvenirs as we explore the site, but she never once speaks to us... On the way back to the road they are braver, asking which country you are from so they know which language to do their sales pitch in. Highlights were a two year old that said "hello what country are you from" to everyone who passed, and a slightly older boy who, when I answered England, said "well a very good morning to you" in something approaching a Cockney accent!

We did the final two hours of our journey by boat, witnessing the first angry Myanmar-an we've seen as our boat driver had a shouting match with the man on the pier directing people to the right boats before getting abroad muttering and slamming doors like a teenager. 

We cruised slowly up the famous Irrawaddy river to Bagan, stopping at an island with a magnificent temple. The most interesting bit was the walk too it through forest, even in this desert like, sandy environment, with fantastic trees and lots of acacia.

The flood planes were huge and you could see the river rose a lot in rainy season. 

Sun set while we were still on the river

The final part of the journey was a beautiful dusk light drive past 50-60 stupas into Bagan. All the residents were relocated from the old town to "new Bagan" so the old area and all its temples and stupas could be preserved. Apparently they don't mind now due to the extra money they get from all the tourists! The buildings are new and there is a purpose built market selling everything and anything you need. Without fridges they shopping is done each morning for that day and the spices looked and smelt delicious

We stuck our head in a Lacquer wear workshop near our hotel; hands up I had no idea Lacquer came from the sap of a Lacquer tree... The process is long, complex and with many stages; starting with a bamboo and horse hair weaved starting structure with gradual building of layers until the final stages of painting one colour at a time.

There was a show home at the back of the workshop, goodness knows how much it would all cost!

If I am honest the reason I had wanted to come to Bagan was not to do with caves, rivers or lacquer wear. It was the iconic image of thousands of warm brick stupas reaching out to the horizon. "Arguable better than Ang kor Watt" and it really didn't disappoint.

We got wonderful high views over the city on the elevated walls of the first temple we visited and it really took your breath away.

There are over 3000 temples, pagodas, monasteries as stupas here and the whole place feels and looks magical. 

The style changes depending on age, starting with ones you can walk around inside with an inner corridor. These Stupas are from the original design of a fort, square with two layers and plenty of gaps between to hide in. These ones are built differently to elsewhere in Myanmar, with a Mongolian influence meaning lots of archways and domed ceilings in the early (11th century) examples. They forgot how to build them like that eventually so the older ones look more familiar.

Ones that are solid with a Buddha outside

And ones with beautiful wall paintings inside

They would have originally been covered in plaster work and gold leaf, but I prefer the warm brick exteriors especially at sun set

The history of the region is a blend of myth and legend with a few facts thrown in. The government are not keen on scientifically dating things after their oldest Buddha turned out to be 500 years younger than they thought...!

We hired a local guide to show us round for a day and a half, and it was definitely worth it. So much information on the architecture and history than you could hope to get on your own. The area held its own against the Mongolian push through the region, quite a feat. And was part of a successful Shan kingdom that stretched well into Bangladesh and China. The final Shan King only stepped down in the middle of last century. The guide explained with a laugh that they were so successful at war because they took the fight to the enemies territory and didn't let the enemy come to them; like the Americans apparently!

It's not an exaggeration when I say it's the most amazing site I've seen, stupas stretching out for miles. 

We hired a horse cart to see a few more instead of mopeds 

We also visited one of the local villages on the edge of the "archeological zone" where innovative local villagers ran informal tours of their homes and farms stopping off conveniently at houses that made crafts 

One of the old ladies made cheroot cigars. A rather interesting mix of tobacco and chipped palm tree root rolled in palm leaves... As our guide had been chain smoking smaller versions all day (which may explain his unusually deep, gravelly, almost French sounding voice) we bought him one; only for him to ask us later for a recommendation to help him get work again as he had been off all last year being treated for cancer...

He came out with lots of funny one liners, like; "Staying in Myanmar like preparing to be a monk, there is nothing to do in the evening".

Whilst relaxing amid all this beauty there were a couple of other things to note. After my repeated digestive issues I have taken a leaf out of my mums book for visiting hot countries with lots of curry, a daily gin and tonic, made better by the quinine in the gin as we were in a malarial zone again.

Secondly; the amazing peanuts. I have three foods I can't resist; chocolate, cheese and peanuts. The peanuts here are grown in fields all around and are unbelievably fresh and tasty, and served as a side to, cooked into and on top of every meal; as well as with every drink you order. Undoing all the silver linings of my stomach problems...!