We had set our sites on Mandalay Hill for a view and climbed all of the stairs to get to the top for a beautiful view of the city.
Mandalay hill looking along the palace moat
I'm not sure why in the land of endless stairs we thought we would be able to ride our bikes up but instead we parked them here, at the entrance to Mandalay Hill guarded by two white lions. Vince looks tiny beside them.
Like I said....many stairs and all done in bare feet.
The top....beautiful gold and mirrors.
Not sure what this means.
View from the top
On the way back to the hotel we came across a zoo so we thought..."Why not?" It looked pretty small and zoos in different countries are always a little different
The hippo that looked liked he wanted to eat us. He was close enough to touch and almost suckered Vince in.
Tigers.....drugged? This is always a controversy.
After a super hot day we stopped for a cold beer and got a few unexpected views.
A procession of brahama bulls
Female monks.
We booked at the hotel and both trips looked the same so went for the nicer looking boat thinking it didn't mean much anyway.
We forgot to take a picture of the boat so this one, in the dark will have to suffice. It's a basic boat with a deck and nice inside with seats. Now that I look at it, it really is the boat in the picture.
And so it began...the freezing start to Bagan.
This was the only indication that it was Christmas Day.
Until we met these two gentlemen....a couple of welsh travellers with whom we shared a bottle of wine. They were two nice guys...brothers who were also travelling light like us. We also shared in the fact that we had not booked a place stay and had never had a problem in the past. More of this to come.
The "cruise" was interesting, relaxing and a nice way to enjoy the river life.
Finally it warmed up enough to take off the sweaters.
It was a long boat ride and after being stuck on a sandbar for over an hour we finally made it into Bagan...dark, tires and no hotel but not at all worried.
We got off the boat and are immediately pounced on by taxi drivers (horses and cars), the park officials demanding $20 entrance fee and no idea of where we are going. The four of us go into a taxi and asked him to take us to the town and we would find a place to stay. We did not heed his "all full" warning at all. We also ignored this......too funny!
In short, here is what happened in the little town of Nyaungu where the boat docked. We went into many hotels which were all full, tried a monastery that was full and finally asked him to drop us off on a busy street (not a big town). Vince went into a travel agency and found our little guardian angel who, after many phone calls, ushered us into a car (she followed on scooter) and off we went to a monastery where she said they had room.
Sure enough, we pull up and they show us the room: 1 bed, 1 pillow, 1 blanket and floor space for 3. being the only girl I felt that chivalry would get me the bed, pillow and maybe blanket but I kindly asked if they had another blanket. if not, we would happily have gone and bought 3 and donated them. Five minutes later, a gentleman came in and said the head monk wanted to see us. We went outside and into his building.
The head monk's building.
After much translation we realized that he wanted us to stay in his room and I was to sleep on the far opposite side. Okay, we were all fine with that.
We headed out for dinner since we were starving hungry and celebrated our success.
This is where we slept. Four snoring men and me!
The monk kept his bed but was up at 4 doing the prayers.....over the loud speaker.
They accept people to stay but they are usually outside so we felt quite honoured.
The road by the monastery. In the background in the pagoda which we had no idea was so famous.
The entrance to the monastery.
Which also happened to be the monastery for this huge, famous Shwezigon pagoda...the one which others in Bagan are modelled after.
It turns out that it was a full moon ceremony and Christmas Day that accounted for the lack of lodging and has happened twice in 10 years.
This was our start at seeing pagodas and what struck me the most is that they are everywhere and part of regular life here. This one in a parking lot/playground.
Once again we were treated to a parade and this time of many little girls dressed in white on horseback.
We definitley wanted to set up our lodgings for the night so headed out to find place for four and as luck would have it, we did. We booked and when asked what time we would be back, we said 6 pm......which is an important part of the story.
Our plans were to head to Old Bagan to see stupas and temples but we quickly learned form others that it is very crowded and instead we rented two e bike and attacked the sandy paths and spent the day going temple to temple. The beauty and age is astounding.
Thatbyinnyu Temple-tha tallest temple in Bagan.
Bombing down the sandy road.
Makeshift skirt for temple visits.
Alas, I got a flat tire and had to wait for an exchange which came super quickly and I was impressed by the efficiency. I figured I'd peruse over maps as I like to do.
While some have been restored, my favourite were those which were not and I peered into this one. They all have 4 sides with a buddha inside each door way.
Looking in the doorway
Another doorway of the same temple. It was a strange feeling that they had been left alone to one day be restored and woken up.
Other restored buddhas. They are fascinatingly the same but different. The pose, is often the same but I don't know enough to explain.
It was at this point that we randomly ran into our Welsh buddies and told them that we were heading to the new observatory tower that we had seen on a map to watch the sunset. Off we all went with bikes barely taking us as out batteries (e bikes) got lower and lower.
The obervatory....nice and high.
The view was amazing and you got an idea of the number of pagodas and temples nestled away.
Vince being pensive at sunset.
So, remember this place? We said we would be there by 6....well, we got there at 6:15 and they had given our room away. back to square one and no place to stay....again!
If I have learned anything here, it is patience and so we were. Vince and one of the brothers took off to find a place and myself and the other one stayed behind...looking forlorn. The gentleman at the desk was being very nice and called a few places for us then, after an hour called us over. "We have staff quarters where you can stay if you like." is what he says. At the same time, the others burst in saying they had a place 30 km away....we opted for the staff quarters.
Nothing fancy
A bed
Which doubled as a chair. The water was hot and we had a good shower which was the best thing ever. Our buddies headed out early the next day and we were treated to an actual room in the hotel. Just like that, a basic hotel room felt like a castle.
Our plans for the next day....Mount Popa!
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