Background
Bagan is roughly a 42 square kilometer area filled with over 3000 temples and pagoda ruins. All that remains now are some larger, brick temples with some stuccoed patches with some faded frescoes on the inside. There are also many crumbling structures and piles of brick. Oddly enough, Bagan is also home to a growing number of new pagodas built in the same style of old time Bagan but without the stucco or the murals.
The frenzied pagoda building began when a Burmese king took over the area in 1044, at a time when
It is hard to image what Bagan would have looked like in the prime of its life. There are recorded accounts claiming it to be “one of the finest sights in the world” and covered in gold. It’s also hard to image what kind of work force was needed to build such amazing structures. Where would such a work force have lived? Who else would have lived among the ruins? It couldn’t possibly have been a 42 square kilometer area solely for religious buildings. One day I may scrounge up enough energy to search for answers to my questions, but for now I’m content just to wonder and create my own scenarios in my head.
Bagan Legends
The first legend simply states that at one time it rained silver and gold and thus the empire because rich enough to afford all of the manual labor required to build so many pagodas and temples.
The second legend is a little more interesting. It states that there once was a monk who was an alchemist. Unfortunately for him, he was not very good at is job of making the king rich. This made the king unhappy and to show his feelings he gouged out the alchemist-monk's eyes. The now-blind monk was so angry he threw the lead in the toilet (they had toilets in ancient Bagan?) and thus gold was produced. This act of spontaneous riches turned the king's heart and he thus order the monk to be brought back into the world of sight. Eyes were searched for high and low and eventually someone brought back one from a cow and another from a goat. Apparently no one had died recently to furnish human eyes and no one cared enough to give him eyes from the same animal. But, most importantly, he could see again and he turned lots and lots of lead into gold and silver. All of these riches spurred the king into building massive monuments to the Buddha and thus was the beginning of Bagan's pagoda frenzy.
Getting There
We arrived on the overnight 6500 Kyat per person from Mandalay. It was quite expensive for what it was - one of the small buses with seats that do not quite fit 2 Westerners and overstuffed with cargo so that you cannot stretch your legs under the seat in front of you.
By quite expensive, I am also comparing it to other prices in Myanmar. Of course, this transportation is quite cheap when comparing it to other SE Asia bus trips we've taken (ie the 17 hour Dimple Star Ro-Ro bus trip on equally horrible seats from San Jose, Antique to Manila).
There were four Brits behind us who got a big kick out of the whole situation and spent the first hour discussing how awful the ride was. Was great to hear them complain. Luckily, we were in the front, which was nice because I could stretch my feet out, kinda.
We arrived at 3 am and made our way to the Inn Wa Guesthouse where we got a room for $7/night with a fan and in room bathroom (in Mandalay we pay $6 for a fan and a shared bathroom outside). It was clean and the staff was very friendly and I would definitely recommend this guesthouse. They didn't even charge us for Friday night even though we arrived very early morning.
Day 1
We got up early to see the ruins by bicycle. We figured the best time for birds and heat would be just after sunrise. Though we didn't get out quite this early, we did manage to make it up before most people.
Not so soon after we began biking a young man also on a bicycle came up to us and started talking. He proceeded to follow us to the first few pagodas we visited and then offered to take us near the river so we could do some birding. We thought for sure he was trying to be our guide and so we asked him (as politely as possible) what his motives were. He explained that he is a long distance university student who wants to practice his English and would like to show us around Bagan for free in order to practice his English and to practice tour guiding.
We let him show us around and in general had a good time. He took us to some of the famous pagodas and temples and even hung around while we tried to do some birding in the morning. He usually warded off vendors, but at one temple he let a girl follow us around. It ended up that she was his cousin and he was interested in helping her make a sale (which he did, as I bought a few lacquer ware items from her). The whole day he carried around painting he said he made.
In the afternoon he showed us his painting, which we both felt obligated to buy, though I'm not sure why. I wasn't a fan of any of them and said so, but we still felt obligated (he showed us around, didn't he?) and so I finally said which painting I liked the best (although I didn't like it well enough to hang it on my wall). Unfortunately for us, this was the most expensive painting.
We were in a pickle. I really didn't want to buy any of the paintings, but we felt pressured. So, do you buy a painting you would NEVER put on display because it's cheaper or buy the more expensive painting that you MIGHT hang up, maybe someday. We went with the "maybe" painting and then discovered that neither option is the correct one. The best option would have been to FORGET THE SALE and buy nothing because we didn't find any of the paintings appealing.
After the sale I felt cheated, especially upon discovering that he overcharged us big time and even lied about his name. This discovered happened when we came across another painter with the same name as ours who was selling painting for at least half the price as our guy. Grrrrr...
Let's just say I learned a very big lesson that day: don't trust the local who comes up to you to talk. The nice ones are always the shy ones.
Day 2
This day we decided to do solo on our bicycles. Originally, we had planned to visit Mt. Popa instead of the ruins, but when we inquired about the boat trip to Mandalay, we were informed that it was a day earlier than expected. This didn't leave us with much time, so we decided to stay in Bagan for our last day.
We stopped by 5 ancient pagodas throughout the day. Our first stop was Ananda, which is very famous and thus very touristy though I didn't find it very impressive except for these very large standing Buddhas that face in each of the four directions.
One of my favorite temples was Dhammayangi Pahto and is said to be the largest in Bagan. It has a very mysterious story behind it. The temple is built like Ananda with an inner and an outer corridor both running parallel to the walls. Unlike Ananda, Dhammayangi's inner corridor has been sealed up with brick at each of the four entrances. No one really knows why the inner section of the temple was covered up and it has never fully been excavated. There are legends surrounding the temple as one of the teenage vendors related to us. She explained that the monarch at the time was very strict and insisted on the best work for this temple. This meant that the mortar between the bricks should not be thicker than a pin. If a pin could be placed between two bricks, then the brick layer's hand would be chopped off. Because of the king's strict ways, the people may have revolted by sealing up the inside chamber.
Many of the temples housed intricate murals, most dealing with the life of the Buddha (of course). Some of these murals were incredibly faded while others were magnificently restored. I found the murals of Sulamani Pahto to be a bit unusual. To me it was as if someone had graffitied the old murals by poorly painting large Buddhas on top of the old murals. I thought this had to be a new job, but soon learned that between 1780-1820 someone decided to white wash parts of the walls and repaint. The strange thing is, the old murals faintly protrude through the new paintings.
After biking around temples all day, we decided to head to the docks for an evening river cruise. When we arrived, we were attacked by two different boat men offering their services. Without saying a word, Casey watched as they slowly out bid each other, starting at 6000 Kyat and ending at 4000 Kyat for a half hour ride. Casey decided to pick the boatman by the fairest way conceivable - flipping a coin. Only, in Burma there is no coinage and so our room key substituted. Surprisingly, both boatmen went along with it and the loser accepted the results with relative ease (much to my amazement).
The river cruise was nice, though the boatman had informed us that we would travel farther than we did. They did this little trick where about halfway up the route they pulled out into the middle of the river and turned off their engines and just sat there for a good 10-15 minutes while we wondered what the hell was going on. They only resumed the tour once questioned about their actions. On the ride home, we ran into another tourist boat that had ceased to operate in the middle of the water. Our industrious boatmen secured our anchor line to their boat and straddled the two boats to ensure that they would stay side by side as we jetted back to the bank.
For dinner that night, we decided to treat ourselves with a little tourist fare. We had heard about Aroma II from the LP and though we had generally decided that LP restaurant guide is not to be trusted, we decided to have a go. We were both so glad that we did. It was delicious Indian cuisine! Unfortunately, the pizza we tried the previous night that LP raved about was not up to par and thus we decided to once again be wary of Lonely Planet.
Day 3
When we went back to our hotel we discovered that the boat back to Mandalay was actually the day we had heard about and therefore we had one more day to roam around Bagan. We decided it take it easy this day, well, sort of. We rode to New Bagan to a garden KC had heard about a nice place for birding. We didn't see much there except hoards of Baya Weavers which were all nesting in crazy hanging nests that filled the bushes and trees. We also saw an owl flying, possibly being chased by the hundreds of weavers.
Then we met a nice old man who insisted (through broken English and hand motions) that we look at his paya. It was a nice little place with wonderful views and some interesting stucco. We couldn't find it on any map, but it was clear that the man prepared torch lit outdoor dining experiences for tourists right in front of the paya.
We took a round-about way back to our hotel along a dirt road. Though there were tourists, they were in far fewer number than along the main road. Even better, the vendors along this path seemed lazy to sell their wares and thus didn't hound us as we passed. One temple was even full of napping locals while the children played with fruit on the front stoop! My favorite was Payathanzu, which housed more beautifully detailed frescoes.
Day 4: Trip up the Ayeyarwaddy to Mandalay
We took the fast boat from Bagan to Mandalay, as we were short on time. Apparently, everyone takes the boat from Mandalay to Bagan, which was fortunate for us since it meant that there were only 2 others on the boat and it was $10 cheaper (though about 1 hour longer since the ride was upriver).
The river trip was nice and relaxing. Some of the scenery was amazing, but it soon turned monotonous with all of the plains. The views of Bagan's pagodas was beautiful, as were the hills of Sagaing as we neared Mandalay.
All in all, the trip was very rewarding, though a bit stressful at times.
No comments:
Post a Comment