We meet up with our traveling companions and head off to visit temples and pagodas in Began. It strikes you immediately of the rich history of Myanmar dating back to greek and roman times in western history. Bagan was constructed over hundreds of years and now as a world heritage site it is so much to take in in a few days. There are thousands of temples that are spread across the plains of Bagan. The government relocated the people living among the old structures by creating new Bagan and shutting off the utilities in old Bagan. We were told people disassembled their simple homes and moved to new Began, which is now a bustling community.
We visit the Manuka temple, with its reclining Buddha image, which records a captive king's impression of life in prison; the fine stone carvings of Nanpaya Temple; Thatbyinnyu Temple, the tallest in Bagan; and Bupaya Pagoda. We walk from one place to the next along dirt paths that have been there for more than a thousand years and so many smaller unnamed and unknown structures.
On to new Bagan to visit a lacquer factory to see the laborious process of making lacquer ware. The remainder of the afternoon at our hotel on the Irrawaddy River and we take a local boat out on the river to watch the sunset. Our dinner at a local restaurant provides us an opportunity to view a local puppet show.
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| Our boat |
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