keldar

Hello all.
I hesitated to write this report what with Craig and Jean's report having just been posted. However we did some different things and stayed in some different hotels so I thought I would add our perspective.
We are presently living and working in southern China and had an incredible 5 weeks holidays for Spring Festival or Chinese New Year. My husband Ron and I have travelled extensively over the years and Myanmar (Burma) had always been on our list.I think it comes from reading all those lovely stories about Asia by Somerset Maugham over the years. We had just read his "The Gentleman in the Parlour" book which is a record of his journey from Rangoon to Haiphong during the 1920's.

During our last spring festival we toured Thailand and Cambodia for the first time. This time we travelled again to Thailand and added Laos and Myanmar as well.
We spent a week in Bangkok where I took a one week Thai Massage course at Wat Po and waited for our Myanmar visa to get processed. I wrote another post regarding the experience.
We must have been in Myanmar within a week or so of Craig and Jean and we also used Santa Maria Tours. We didn't book a full tour with them but instead decided to do some of it on our own.
Our itinerary was
Yangon 1 night - Summit Parkview Hotel
Mandalay 3 nights- Mandalay City Hotel
Bagan 3 nights- Ayeyar Riverview Hotel
Kalaw 1 night- Hill Top Villa
Inle Lake 3 nights- Inle Lakeview Resort
Yangon 1 night-Summit Parkview

We had trouble getting confirmed in some of the hotels as they were fully booked and so in Bagan instead of the Thande we were only able to get the Aye Yar Riverview Hotel. That particular hotel is apparently government owned which we have a problem with but it's all we could get. The grounds are lovely but the hotel is still a work in progress with lots of renovations. They closed both their pools and built over them and are just in the process of building a new one so we had no pool there. After a dusty day touring the temples around Bagan a pool is a nice way to relax and unwind so we were disappointed with this. We did however spend a few hours one afternoon after "Buddha fatigue" set in swimming at the Thande in their pool. Many of the hotels with pools offer this service, so for $3.00 U.S each we got in our swim.

The Summit Parkview Hotel is within view of the Shwedagon Paya and has a pool. The restaurant is supposed to be very good but unfortunately we didn't have much luck with the food or the staff in the restaurant. This we found very odd as almost everywhere else we went in Myanmar the service was if not professional, very attentive.

We left our Bangkok hotel on the Sukhumvit at 5am and our driver had us at the airport in 20 minutes flat. I gained some grey hairs during that ride I can tell you and I had just paid to have it dyed too. Oh well. But it was no different from most taxi rides we get here in China so I should be used to them by now.
We left most of our luggage at the hotel in Bangkok so we travelled relatively light.
We went on the cheap with our flights around Asia and used Air Asia mostly outside of Myanmar and Yangon Airways within. The Air Asia flights I have also written about on another post here.
We were met at the airport in Yangon by Muang Muang from Santa Maria tours. Our arrangements with this company had all been over the internet and they had been very good. They were prompt in responding, professional and friendly and they gave us choices when they could and offered things we wouldn't have thought of. We were very pleased with the arrangements as we travelled around and everything went smoothly along the way.
We paid Muang Muang for the tours, hotels, flights et that we had contracted with them. He checked us into the Summit Parkview and gave us lots of information on the country in general and Yangon city then left us in the capable hands of a tour guide. We changed some of the U.S $ we had brought with us for the local currency; kyat (pronounced like "chat&quot. The exchange rate at our hotel was 1270 kyat = $1.00 U.S
We had our obligatory and wonderful check in welcome drink and cool towel that all hotels offer, settled into our room for awhile then went out on a tour of the city. I am afraid we also found Yangon a pretty tired looking place but we loved seeing it nonetheless. We toured the Bogyoke Aung San Market and while we didn't buy much it was interesting to see the shops piled high with items. Living in China provides us with very cheap tailoring so I am always on the lookout for fabric, Ron just gets bored by that but he indulges me. I bought some pretty eyelet cotton which I will decide to do something with later.
Our guide drove us around the city pointing out the sites. We were ok with this as we were tired and hadn't much energy that day. We did of course muster the energy to visit Shwedagon Paya, which by the way we could see from our hotel room. It was a fascinating introduction to the temples that we would experience in the country. We met a monk in the temple who wanted to chat so we spent some time with him as he asked about our life in Canada and we asked him about his life as a monk.
We returned to the hotel and ended the day with dinner at the Green Elephant Restaurant. The food was very good and the service outstanding. The setting was very pretty and for awhile it was nice and quiet but then it filled up with tour groups. It's an open air place so they put mosquito coils under each table (as do most places in southeast Asia). I would suggest applying insect repellant even so. Our dinner was so cheap. 1000 kyat for a huge bowl of lentil soup (about 80cents U.S); chicken curry Yangon style for 3500 kyat (about $2.75 U.S) beer was also 1000 kyat and a fabulous and interesting sugar beet salad was also 1000 kyat.
We had an ok breakfast in the hotel the next morning and headed to the airport. It is controlled chaos with so many flights going out at the same time but there were no problems. Our flight was pretty well on time and we landed in Mandalay fine. I will continue with our time in Mandalay soon. If I am not giving all the information any of you require please let me know and I will try to answer any questions.
regards,
Lynn

albaaust

Keep on writing your report. It is good to read about the same country from different perspectives...we all relive the experience!!

jenskar

Lynn
Thanks and looking forward to what you else you saw and did -- I remember your Myanmar visa post. You mentioned the restaurant filling up with tour groups -- did you see alot of groups during your stay? That seems to be the strangest part about travelling almost on one's own -- running into one of those larger groups.

Craig

Lynn, I am enjoying your report. Keep it coming.

keldar

Thanks for the support. It gives me the incentive to continue.
Arrived in Mandalay and this was our first day of doing things on our own. Outside of the airport terminal we were met by a group of people who offered taxis into town. Everyone seemed to be offering the same price of 15000 kyat or about $12.00 one way. The trip took about 45 minutes to our hotel.
We were booked in at the Mandalay City Hotel which we found to be just fine for us. Nothing fancy but the staff tried very hard and the location was good for us. We talked to the reception desk and the woman on duty told us she knew of a very good guide with good English who she would call right away. Moe turned out to be a real gem. He was very knowledgeable and his English was great. We booked him for the next 2 days. One full day of sightseeing to Amarapura, Sagaing and Inwe and the second a 1/2 day in Mandalay city.
We decided to take the walking tour of the city that we found in the LP book. We visited a few different temples within the central part of the city and enjoyed this relaxed and quiet way of getting used to the city. We wandered along streets and just enjoyed people watching. At the end of most streets were wells which were being used by many for drawing water. We saw people washing their hair, giving their children baths etc. The streets were teeming with bicycles, trishaws and people.
That evening we decided to try one of the trishaws and we were lucky enough to engage the services of a sweet young man. We paid him to take us to the Mandalay location of the Green Elephant. This he did with great skill and not a little energy. He asked if could take us back to the hotel again after dinner so we arranged for him to come back in about 2 hours. This started a trend which continued for the three nights we were in Mandalay. He met us outside our hotel each night at 7 PM and took us wherever we wanted to go then returned to take us back an hour or so later. He was so gentle and sweet and told us about his sisters and brothers who he was encouraging to learn English. His English had been learned just from transporting tourists on his trishaw and it surprisingly good. We gave him a big bag of school supplies on the last night before we left Mandalay which we asked him to give to his siblings. He had tears in his eyes when we left him. He touched our hearts. On the second night he introduced us to two other Canadians who have known him for a few years and who always used his trishaw service. Oddly enough it turns out they were colleagues of good friends of ours back home. Small world indeed.
There are lots of restaurants in the city to choose from but we had had such a good meal the night before in Yangon we decided to try the one here as well. The food was again quite good and it was another very positive experience.
Moe, our tour guide met us the next morning after a decent breakfast at the hotel. Amarapura was first where we went to watch the monks at their breakfast. It was an amazing site but quite a zoo with all the tourists. We tried to be as unobtrusive as possible but our guide said the monks used to be very self conscious about being watched but they are so used to it now and can successfully ignore the tourists. Still it must be off-putting to have someone watch you eat and snapping shots of every mouthful.
We visited a silk weaving factory and shop in the town as well then on to Sagaing where we went to the hilltop with 150 pagodas and stupas. We learned about the particular kind of Buddhism in Myanmar which is different in many ways from that of China. We then had lunch in a hole in the wall place that was recommended by Moe and turned out to be very good. The Panwar is on the main street of the town and they serve all kinds of curry. Soup, veggies, curry and rice and Chinese tea for the equivalent of $1.50 U.S and a very basic but spotless bathroom to boot. What more could you ask for.
At the monastery we witnessed some sad sites as well. There are children there who we were told were fed and educated by the monks. They would receive little of the former and none of the latter if it weren't for the monks.

On to Inwe, where we traversed the river by ferry and hired a horse and cart to take us to 3 old temples/monasteries. For two hours this cost us just over $2.00 U.S. It is pretty at Inwe and the roads are full of horses and carts, bicycles carrying tourists to the sites. Many people walk around or rent a bicycle so they can choose their routing. We were content with seeing the things on the tourist route here and we enjoyed what we saw. The high pressure to buy things begins as soon as you get off the ferry and doesn't stop for a moment. While you are in the cart, walking into around and out of the temples you are exhorted to buy this , that or the other. Postcards, art, wood carvings, jewels, water , you name it, it's for sale. It's all quite cheap and we tried to purchase a few things but it did all get a bit much. We had pens to give out to the children and I realised that I didn't have nearly enough as I had almost run out and this was only my third day in Myanmar.
We also realised then that European tourists definitely outnumber others as the children would ask you to buy their item first in French, then in Spanish, Italian, German and maybe finally English. Their requests for items was always for "stylo s'il vous plait Madame?" and not Pen please lady? The requests came for shampoo, perfume and lipstick, candies and pens. I emptied out my makeup bag of lipstick except for my last one and decided I needed to shop for pens, shampoo and the like.

The sites were quite interesting and this was the only place we were asked to show our mandalay Zone ticket that we had purchased.
We drove by the temples and monasteries and along the way watched the locals going about their life in the fields at their crops, around their homes etc. Not for the first time in the few days since we had arrived did we feel as though we had stepped back in time. It was magical.
The one monastery we stopped at is so old and made completely of teak. It was quite beautiful. Here the monks also teach the local children. We watched at the school for awhile as the children were doing their lessons, then left a donation with the monk for the children.
Back on the short ferry ride and on to another teak marvel..the bridge at U Bein.
Work beckons so more soon.

althom1122

Keldar - keep it coming. Reading first Craig's and now your report makes Myanmar seem all the more tantalizing. Please tell us all! Thanks.
Karen

Kathie

Very interesting to read your experiences as well as Craig's. Do keep it coming!

rhkkmk

loving your report...thanks for sharing..

Gpanda

It's actually great to have two comtemporaeous reports. They provide a wonderful depth to Myanmar. Sounds like Moe was quite a find.

keldar

Hi all:
Thanks for the comments.
to Jenstar; Yes there were many people travelling in groups. We met mostly Europeans but there were also lots of people we met along the way who were travelling like us. When we got to Inle Lake we encountered lots of young backpackers as well mostly staying in Shwe Nyuang the main town around the lake. The fact that we kept running in to the same groups though as we travelled around became something of a joke between us. We always wondered which group we would see in any given place in a day. We met a group of Germans the first night in Yangon at the Green Elephant and we saw them virtually every day at some point.
They were at the airport everywhere we were until we went off the beaten track a bit to Kalaw.
It was from the groups we learned what to buy to give out along the trip. There are little individual packages of shampoo sold in strips of twelve that you can buy at any little convenience or hole in the wall shop. They made a good, easy to transport item. We had brought with us also a bag full of toothbrushes and small bottles and packages of other personal care items too which we passed on to local people as we travelled around. It isn't earth shattering charity, we just hoped we were making things a bit easier for a moment in their very difficult lives. The local people were some of the sweetest we have ever encountered. Their smiles are so incredible.
We tried very hard to limit the amount of money that would go into the government's pocket. It's impossible to avoid this altogether but as others who had travelled there before had told us you can help the locals by buying in small shops, using local forms of transport such as trishaws and horses and carts, buying a postcard from child at the temple, leaving a tip with the maid who cleans your room etc.
I hope none of this sounds pompous, it was just a conscious decision on our part to help a little while we were having a good time.
More soon.

keldar

On to U Bein bridge.The bridge is back at Amarapura so we did a circle trip today. Moe made sure we were at the bridge before sunset. He told us to enjoy our walk across the bridge but to be sure to be on the other side by about 5:30pm. It took us about 1/2 hour to walk across the bridge then we wandered the edge of the town on the other side for awhile. It is a town full of monks as there is a very large monastery nearby. We walked down to the water's edge to negotiate with one of the boat drivers and have him drive us back almost to the other side to watch the sunset.
The walk across was so interesting. We passed lovers, school children, beggars, families, monks, tourists and vendors selling anything from t-shirts to fruit. The bridge itself is the worlds longest span of teak. From it you can look out over the lake and watch the fisherman earning their living or watch children playing along the shore or just enjoy the scenery. We took so many pictures on the bridge I filled a memory stick.
The boat trip back was 2500 kyat. The driver rowed back across the lake almost to the other side and positioned the boat in a good spot to watch the sunset. It was quite lovely and he didn't leave until he had asked us if we had finished gazing at the sunset.
After this he returned us to where Moe was waiting. It was now well after 6 p.m. The day with Moe cost us a grand total of $30.00 U.S. Of course there was a tip added on as he was quite wonderful.
Off to dinner again with our chauffeur "Jo Jo" in his trishaw. Tonight he recommended Ko's Kitchen, a Thai restaurant. He drove us all the way there and we were turned away as they had no tables available. Again there were many tour groups filling up the place. We had seen another restaurant that looked interesting on our leisurely trishaw rides so Jo Jo took us there. The BBB-European restaurant looked just perfect when we were craving western food. The food and service were ok if not outstanding. Chicken kiev is something we don't get very often in China (if ever). No locals here, but lots of tourists and soon after we arrived the place was full. We paid the equivalent of $8.50 U.S total for dinner for two including beer for Ron.
We arranged for a 1/2 day tour the next day just within Mandalay and met Moe about 9:00am. We visited several Buddhist sites that morning including a teak monastery that was quite lovely and the so-called World's biggest book. Which really is hundreds of stupas which have within them tablets on which Buddhist scripture is inscribed. It was very interesting and in the central temple area because it was a Buddhist holy day there were many people worshipping.
We also headed up to Mandalay Hill and wandered around the site learning about the history of the city and listening to Moe tell us about what we were seeing as we looked out over the city. We returned to our hotel fairly early as we were pretty tired by this point. We had an early morning start catch the ferry for Bagan. Moe had a friend in Bagan who was a tour guide and Moe contacted him while we were there. We arranged for him to pick us up from the ferry the next afternoon.
Dinner by trishaw again to the BBB for more western food.
So it was goodbye to Moe and Jo Jo and Mandalay. We really enjoyed the city, it was endearing in a way and the feeling it gave us was different than that of Yangon. I think our hotel in Yangon was part of the problem there as there is really nothing close to it except the Shewedagon and the dreary People's park. Perhaps another hotel would have given us a different perspective. Our stay at the Mandalay City Hotel was a good choice for us. A good location and very helpful staff. The breakfasts were just ok and therefore we chose not to eat at the hotel for dinner. But there are plenty of restaurants in the city including those which serve local food, Nepalese, Thai, Western, Indian etc. There are loads of local tea shops as well where the locals hang out.
We met such lovely people in the city who made our trip so special.
Next... Mandalay to Bagan by ferry.

albaaust

Really enjoying your report so far. We found Sagaing quite magical too!!
Sounds like Moe was an outstanding guide!!

robmac

Thanks for such a good report.

keldar

This morning was an early call as we embarked on our ten hour ferry ride along the Irrawady from Mandalay to Bagan. The RV Shwe Kennery departs Mandalay at 7 a.m. We had to be on board at 6:30am. Dragging ourselves out of bed was difficult but driving through the town in the morning mist was lovely. Along the river life was beginning to rouse itself. Street vendors were opening up their shops, those who sold breakfast from a cart were well on the way through their morning and the coal fire smoke filled the air. At the river we had to carry our luggage down a steep set of steps across one moored ferry and on to ours. It was quite busy as the tour groups who were also travelling on the same ferry arrived at the same time. We handed in our tickets and were given a little stub of paper with our seat number. We were upstairs on the outside deck. Our seats were large rattan deck chairs in rows across the stern of the ship. The deckhands helped us to store our luggage in the baggage area. Everyones luggage is stored here and it is kept locked until the ship docks in the evening so there's no worrying about theft.
As the ship pulled away the sun was just coming up over the hill and although it was cool the promise of heat later could be felt.
We curled up and watched life along the shore. We passed some of the areas we had visited with Moe two days before and got some pictures of the stupas dotting the hills from a different perspective. It really was beautiful. As we sailed along, the scene changed little. Small fishing villages dotted the shore. Huts, houses on stilts, lean-to's made from wood or thatch and covered in tarpaulins housed many of those people we passed along the way. We watched fishermen plying their trade from small boats, tugs pulling loads, women washing clothes or bathing their children. On the shore water buffalo or oxen or people tilling the soil. We passed other boats during the day as well including the RV Road to Mandalay which looked quite nice. We met a Danish couple at Inle Lake a few days later who had travelled on the ship and were ecstatic about it. It was a highlight for them.
As everyone gradually woke up from their morning lethargy on the boat more movement took place. We wandered around taking photos and spent an hour over a pot of tea in the dining area watching Burmese life on the River. It was just as Somerset Maugham described it. Life here doesn't look like it has changed much from the 1920's or the 1720's for that matter.
The land is pretty flat along the Irrawaddy and there was little change for most of the day. It isn't a dramatically beautiful trip scenery wise but very interesting for watching life. At one point in the day we docked in the middle of nowhere. The crew let down a plank which an elderly man, who had been swimming, positioned onto semi dry land. It was crew change time as two crew disembarked and two more came on board. This was interesting enough to watch them manoeuvre their way down the plank. But from seemingly nowhere there came a group of women and children who obviously had things to sell. Blankets were opened up for our inspection. They also had fruit, trinkets etc. There was a great scurrying on the boat as people who wished to purchase made their way to the bottom deck. We have some great pictures and video of the bargaining process, the passing of money and purchases between water and ship. The children were in the water as were the women who were selling. Passengers were throwing candy and shampoo and whatever to the children. The elderly man was retrieving whatever landed out of reach of the children. And then within five minutes or so we were sailing away, the children waving and candy still flying off the ship. It was quite a memorable few minutes.
We all settled in to spots of comfort and we watched jealously as two older men settled themselves at the front of the ship on deck chairs. They had a great view and were in the sunshine but had a great breeze to keep them cool. They didn't leave their seats much during the day. When we disembarked at 5PM these two men were so badly burned they now resembled beets. They must have had a miserable few days after that.
We spent the day lingering over a long lunch, drinking tea and reading books in the dining cabin which had a great view and was relatively cool and quiet. The crew didn't seem to mind anyone lingering as long as you had a drink or something in front of you. The boat provided an interesting way to travel between the two cities. If (when) we travel to Myanmar again we would probably fly between the two cities but I don't regret doing it this way the one time.

As we neared Bagan the tops of stupas became visible. We passed the Shwezigon paya, a beautiful introduction to the temples of Bagan. Disembarkation was a bit frenzied but we accomplished it fairly quickly. It's a bit steep to carry your luggage up the slope from the river to the road but not overly taxing.
Our new guide Kohta (pronounced like go-tay) met us as we disembarked, waited while we purchased our Bagan Archeological Zone ticket, $10.00U.S and took us by car to our hotel. We arranged for him to meet us the next morning at 8a.m. for a full day of temple hopping. He also arranged for a friend of his to pick us up in a horse and cart at 7 P.M. and take us wherever we wanted for dinner.
The AyeYar Riverview Hotel as I said in one of my earlier posts here is apparently government run although we had others tell us it had recently been taken over by the private sector. The hotel rooms are complete but the swimming pool and some outbuildings and the new lobby are still at different stages of completion. The grounds are lovely and there is a small stupa on the property as well as many along the road and in the farmers fields just off the property. We did not know we wouldn't have a pool and were not pleased with this as we had been told that Bagan is pretty dusty and a dip to refresh after climbing temples would have been welcome. But we decided to stick it out. We knew we could use the pool at other hotels nearby for a low cost. The staff unfortunately was not as welcoming or as helpful as the Mandalay City Hotel.
Breakfast was again just ok and lunch not very good at all. Our room however was very nice with teak floors, a comfortable bed and a view of the river.
The hotel is about 10 minute walk from the Thande and Thiripyitsaya. We spent one afternoon at the Thande and had a very good lunch under one of their huge acacia trees and enjoyed the pool. If we went back this would be a hotel we would choose. But there were many hotels in the area, we would not choose the Aye Yar I don't think.
We were met outside the hotel by Nyi Nyi and his horse and cart. Nyi Nyi told us he is also a tour guide but that he uses his horse and cart and not a car to get to the temples. We had already booked our time with Kohta and told him this but we asked if he could collect us each evening and take us to a restaurant for dinner. This he agreed to. His cart was very clean and his English was good. He gave us a guided horse and cart tour and told us what we were seeing as we passed different things of interest. Riding along in the evening when the roads are relatively quiet and it was mostly silent except for the horse's clip clopping was so wonderful. There are few glaring street lights to block out the sky and you get an incredible view of the stars. We gazed at the night sky as we clopped along to the restaurant and listened to Nyi Nyi tell us some history of the area. Again a magical experience.
We went to Sarabha ll for dinner. It is right along the road where we disembarked from the ferry and beside the Hotel @ Tharabar Gate. The two Sarabha restaurants are back to back, one on the road the other behind it. We chose the one off the road and had a pleasant dinner of Burmese curry, rice, condiments and drinks in a nice setting. We just missed the nightly marionette show as we were pretty late for dinner. Nyi Nyi waited outside for us while we ate. Then he drove us back to the hotel which is fairly close and we really could have walked but the ride was so pleasant and relaxing how could we resist.
A good nights sleep was in order after the long day on the boat and a long day tomorrow around the temples.
More soon.

hawaiiantraveler

keldar,

Loving your report and all the detail. Great way to travel.....sounds like you had some magical moments in Burma.

Aloha!

jenskar

Really lovely report -- there's something very gentle coming through your descriptions. I had to go back and recount how many days you spent as time feels amazingly elastic as you talk about your trip. Thanks so much !!

rhkkmk

very enjoyable, thanks

Craig

I appreciate all of the detail - nice to hear about the Myanmar experience from a different perspective than ours.

Femi

Yes Keldar, another point of view is always welcome. Thanks for the report!

keldar

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. It's much appreciated. Craig, I am enjoying your report so much too. Jeane and I would probably get along well ,although I am not mentioning as yet exactly what I bought rest assured I was shopping.
On to Bagan and our day at the temples.
Kohta picked us up at about 8a.m. and we began our temple day.
We requested that we see some of the main ones but that we didn't mind seeing some more obscure ones where we could wander quietly. The day ran like this 6 temples in the morning and 6 in the afternoon ending with the last one for the sunset watch. We also asked that this last one be a quiet one.
The first the Thambula Pagoda built in the 13 C was probably one of our favourites. It had wonderful frescos inside most of them still fresh. We encountered an artist inside who was recreating all the frescos onto canvas with a mixture of sand and acryclics. Ron was quite taken with them and so bought a canvas with a re-creation of the Buddha and some secondary figures in lovely earthy colours. We can get things framed here in China for incredibly low prices and so it ended up as a very nice piece of art now that it's framed. But I have to get it home somehow when we leave China.
We visited some very busy temples/stupas and others where there were few if any people. We were the only visitors at the ThaYarWatae temple. It was one that had escaped alot of renovation and the ascent was up a rickety wooden staircase which had my knees shaking. It is close to the Lawkananda Phayar (paya) on the river in New Bagan. During the day we visited the highest and the largest. All of them were very interesting and we learned lots about the individual temples and their reason for being. I loved the one with the seated Buddha in the front and the reclining Buddha in the back. We ended up at Wutanataw temple for the sunset. It was a bit of a climb up as there were no guard rails and we are not great with heights. Once up there we were seized with the fear of how we were going to get back down. But we settled down for an hour to watch the sunset.We were the first people to arrive for the sunset viewing and at the height of the time there were at most about 15 people with us. Almost immediately after we arrived the children came climbing up like monkeys with no fear. They stood precariously close to the edge and I had my heart in my mouth as I tried to get them away from the edge. Of course they didn't understand what I was so worried about. The children proceeded to put the hard (soft) sell on Ron to buy their postcards, t shirts, longyi etc. One girl, who was maybe about 11 stood and whispered to him for ages, never giving up til he relented. How can you resist this little girl with such appealing eyes and sweet smile ,whispering "Please buy my postcards, only 1000 kyat, very cheap, please,please." Over and over. Ron says he is going to remember that particular tactic when he is fund raising. He said he had never thought of whispering when asking for someone to buy something. I told him he has to work on the "appealing eyes" part first.
Of course the sunset was spectacular and the colours were just what we had heard about. The earth and hills change colours as the sun sets and it was interesting how the temples in the distance were thrown into a different perspective.
Our descent was slow but not too terrifying.
During the day we also visited a lacquerware shop in Old Bagan. We watched the artisans and listened to the young man who is the 5th generation of one family to be in the business. It was quite interesting and we learned about the process. The quality of the product was apparent and we couldn't resist buying a rice bowl in the colours of our dining room at home. It will make a good conversation piece at a dinner party. We picked up a few other things like coasters etc. and left wanting more but knowing transporting the stuff was just not practical for us.
We were "templed out" at the end of the day and didn't feel like any more the next day so we declined Kohta's offers of another day of temple viewing. We instead decided that for Ron's birthday we would head to the pool at the Thande Hotel and spend the day just relaxing.
We met Nyi Nyi again at our hotel and requested that he take us into New Bagan to the Green Elephant. We had seen pictures of it and it looked like a nice spot right on the river. Unfortunately it was quite a long drive and Nyi Nyi's own horse had been out around the temples that day pulling a cart full of tourists. So he was tired. Nyi Nyi went to borrow a horse from his neighbour. After saddling up the new horse we set out along the road under the stars. It was to be Ron's birthday supper one night earlier than his actual birthday. We clopped along until we reached the village in Old Bagan where there just happens to be a bridge over a little creek. The horse had an aversion to going over this particular thing and after rearing and bucking and half throwing us out of the cart Nyi Nyi decided that the horse had won the battle. When he offered to take us to another restaurant where we wouldn't have to cross any bridges I stupidly mentioned that we had made reservations at the Green Elephant to celebrate Ron's birthday. Well I was so angry with myself then cause this made Nyi Nyi cry! "Oh I ruined your birthday, I am so sorry. Oh no, no." We both finally succeeded in calming him down and reassuring him that he didn't ruin anything and that none of this was fault. Then if he didn't run and knock on doors til he found another driver to take us the rest of the way to the restaurant. I have decided that in my years of travelling no one has ever gone to such lengths to make sure we were happy. We of course paid him for his time and for the use of his neighbour's horse or he would have been out of pocket. We arranged to meet him and his own horse the next evening for our trip to another restaurant, with no bridges enroute.
We continued on our way with the new driver and enjoyed the setting of the Bagan location of the Green Elephant directly on the river. Each of the three locations of this restaurant have slightly different menus and all three were good, with very attentive service. We watched a marionette show and listened to local musicians perform on the stage at the restaurant. Back to the hotel along an extremely dark and quiet road under that memorable sky.
Our last day in Bagan was spent at the Thande Hotel swimming in the pool and relaxing. It costs non guests $3.00 U.S. each for all day. It was nice to just relax and enjoy the day together.
Dinner that night again transported by Nyi Nyi ,reunited with his own horse. We went ,on his recommendation to Nyuang U to the Nanda Restaurant. It was very large and very full of tourists. It has two stages where they put on a marionette and Bamar music show for the guests. The food was good if not memorable although the service was a bit slow. It is outdoors like most restaurants in the area and quite lovely.
Back to the hotel to pack up for our early morning flight to Heho. Said goodbye to Nyi Nyi and thanked him for his attentive and kind service. Another endearing soul we met in this wonderful land.
On to Kalaw tomorrow.