Conor and Dayna's World: Enter Hazel: Leg 8: Bagan

After a hellish night on the train, we finally arrived in Bagan. Earlier than expected, which we were happy about. Nice to get off the train! Plus we had to use the restroom. It was about 4:45 am and obviously dark out. We had no idea where to go and couldn't see anything. I asked the man behind the ticket counter if there was a restroom. I feared his answer for what had been in Mandalay. At the previous station the restrooms were a ways from the building and people made you pay to use their crap hole. The man didn't say anything after I asked and just nodded and motioned for us to follow another man in uniform. I was a little skeptical and wondering if he was just showing us the way out. He opened a large room that had chairs lined up--maybe for a meeting room? I thought they had misunderstood me. Then he pointed to another door off of it and showed us the restroom. It was a western toilet--yeah!!!--and there was even a shower in there. We hid out in the room until it was light out. It was chilly out, so it was nice to be in the warm room where we (I) felt safe from the locals staring us down. Plus it beat sitting on the tiled floor.

As soon as the sun broke, we went outside and were happy to see it was nicer than Mandalay. Not to mention we were more in the country. We strapped on our packs and souvenirs and began the walk into Bagan from the train station. It was about 3 miles or more. Lots of people honked and waved on the way there. Truckloads of people were headed out to work for the day. It was a big celebration and balloon festival in this region, so we saw a few hot air balloons in the sky.

In Myanmar they favor light colored skin and think of it as a sign of status. Mainly because you don't work out in the fields or sun. Mostly women and children paint their faces, sometimes arms, to protect from the sun and also mosquitoes. They use Thanaka--which is a tree root--and water to grind a light yellow, watery paste. Lets just say me and my pasty self were a real hit in this country. I was like a rock star. I loved it!!! People would stare and wave at me wherever we went; get their babies to wave, too. Hilarious! I even had a bit of tan at this point of our trip. Imagine had I gone their first? haha!

Bagan was a fascinating place with over 2000 temples and pagodas covering the land. We really liked this area. As we wandered into town, we discovered the hotel we had wanted to stay at was torn down and being rebuilt. Awesome. Luckily a man with his horse buggy/cart offered to take us around for the day, find a hotel, etc. Totally worth the money! Plus, most the hotels were filled up with the balloon festival, so he would check at the hotels and then let us know. Such a lifesaver! He took us around the rest of the day and we saw everything we wanted to, plus bought some fun souvenirs. A fabric parasol that's painted, Asian looking puppets, lacquerware. Plus, a local woman painted my face with the thanaka.

Bagan Train Station

Conor aprroaching where the hotel was we read about in our guide book.

More smoldering plastic trash. Everywhere you go . . .

They really know how to load a truck.

Our room in Bagan. Below the bathroom/shower combo. Since I didn't take pics of any others. This one was pretty nice. lol!

On our chariot! We really cruised around the town and country and was nice to have some shade. It was hot and fairly dry here--more of a desert climate.

I dared Conor to come up and join me. I wasn't sure if he could squeeze through the opening.

They have locals that want to take you up and walk around the structures, then buy their wares after. Which we kindly declined and hopped back on our cart. You must remove your shoes and must walk barefoot which was really dirty. Luckily we had flip flops that were just washed off later. It was fun exploring and looking out over the valley.