Payas and Pagodas, Bagan, Burma

The journey from Mandalay to Bagan was a mixed one. At breakfast I met an American couple who were to share the journey (and pretty much rest of the trip) with me, Bahar and Michael. Teachers too, we hit it off from the outset and I know I will keep in touch with these guys. We spent the next 8 hours on a bus which had seemed promising to begin with but experienced problems early (at one stage we stopped for an hour and I saw the driver come back from a stop with a coil of wire) on and it got steadily hotter and hotter as the journey continued. We soon realised that nothing was coming out of the fans and as it was an aircon bus, the windows wouldn´t open either. The couple of stops we had helped us cool down, only then to continue frying as we moved over bumpy and untarmac-ed roads towards our destination. The sight of the assistant keep running out of the bus with a bucket and throw water on the engine in a bid to cool it down seems funny now but at the time not fun. Safe to say we got off the bus in Bagan a few pounds lighter..

Arrival in Bagan was fun, being met by drivers with horses and carts. I´d arranged accommodation so the short pick up was complimentary and I arranged with the driver to do a sunset trip to one of the best spots in Old Bagan, the Schwesandaw Paya. It is a highlight and the crowds do gather, although compared to many sights visited over the years the number of people was far from overpowering. There was a real buzz as people climbed up to the viewing platforms to grab a good place to watch the colour of the sky changing and how this resulted in the different hues of the temples all around. Bagan has 4400 temples and rivals the temples of Angkor in Cambodia as SE Asia´s most memorable sight. Described in the Lonely Planet, ´´gather all of Europe´s medieval cathedrals onto Manhatten Island and throw in a whole lot more for good measure and you´ll start to get a sense of the ambition of the temple-filled plains of Bagan´` I couldn´t put it better myself!

One enduring memory came the next day when along with Michael and Bahar, and the French guy Emeric, we hired bicycles and spent a full day exploring the temple sights (or as much you can do in just one day, only a fraction of the whole). Stopping regularly and being hassled by touts constantly, getting lost at one point and ending in a ploughed field with the mid-afternnon sun beating down on us, Michael calling out ´`watch out, I´ve just seen a snake´ at one point, the memories of that day will linger on. Exhausted by the end, it was pitch black as we navigated our way back to the hostel, getting lost a few times en route. We had thoroughly earned our Nepalese curries and shots of Mandalay rum that evening...