We had a very early wakeup call for us leaving the hotel and
driving to the airport. We had around an hour flight to Bagan, Myanmar. Bagan
is where there are thousands of temples which were built as far back as 1000 years
ago. Some of the temples have been recently been rebuilt mostly because of the
earthquake that was in 1975.When we arrived it was only around 9 o’clock so we
still had a full day ahead of us .
We first drove with Htet Htet and our new driver to an
outdoor market where there were shops full of food, souvenirs and rattan balls,
which dad and I bought two of. Next we visited the biggest stupa in Bagan. The
stupa was gold like the Shwedegan Stupa in Yangon but it was wider at the
bottom. This Stupa was built by the King that made Buddhism the official
religion of this region of Myanmar. Later we saw some other temples. All of the
temples have at least one Buddha inside them. Even if they are rural temples
they will still have a Buddha in them. One of the Buddhas we saw was a big tall
Buddha which from afar it looked like it was smiling but up close it looked
more serious. My favorite temple was one
of the bigger ones we saw. From the outside it looked like a castle.
Back at the hotel we took a nap by the pool and swam. I
passed the rattan ball with mom and dad in the pool.
Later that day back at the hotel we rented e-scooters and
rode them around the city, and on back roads through the dirt to other
temples. On our journey on the scooters
we came across a reclining Buddha. This reclining Buddha was a dying Buddha not
a relaxing one because it was laying completely down. This position symbolizes
that Buddha is entering Nirvana. On the
motorbike ride we also had dad get a haircut at one of the local barbers. While
he was doing that mom and I cruised around on the electric scooters. The barber
that was cutting dad’s hair was getting hopped up on beatlenut, a nut that
stains your teeth and has tobacco in it.
We drove to the largest temple in Bagan, which was known as
the haunted temple since the King who built it killed his father and his
brother because he wanted to become king. We had our sunset right next door at one of the temples. We
climbed up all the way so that we could see the sun slowly drip down to the
horizon. While we were watching the sunset we saw the kid that helped us with
directions on the road earlier. He was selling postcards. We bought a bunch of
postcards from him and mom got ripped off with the price.
For dinner we ate at the Green Elephant. We all had kind of
an international meal with me having some fried rice.
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