12/29/2016. Cruising the Irrawaddy; arriving in Bagan

Greetings from Bagan . December 29, 2016

Somewhat simple day… Left hotel at 6 am to reach the jetty to board the boat to Bagan.

Once we traversed the gangplank-like 12” planks of wood set up along the shore and low waters, we were on a bit more stable entry to the boat. .Obviously there are lots of guys around who quickly grab your bags (our rollies) and hoist them on their shoulders and walk the same narrow gangplank.

It’s “open seating”.. about 50 rattan chairs set up in rows of two like an airplane. Baggage gets sort of placed, more like tossed, into a pile in an area in the room below the deck (which has some couch-type seating and is used, I suppose, in the rainy season. We set up on two chairs. It was freezing and got even colder as the boat sailed. Dug out whatever sweaters we had from the days in Tokyo, and also availed ourselves of several thin blankets that the boat supplied. The temperature was probably about 55 degrees, maybe 60. It lasted for about two hours and then the sun came out and it warmed up, but kept vacillating between about 85 and 65 depending on speed of boat, cloud cover, etc. We survived, shedding layers and adding layers.

The nine-hour boat ride was simultaneously relaxing, interesting, boring, ….. Actually, lots of activity on the water and along the narrow Irawaddy River. You sail by hundreds of stupas and pagodas; cannot even imagine how they got the supplies to these locations. And you get a glimpse of rural life.. washing clothes along the river, washing oneself at the river, growing things. I also managed to get work done. Just imagine – me sitting on this boat with computer in my lap. Actually, in some ways it was the perfect work set up. And, believe it or not, Burma is very WIFI savvy, so we even had connectivity the whole time. (For better or worse).

They serve a rather basic box-breakfast at about 7:30 am. And a lunch is delivered to your seat at about noon.  By the way, most passengers appeared to be German, British, Thai, and a very small sprinkling of Americans (although maybe Canadians.. hard to say).

We arrived in Bagan at exactly 4:00 (they have this thing down pat), walked off the gangplank system again.. with lots of young guys hovering on the sandy shore to hold your hand if they think you might topple into the river.. I stood my own! Then the scrambling began, with guys (yes this is clearly a boy-job!) acting as intermediaries for taxi drivers (because these guys can say about 10 words in English and the driver doesn’t have any English). We “picked” a driver (closest one to where we were standing with the guys holding our bags), and set off for the Bagan Thande Hotel. Not sure how we picked any of the hotels we’ve stayed at, but for the most part we lucked out. As you know it was a pretty hectic fall and an over-the-top hectic December. We didn’t put in a lot of time; only knew we didn’t want large hotels; didn’t want high rises in a country like this; hoped for locally-owned, but hard to be sure. Tried not to spend too much money in government-owned and affiliated places. 

The boat arrives in “New” Bagan and we are staying in “Old Bagan/Nyang U”.. The drive is about 20 minutes. On the way, the taxi stops at a little shop and all foreigners are required to pay 25,000 Kyat ($18) to get a card (that you keep with you) to be able to be in the national archaeological area (All of Bagan is in the area). Hopefully this money goes to preservation work in Bagan, but not so sure.  

The 20 minute drive is incredible because you are passing stupa after stupa after pagoda after pagoda – most built between 1100 and 1300. They are everywhere. Most are not considered “special” and they are just on the roadside. They are very different from the pagodas in Mandalay and Yangon which are all gold and marble and have giant buddhas. Most of these are unadorned brick, but the plan and design of the structure is totally impressive – and for my tastes, these are far more exquisite than the very very very ornate ones we’ve seen until now. Tomorrow is brick pagoda and stupa day for us… The only challenge is getting around. You can rent bicycles and that would probably be a good system, but I’m a little nervous about riding on the dirt and gravel roads. You can rent a horse drawn carriage (interesting tourist solution) but that’s really slow and somehow seems just too touristy for us. So we will probably hire a “city taxi” (as opposed to a hotel private car) and have him meander and we will just keep stopping, occasionally walking.. and after lunch start the routine again. We shall see.

Bagan Thande is the oldest hotel in Bagan; probably built in the 50s. It’s sweet, on the river, and we have our own little cabin with porch that faces the river. The grounds are filled with aged acacia trees whose branches spread umbrella-like for about 100’. In some places they’ve constructed posts to prop up branches.

Quickly unpacked and headed to watch the sunset at the Panorama Bar at the hotel, before settling in and heading to town for dinner.  

Decided on a little Thai place we selected following a little “research.”  Food was good; place was very simple… mostly outside, about 18 tables. Only three or four families eating there – all Burmese. Tried to order the crab, but no crab (very interesting sign language conversation. The menu had English as well as Burmese so we could point to what we were ordering. But couldn’t really get any description of anything and then when we thought we finally had it all figured out, he made the “no” sign on several of our options. Guess it’s really small with a very big menu, so they can’t possibly have all those varieties all the time. No problem, we substituted. We had some kind of sweet and sour chicken with pineapples and cucumbers cooked in the dish; a very spicy (even for us) minced chicken salad with lots of hot chilies; and a pork with mangos.. And of course the requisite beer (Myanmar Beer).

Headed back to the hotel at about 10:30 pm… 

Big Stupa Day for us tomorrow. More then.

Best — Fern