The day before the last day of 2016. 12/30/2016. Bagan, Myanmar

Greetings on the day before the end of the year.

Got a bit of a late start today as we asked for a taxi at our hotel (deciding against bicycles and scooters and horse drawn carriages). But the “taxi” that appeared was a huge van and we said we didn’t want to have such a large vehicle. Everyone, with lots of smiles at front desk, explained that all the “cars” were taken by other people and this was the only vehicle possible. We said we wouldn’t take that vehicle and would wait. I think they finally understood and a small (very small) car/taxi appeared. We visited several smaller temples and pagodas (all brick ones) and bypassed the big ones with tourist buses. 

Stopped for lunch at a little place called Star Beam… on a dirt road lined with several other restaurants with mostly English names. Thai and Chines food although they also had some sandwiches on baguettes and pizzas (that actually looked and smelled pretty good). We had the local fish dishes accompanied by great fruit smoothies.

Strolled this little restaurant row for a bit and then headed to more temples, stupas, and pagodas. The brick ones were mostly built during the 12^th century.. We climbed to the top of one of them through some very narrow stairway passage where we had to use our iPhone flashlights to see the steps which were incredibly steep and uneven and strewn with little pieces of cement that had dropped from the bricks… all in bare feet (in respect to the presence of Buddha downstairs). Made it up and down – probably not in record time.

It’s totally unimaginable how these worker bees were able to lug the supplies and build these structures in those times. Took several generations to complete the work.

At one temple, I sat for a minute or two on a ledge and was joined by a Burmese (middle-upper class) family who were on vacation from a town about 100 KM from Bagan. They spoke the best English we’ve heard so far. Father is retired and was a government employee; two grown daughters –one is a finance department head in Mandalay, the other is a pediatrician. There were two grandsons – about 4 and 8. The grandfather introduced everyone and also proclaimed that the older grandson was “fat!”

They were curious about our trip and I had a lot of questions for them. I think the US is pretty much one blob for them. If we say California, everyone says “US” and they don’t distinguish parts of the country.

Another little interesting tidbit — At lunch some kids were circulating among the tables trying to get money from different countries. The “spokesperson” was about 9 years old. He had some English – not much. When he asked where we were from, we responded “USA”.. and  he responded with a thumbs up “Obama”.. and we said “Yes, Obama”.. and then he said “No more Obama… Trump bad” and gave thumbs down. We smiled and agreed and he then said “Obama” twice more. The coming years will be complicated in more ways than any of us can imagine.

Headed for dinner at a place called “Thripyitsaya” – will report on it tomorrow.

Happy December 30^th.. it’s the dawning of your day and the end of ours.

Fern