More of Myanmar

Bagan

We flew out of Mandalay yesteray and now are in Bagan. This should be a highlight of our trip.

Also known as the Land of a Thousand Temples, the ancient kingdom of Bagan in Myanmar is symbol of Burmese religion, history and culture. Towering above the plains of Mandalay and cradled by the Irrawaddy River, the treasures of the ancient kingdom of Bagan have survived for centuries. Once a major power in Southeast Asia, Bagan is home to over two thousand Buddhist temples standing as symbols of Burmese history and culture.

That's a lot of temples. We'll be happy looking at a few. For our first day and to get acquainted with the lay of the land, we got in a tuktuk and had him drive us to some of the major sights. There were lots of people at the temeples we visited, mostly locals it seemed, we didn't see a lot of foreigners. They livened up the scenes of old stones.

Making money offerings at the temple

Our tuktuk driver and Janos in the rearview mirror

Road construction - the workers are always women. Tar poured over crushed rock - bacbreaking work.

A Burmese marionette