Bagan and "how was the goat?"

We took an early morning 1.5 hr flight to Bagan that allowed us a full day of site seeing in this historic town of over 2,200 temples & stupas. And that is in an area of only 16 square miles. And those 2,200 temples are what remain of the over 4,000 temples that were once dotting this countryside. There are only a couple of paved roads in this area even though there are about 40,000 people. Bagan is located in the dry central plains of the country and it was the capital of the ancient Burma Kingdom back in the 10th century. It is hard to believe that in all those centuries they wouldn't have a more developed infrastructure. But it so beautiful in that it is so unspoiled.





It would appear that women do a great deal of the schlepping and that would be in most places we went to.


And as in most of town and cities we went to here we are at another market. The nice thing about a market in a remote area like Bagan is that the products are for the locals and not tourists.


We saw many women and children with this traditional makeup called thanaka. They make it by grinding the bark of native trees on a stone and then just applying the cosmetic cream directly to their faces.





Annie thought.. Why not. It might help her blend into the crowd better!


Many of the 11th-13th century temples have been maintained with gold-leaf covering so much of them.


So we are at one of these 2,200 temples walking around when we pass these kids. As we pass them the girl says to me "so how was the goat?" and I say "were you in that restaurant yesterday in Yangon?" yes they were and get this...they all go to Kellogg Business School in Chicago and of course know Anne's nephew (their class president) very well. The world is smaller than I thought.


They were all in Myanmar taking a little trip from their term abroad program in Bangkok. Wild!!!


We bought some art from Saan's friend's wife. Turns out that Saan's friend was the artist and also a tour guide. We met him later on our trip in Mandalay and then again in Inle Lake.


The food was incredibly delicious. So many flavors - they just keep bringing out food...


More temples later on that day.


Here are the women again doing all the heavy lifting. They mixed the concrete, carried it and the bricks to the men who would lay the brick.


Many of these temples were massive with walls 10 feet thick. I could just picture Saan's relatives a thousand years ago either making, carrying or laying bricks. It is all they must have done for a couple of hundred years.


So beautiful... And so were the temples!