November 7 Fly to Bagan

Joan Checking out the Buddha

We were up 4:45a.m. for another early morning flight. We met Caroline and Alistair at the airport for a flight to Bagan. This is an area of pagodas and temples that were built between 600 and 1400 AD. The origin is unclear but it seems every king and noble built a temple in the area. There are over 2000 structures ranging from very large to very small. The temples are everywhere. There can be 2 beside the road and another 3 temples 50 meters behind sitting in the fields. Most seem to be unused but every one I checked had an statue of Buddha inside. The last temple we checked had an inscription from 1200 AD and was showing it's age. It looked like a good place for Count Dracula. We all rented electric bikes and toured the countryside this morning. Joan balked at driving her own 2 wheeled vehicle, so she rode on the back of my bike. That poor bike worked really hard going uphill.

(Note: Near the end of our trip another rider overtook me and flagged me down. He was from the bike rental company. He wanted to change bikes because they noticed Joan wasn't using hers and they gave me a more powerful bike. Now Joan and I are the fastest.)

After an afternoon swim we went out on our fast bike and visited the “Count's” temple when the sun was setting. We walked through the fields for a good camera angle and the sun co-operated.

Facing East

Facing west