Pagodas galore

This morning, after a lovely breakfast at our guest house (this is our best one so far in Myanmar), we hire bicycles to go and explore.  We cycle to Bagan Old Town and start to explore the many temples and pagodas.  We’re not sure what the difference is but we'll look it up later.

The road is bumpy, dusty and hot but its a nice way to explore.  Loads of people are on funny little e-bikes which are electric bikes/scooter things but we’re happier using pedal power … until Andy’s chain decides to jam when we're pretty far away - almost at New Bagan.  We stand by the side of the road in the shade and try to fix it but its well and truly jammed.  Fred spotted a hotel a while back so she cycles there while Andy waits and calls the rental place.  The girl on reception kindly lets her use the phone and the guy from the rental place asks where we are, says wait 15 mins and he’ll come and find us.  He duly arrives 15 mins later on a moped with another lad on a push bike for Andy.  They load the broken bike onto the moped with the two of them.  Great service!  We’re off again in less than 30 mins from when it first happened.  Whilst waiting at the side of the road, at first we are surprised that no one stopped to ask if we need help. When Fred’s peddle came off in Vietnam everyone stopped.  Our faith is restored when two people do finally stop.  One of them does also try to sell us something but anyway, he stopped.

The landscape is ridiculous with temples, pagodas and stupas everywhere - there are literally thousands of them in all shapes and sizes.  We visit a few:

Mingala-zodi
Ma-nu-ha Tample
Gu-byauk-gyi
Sin-myar-shin
Shwe-san-daw Pagoda
Ho-lo-min-lo
Khay-min-gha


We watch a beautiful sunset from the last temple then cycle back to town.  Its been a lovely but tiring day and we are completely covered in dust.  We plan to get up for sunrise tomorrow so have an early night after dinner.