Temples Temples everywhere - day 2

  Bagan, Mandalay, Myanmar Monday, October 27, 2014

Day 2 was no less impressive. We started out later today as we wanted a sunset finish so at 12:00 we set off with Rambo & Cheeleh again. We had decided to stay around Old Bagan as we had had our countryside tour yesterday. First stop was a monastery. It was pretty special to look at and very old - all made of wood. It was a bit rickety looking so were surprised when we were invited inside. A young chap in there gave us a tour and then showed us the book collection. They were quite old, most seemed to be around 100 years old but a few of the oldest were written onto palm leaves. The language is so old on these that only a very few people could read them. We were very surprised when he allowed us to handle them. He also collected money - notes - from all around the world and his collection was vast. Most from countries we had never visited and one was a one trillion dollar bill from Zimbabwe. He then gave us an old Burma note and wouldn't take no for an answer. In exchange we said we would give him some notes from countries he didn't have like Singapore and Korea. Bryan had these back in our room and as he and Cheeleh were friends, we could give it to Cheeleh when he dropped us off this evening. So on with the tour and today's temples were a little different from those of yesterday. These ones seem a bit more well used and slightly more commercial. Yesterday's temples were mainly built from the red brick whereas those today many were plaster covered and probably gleamed magnificently in the sun when they were first painted. We were in no hurry so when the temple touts came looking for a sale, we were an easy target today. We had time to stand and stare and of course haggle. We bought quite a few little momentos and just hope we can get them all in our case! One of today's little highlights was that we got to add some gold to a Buddah. For 1000K (60p) we could buy a square of gold leaf and add it to the buddah statues ourselves. Well for 60p why not so that was quite nice. We did make some video so you can watch that here if you want to XXXXX At a later date, we will add some video of us gilding the Buddha here XXXXX Here in Bagan they make the most beautiful lacquer wear and as Cheeleh had seen us looking at some yesterday, he took us to a long standing family run business that made it and had a reputation for very high quality. We were shown around the front shop (cheap) then to a back room where the prices were very expensive. Bryan saw a tray of black cups (they are very thin and a little bit bendy they are so thin) and they were lined with gold leaf. The ticket on the tray said $30 (they quote US Dollars for most of their prices here). Bryan didn't think that was too bad for a 10 cup collection. But that turned out to be the price per cup! we didn't hang around in there! We went back to the front shop and began looking for a souvenir there. Much more our style! As our purchase was being wrapped we sat for tea. It seems customary everywhere to offer people tea. Even in shops - it's very civilised! We left and made our way towards our last stop which was some way away. To kill a bit of time Bryan decided to teach Cheeleh some new English phrases. He knew all about Manchester United and Fish & Chips so we started simple with "Diamond Geezer" which he found very funny. To make it a bit harder for him we moved on to "You Plonker Rodney". The results were not quite there but we all had a bit of a laugh.Our final stop of the day was the temple we were going to climb to watch the sunset. There were already quite a few people here and we squeezed ourselves in between some Swiss and some French people. Fred actually got to come out with us too today and took his place on the edge to watch too. (he will be going home on quite a few cameras today). Sun sets about 6pm here and by 5pm most of the good bits were unfortunately over. The cloud had moved in at the west and it wasn't very spectacular but is was nice. The police came to check all foreigners had their passes on them and even they stopped to admire Fred but thankfully they didn't demand a pass for him. Aaaah! Another fantastic day is over and tomorrow we leave at 5am to get the boat to Mandalay. Early night for us. See you in Mandalay :-) [gallery columns="4" ids="9048,9049,9051,9054,9057,9061,9063,9065,9069,9073,9074,9077,9080,9082,9089,9091,9093,9095,9099,9103,9104,9107,9109,9110,9116,9118,9120,9123,9128,9133,9137,9140,9143,9147,9150,9151,9155,9159,9164,9170,9171,9174,9176,9177,9180,9183,9185"]