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480> မြန်မာစကာ နေ့ ၃: pagoda hopping in Bagan + drifting on th Irrawaddy

29 May 2016 | Bagan (ပုဂံ), ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်‌> staring out @ th mighty Irrawaddy .... [far as we got b4 we flip'd th lid of our laptop shut feeling silly documenting wat we see as we see rathr than just see her fo wah she becomes in ℝeel time .. in th moment .. so we telling stretchers sposing we cuntinew cuz now th date = 30 May + we back in Yangon (ရန်ကုန်) reflecting back t' where we left off in th last post .. J + S had th weekend off so saturday (28 May) we 3 flew to Bagan .. this town up north on th Irrawaddy (ဧရာဝတီမြစ်) river w/ ∀ll these temples .. check'd int' our hotel on th river then rent'd bikes + rode around .... Bagan much dry'r than Yangon .. but hotter .. downrite sweltering riding around .. + the bikes shitty .. like riding w/ brakes stuck on w/ all this noise + resistance .... way too many temples (10,000 in her heyday .. uv wich 2200 remain now .. according to u, dear Inurnet) t' remember wich 1 = wich .. almost overwhelming @ 1° cuz u feel like u need t' check every1 out + after a wile they ∀ll start t' look th same ..

northern Myanmar

 

Gawdawpalin (ကောတော့ပလ္လင်ဘုရာ)

 

 

 

variations on a phallus theme

 

 

 

 

 

Bupaya (ဗူးဘုရာ)(on th banks of the Irrawaddy)

 

under construxion

 

typickle arkitexture

 

 

 

so many temples they use them for a garbage dump

 

Shwezigon (ရွှေစည်းခုံဘုရာ)—1 of th mo populure pagodas (@ least w/ th monks)

> by late afternoon we borderlined on heatstroke .. chill'd in th room then got a riverboat t' take us up th river a ways + we drank a boddle of wine then drift'd back gazing @ th muddy water + th life up on th banks + other boats + barges passing by .... reflecting on th Irrawaddy .. th lifeline of Myanmar .. as we take a break from riding our Raft Manifest ..

on th Irrawaddy

 

ark building

 

 

sunset over whoyourdaddy

> next morning felt pretty shitty .. too much sun + hooch + sum headcold ± sinus infexion brought on by tropickle humidity/air conditioners .. went 4 a swim then a run felt a bit better .. lots of fun running round th temples .. tho already hot as hell barely past sunrise .... came across a pagoda Mingalazedi (မင်္ဂလာစေတီ) w/ sum stairs so u cd actually get a view (not th season fo hot air balloons otherwise might have try'd that) .. th stairs t' th 2° level block'd w/ a gate + barbed wire but 3 British hipsters lounged around up above .. 1 of them show'd me where u cd clime around .. felt a bit cunflict'd but whatever .. nice view ..

running past pagodas

 

Mingalazedi (မင်္ဂလာစေတီ)

 

view from Mingalazedi (click fo higher rez)

 

... wrapping further around

 

> then hired a driver t' take us out int' th countryside t' see how they make oil + sugar + wine etc. (J + S here for agricultural/nutrition reasons after all) then hit a few more temples on th way back ..

grinding peanut oil

 

climbing a palm tree t' collect palm juice

 

 

distilling palm juice into wine

 

on th rode

 

loom

 

goats grazing next t' th temples

 

panorama (click 4 high rez)

 

Thambula

> sum dude let us into Thambula wich had probly th best murals in our opinion ..

inside Thambula

 

graffiti in Thambula

 

 

 

 

tablet giving props t' those who built Thambula + did th art inside

 

reclining Buddha

 

Dhamma-ya-za-ka

 

 

inside Dhammayangyi (ဓမ္မရံကြီးပုထို)

 

> Dhammayangyi 1 of th more touristic 1s .. gitting templed out @ this point .. inside a yung boy dress'd as a monk sat w/ a tip jar in front of him + sum german tourists took his photo (+ didnt give him no tip) .. a poignant moment on so many levels .... then went t' Bagan airport where ppl cluster'd round th few airconditioners .... read more of Burmese Days by George Orwell .... older Burmese woman sitting next t' us aks'd if we thawt Burma wuz like in th book .. um, we hope not! .... British colonizers totilly racist (if Orwell's account = true) .. not just against Burmese but also th Indians in Burma (who like in Kenya fall somewhere between whites + blacks in th pecking order Brits instill'd thru colonialism) .. we aks'd her if she thawt so + she sed no not since they kick'd all th farang out in th 60s ..

floodid fields approaching Yangon


 479 <( )> 481 >  မြန်မာစကာ နေ့ ၄: freeconomics of edom in Yangon marketplaces


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