Myanmar Post 3: From Mandelay to Bagan

On our last morning in Mandalay we got up at 4:00 in the morning (that's AM if you didn't catch that) and we took our prearranged little blue truck taxi to the pier, with our favorite taxi driver. He didn't really speak English, but he was tall and skinny, and just super nice and gentle and friendly, and he drove the heck out of that little blue taxi considering it was about 40 years old. And he had a really cute 4 or 5 year old daughter, but she was probably in bed at 4 am. At least I hope so.

And then we got on a boat. A boat to Bagan. Bagan is an amazing place full of temples. But more on that later. First, I have to show you the sunrise we saw on the boat. It was lovely. A bit misty, but lovely all the same.

And, there were boats.

Boats and sunrises are fun to photograph.

And then the sunrise was over, but there were still more boats, and we got to see some of how people along the Ayeyarwady river live.

In Myanmar, most men and women wear long skirt-like garments called longyis. They are wonderful, and they look so elegant and natural on the men. After a day or so, you start to think that men in long skirts are totally normal, and that men in pants just don't look as good. I tried to get Evan to wear one, but I was unsuccessful, to say the least.

And a cart coming down a ridge next to the river.

More boats. Sorry. Remember, we were on a boat, in a river. There wasn't much else going on.



Some oxen and their driver, coming to meet the boat at one of its stops.

A woman carrying her rice home.

A monk.

These women had just dropped one of their bags of food. I don't think they ruined anything, though.

This area of Myanmar is called the Dry Zone. There is very little rain here, even in the rainy season. However, rice from the wetter areas of the country comes through here and these stops along the river are rice trading centers. The boats also bring other supplies for the people along the rivers as well. Here's a view at one of our stops.
After that it got too dark to really take any more pictures. And then our boat ran aground on a sandbar in the dark (the trip was 15 hours: from 6 am to 9 pm, and we ran aground about 8 pm). We waited, thinking we were going to spend the night on the boat, pretty sure that they weren't going to get the boat unstuck without some major help, but eventually another boat was found, and it towed us off the sandbar, and we made it into Bagan around 10:30, safe and sound.

In a few days: post 4, and the wonders of Bagan!