We had a long boat journey to Bagan.
The Bagan area has literally thousands of Pagodas. A few are Temples, but most are “Stupas”, which you can’t walk into as there’s only room for the obligatory Buddha statue inside.
Pagodas
More Pagodas
Even more Pagodas
It’s popular (and expensive) to take a balloon ride over the pagodas.
Classic Balloon over Pagoda shot
Very old bus with Teak body
We hired an e-Bike to explore more temples (“e-Scooter” would be a better name).
Michelle in her element climbing inside the temple.
Our tour guide’s name is “Min”. So we called our group the “Min Yon Mars”.
Min with Minion (Kevin)
We took another van for a long drive to Kalaw, in the mountains. The Brits used to come here during the summer as it’s cooler.
Pressing peanuts for oil
Did you know that a peanut is a pea rather than a nut?
They make beer and spirit from palm oil.
Michelle sampling the palm spirit
On the way we stopped at Mount Popa and climbed the steps to the Temple at the top.
Mount Popa
There are hundreds of monkeys.
Monkey leading the way up the steps
Tribal women in traditional costume
Monkey business
Monkey paradise
From Kalaw, we took a five hour hike into the hills with a local guide. He showed us various plants. The climate here is very pleasant and everything grows including tea, coffee, oranges, and various other fruits.
We visited a local school. The kids lined up and sang the national anthem and recited their times tables.
“Chinese Buffalo”
Very fertile – lots of cabbages growing here
At the top
View over a village
From Kalaw we are catching the train to Inle lake.
