First of all Bagan was one of the first capitals of an ancient Burmese empire and today is one of the worlds major heritage sites. Known as the city of four million pagodas, Bagan is one of the richest archaeological sites in Asia. Today there are over 2,000 pagodas, temples,and monasteries that remain and built during the Bagan Dynasty founded by King Anawrahta in 1044 A.D.
This morning came early as we disembarked the ship at 4:00am for a 6:00am flight to Bagan. An hour and twenty minute flight, we than first transfer to the local market.
To see a vast variety of fresh fruit and veggies for sale. Very colorful and very friendly people.
Then we visited the Shwezigon Pagoda with the golden stupa. Built by King Anawrahta in the early 11 century as a religious shrine. It enshrines a replica not even the real thing..... Of one of the Buddha's tooth. Can you imagine??
The pagoda is also important architecturally (spelling ?) because of its bell shape, which later became a prototype for almost all of the pagodas built later in Bagan.
We got to ride on a pony cart to visit the Anandar Temple, (a delightful way to go into areas that are off limits to most motorized vehicles) to see a white washed masterpiece with 4 standing Buddhas and a well preserved 18 th century murals.
We had lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch we checked into our hotel. After an hour we visited 2 more temples.
These temples are just beautiful. We also visited a Lacquerware workshop. Then we went to the last pagoda called the sunset pagoda. We watched the sunset from the top of the hill.
Back to our hotel for dinner by 7:30. Rest and free time until 6:00am tomorrow morning. We are sleeping we are pooped. The weather was over 100 degrees today.
Fly back to Yangon tomorrow morning at 4:30 wake up call for a 7:00 flight and transfer back to the ship by 1:00pm for a 1:30 departure.
Cherish The Moments, Love Deeply, Dream Big
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