Bagan sunrise and visit to Orphange the 25th Jan 2015

First sunrise in Bagan with hot air baloons

 After sunrise, breakfast in our hotel with Thidar, Marmar et Mama , the manager's sisters,  pretty with a ready smile and willing to ave a good laugh. 

Being made up with traditional Burmese Tanaka, a facial cream with juvenating properties

 Thidar telling Paul off !

Back to the temples for a last visit. 

Children from a local orphanage  being taken on a visit to one of the big temples near the river on a Sunday afternoon. 

View over the river from this temple. 

It may be Sunday but farming activities go on everyday of the week. These local cows are used both for farm work and as food.  

One of the many pretty Burmese ladies who wait for tourists outside the temples to sell their wares. It is always done with beaming smiles and good humeur.  

Lunch at a local Indian curry house with Dee Dee, Andres and Sil from london 

 And after our lunch what should we do , should we visit some more stupas, temples or monasteries or should we get a massage ? And the answer was ...
 But we did visit some on the way home ...

And then,  still having the e bikes that we had rented,  we paid a visit to the local orphanage where we donated books, pencils and biscuits to the 57 boys living there. 

The biscuit was very much appreciated

This is one of the girls who helps at the orphanage and who came to the shop with us to buy what they needed.

If you would like to help, they are in need of everything from simple school books to soap, medicines etc .. 
www.gukyaung.blogspot.com
Email: shwegu.nyaungoo@gmail.com

MYANMAR ,BAGAN 23rd JAN 2015

We took the bus from Mandalay to Bagan at 7h30 in the morning for 5 hours following the valley of  the Ayeyarwaddy River. We decided against the  11 hour boat trip.

Views along the way

Field of Hot Peppers, very popular in the local food. 

When we arrived in Nyang-U (6km before Bagan) the bus ticket includes drop off service to your hotel , and a horse and cart were waiting at the bus station to take us to the hotel.

In the afternoon we began our visit to as many of the 2000 stupas, temples, pagodas or monasteries dedicated to Buddha that we could fit in using archaic bicycles. ( They probably dated from the 13th century too!)

The temples have a minimum of 4 Buddahs, but the most important one faces South

Ananda temple 

Having finished his work this man
 went to pray to finish his day 

That-ra-ba-gate near Ananda for sunset

That-byin-hyu temple 

Sunset in Bagan

Shwe-zi-gon pagode on the way back to the hotel lit with many candles 

There were many people tonight, an important monk was speaking