#doihavetoseeanothertemple

[thrashintheworld]

Who's Idea Was This?

Utterly sick of seeing temples in Bagan, my new friends and I booked a night bus to Kalaw. A little, nothing town to the east that we would start a three day trek from to get to Inle lake. Naturally, my British friend and I decided it would be best to get a lot of beer for the bus trip. As I was about to open my bottle the bus attendant came by and told me drinking alcohol wasn't allowed… It still didn't stop us.

We arrived in Kalaw just to book our trek and to spend the night resting up before we began the 60 km trek to the lake. The morning after we began the hike with high hopes that we would have decent weather considering it was rainy season. I knew there was a risk for leeches on the trail and I was the only one that actually wore long sleeves and covered my legs with under armor pants. I was also the only one that got leeched… on a tiny little bit of exposed skin above my boot. I don't know how the leech could have got me. Others pointed out that I also had the appearance of a crazy Asian Gandalf.

The first day took us through jungles, over sketchy bamboo bridges, and along the ridges of beautiful hills. Everything was so incredibly green.

The second day was the worst day because it had rained all night. So when we woke up, the beginning of the hike that day was over roads that had become muddy slip and slides. Regardless of the poor trail conditions our day still took us through some amazing Myanmar countryside.

Everywhere I looked seemed to be some kind of farm or rice terrace, but occasionally we would stumble upon some ruins in the forest.

If it wasn't farms, forests, or ruins that we were walking through there would be ethnic villages that seemed to be scattered everywhere. Locals carried on with their daily lives and sometimes we would find ourselves in the middle of some school’s playground game. Which reminded me of the sardines game we would play back in elementary school.

On the third day, we finally arrived in the Inle lake region where our trek ended and we would take a boat up the lake to the main town. It was such a relief to finally get to sit down and have something else do the work besides my feet.

I also got to see how the locals work on electrical wires on a lake… doesn't seem very safe to me!

[thrashintheworld]

The Endless Temples of Bagan

Upon leaving Sri Lanka and spending only a day in Yangon, I arrived in Bagan. The undisputed top destination in Myanmar. The main activity being to rent an electric motorbike and going to explore all the temples, especially for sunrise and sunset. That was exactly what I intended to do, but first I went to get the traditional men's longyi. It is a piece of cloth that is made into a complete cylinder that you wear by wrapping it a special way. After several lessons by both men and women I believe I have finally mastered wearing it enough to go commando like most locals anyway. I just can't let it get caught on anything and fall off! To top it off I paired it with a stylish rice hat.

So I was off, with a few new friends, to see if we could get sick of seeing too many temples. Bagan used to be the center of a thriving kingdom and so there are several thousand temples in various conditions. Seeing them all would be nearly impossible. The best way to enjoy the temples, in my opinion, was to get on top of them for some impressive panoramic views. We drove around all day trying to see as much as we could, to the point that later in the night my bike’s battery died and we had to try all sorts of shenanigans trying to get the bike back.

While we explored temples for the majority of the day we did make a stop at one of the nearby monasteries. There we participated in the younger monks’ English class and helped to teach them English.

After we left the monastery, we took another break from riding around to eat some palm fruit and relax in the shade out of the blistering heat. This is where I was taught how to turn my longyi into shorts so that I could run or climb the palm tree if need be. I do believe I looked damn good in them!

Bagan was such a magical place and I am glad I was able to explore it before Myanmar becomes more of a tourist destination. The sunrises and sunsets are the main event in Bagan and shouldn't be missed if the weather permits. I wasn't able to see a nice sunset, but I did roll out of bed early enough to see how amazing Bagan really is.

[thrashintheworld]

Mount Popa in the clouds. Climbed 777 stairs to get to the monastery during the Buddhist full moon celebration. #myanmar #backpacking #wanderlust #travelphotography #travelblog #mountpopa #doihavetoseeanothertemple (at Mount Popa)

[thrashintheworld]

Brewing that "tasty" palm wine with the locals. #myanmar #backpacking #doihavetoseeanothertemple #wanderlust #travelphotography #travelblog (at Myanmar)

[thrashintheworld]

The Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon is definitely a sight to see. Usually seen during sunrise or sunset because the sun shines brilliantly off the gold structure. You can see how massive it is if you zoom in and find the monk that is walking around on it. #myanmar #yangon #travelblog #travelphotography #wanderlust #backpacking #doihavetoseeanothertemple #shwedagon (at Shwedagon)