Ancient Bagan

Very early on the morning of Monday, November 25 the Bostroms and I arose for the 6:00 a.m. flight from Yangon to Bagan.  The airport was soon filled with tourists waiting for flights to Bagan, Mandalay, and other destinations around Yangon.  Since the government eased state control of almost all aspects of life and opened its boarders to the outside world a couple years ago, Myanmar has become a hot tourist destination.
Also, several brand new small airlines have been formed to offer flights around the country to the growing number of foreigners. We flew on Air KBZ, a two year old airline started by one the country's banks.  We flew to Bagan on a new turboprop 68 passenger flight.  I don't believe a single Myanmar citizen was a passenger. Rather, the airplane was filled with Americans, Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean tourists.

We had a great two days and one night in Bagan.  Our tour guide was excellent:  knowledgeable, humorous, and easy-going.  Ancient Bagan is an amazing site.  During the 9 - 11th centuries C.E. it was the capital of a kingdom covering much of central Myanmar.  In an area encompassing several square miles there are approximately 3000 Buddhist pagodas, stupas,  and other religious sites.  One can quickly appreciate why it has been designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations.

Bagan pagodas.

In our two days, we visited perhaps a dozen of the larger and more significant sites.  In many ways, I was reminded of a recent trip Paula and I made the Mexico's Yucatan peninsula where we visited several ancient Mayan sites.  I made nearly nearly 400 images while in Bagan.  I have included just a couple here (the rest I will eventually upload to Flickr).

Bagan Sunset
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Late afternoon on the 26th we arrived at the Bagan airport to discover our 5:00 p.m. Air KBZ flight back to Yangon had been cancelled. The KBZ desk was not even staffed! We were put instead on the 6:00 p.m. Air Yangon flight.  This flight was delayed another two hours.  So, we arrived back in Yangon around 9:00 p.m.  Shortly, thereafter the power went out and stayed out until about dawn the following morning. Power outages are common occurrences here. One learns to put aside westerner notions of time and efficiency and to adopt a more relaxed attitude!