Day 5 Myanmar. Mandalay to Bagan

We were picked up at our hotel about 8am. We sat on the back of the wee truck taxi with a few others and bounced our way through the Mandalay city streets. Quite a good way to see the city really. Some of the back streets are so poor. A lot of roads are still dirt roads and lined with rubbish.

We arrived at the dusty, dirty train station around 8.30am and were rushed onto a bus that was once quite a flash one but not now! Mick had to sit up the back in the middle because of those long, lanky legs of his. The driver's assistant told him to move to our allocated seat. When Mick stood up the guy told him to sit back where he was.

The landscape was pretty flat, dusty and boring for the first hour. Plenty of trees sticking up but nothing to see. It got a bit windier and we went through a few villages a bit further on.

 We stopped at a place for lunch on the side of the road. Another bus full of people were just pulling away when we arrived. The food was disgusting. We didn't even eat it. First meal we have had that hasn't been delicious.

Just as we got to the edge of Bagan the bus stopped and some woman came on. They told us that to enter Old Bagan, where our hotel is, all foreigners had to pay $25,000 kyat each (about $45nz for the two of us) or get a fine. "You choose" she said! We hadn't realised this was going to happen. Lucky we had cash on us!

Up the road a bit we changed buses into a very grotty vehicle. It took us to our lovely hotel at about 2pm. Felt like a long trip. There was a bit of a mix up with the booking and after a lot of patience, showing evidence of our booking from Expedia and a bit of frustration we finally sorted it out and we got a reasonable room next to the pool. We weren't worried about the price, the rooms in this country are such good value, we wanted a double and they gave us a twin in a pokey wee room so we asked to upgrade and it was mission! To stay in a place like this in NZ we would be looking at double or treble the price.

We went for a wander to look at the temple that is located on the grounds of  our hotel. We followed a wee path out the back which led to more temples. Every where you look there are temples. Some overgrown by bush, some with house built right around them. They are everywhere. We followed a path down towards the river. It had rubbish dumped everywhere. It is so sad to see how much rubbish is covering this country. I was freaking out as I was walking through it. Anyone that knows me well knows of my absolute fear of rats, but I was also worried about snakes in the grass and bush we were walking through. My skin is crawling just typing this! We didn't see either though luckily.

This smouldering rubbish dump has been made on the edge of a temple wall that is probably centuries old. Pretty sad.

Everywhere we look we can see temples. As far as the eye can see.

This is pretty much what all the back areas look like. We walked through this to see the river. I'm so pathetic whenI think there are rats around. If I was a rat I'd live here!!!

A traditional house with a sky dish and cool looking truck outside. 

We wandered around some of the streets. A mixture of traditional houses and newer ones. Very friendly people.

We came back in time for happy hour and got ourselves two cocktails for $2us. There was another guy near us, we think from China, while we drank our drinks by the pool. What an arrogant pig of man. Yelling out orders to the waitress, spitting on the ground. Just disgraceful how he was treating people. We just left and found ourselves a local bar next door and sampled a few varieties of local beer.

Dark Rum Sour and Bagan Sling. Yum!

A good selection of local beers. Dagon is made here in Bagan. We still like Myanmar Lagar best though. 

Our restaurant for the evening. 

We had the best meal we have had so far in this country. Sweet and Sour chicken, watercress and mushroom with fried rice and prawn. OMG. It all came to about $21.00nz dollars. That was seven big bottles of beer included.

When we arrived a young guy brought out a baby from the back to show us. The baby was passed around to all the men (about seven of them working in there) who all made a fuss and held the baby at some stage. All clearly showing us the baby! We made a fuss, took a photo and chatted away to them. The babies are so beautiful.

The baby that the men so wanted to show us. Very cute. 

Another family came and sat at the table next to us. They brought their wee girl over to say hello to us. A bit later they sent her over with a piece of mandarin for me. It was so sweet.

This is the wee tot that brought us the mandarin

We stumbled back to our room and crashed for the night.