horse and cart

Was fortunate to find a horse cart driver via my friends,

such a sweet & easy-going man. He took me one afternoon

to his village to meet his family top left, & to see their

festival. His horse was well cared for. I thought their

children so good looking, especially the girl, right.

If you stay near old Bagan, ask for cart number 173.

The extra drive to my hotel, near New Bagan

was a bit too far, 6 kilometres, though he did it.

Stayed at the Kumudara, a good place, great staff,

surroundings dotted with pagodas, even a pool.

One night there was a cloudburst, accompanied by

an extremely loud & scary noise like an alarm,

it took me an hour to realise it was about

5 million frogs, it continued for 6 hours,

but gradually became more melodic.

by horse

My lovely horse cart driver in Bagan top left.

There's about 250 in the area I think. Life must get very

sparse in the off season. If they are from the same village

they all know each other, & shout greetings as they pass.

It was very wet one day, which made it bumpier - water

quickly covered the holes in the road, not so good for

photos, though generally it was easier to stop.

vistas

I went to some of the main pagodas & temples, but

there are thousands, each with it's own charm &

half sensed history. It was still raining a lot.

Though not the most sophisticated, these were

my favourite buddhas, beatific smiles ~ & twins!

& yes, these are still the small files..drat.

art history

Still with the small photo 'mistakes', these are from

Bagan, where I stayed for several days, taking a horse & cart

sometimes to get around the amazing profusion of

pagodas & ruins.

Some are extremely old, nearly all have been shaken

by strong earthquakes (a big one in 1975), many have been

partially restored by Unesco or local artisans.

Some must have been superb in their day, with extensive

wall frescoes, it's an amazing art history museum, really,

with distinctively different styles, influence from all

directions. Its wonderful to get an extensive view & realise

just how huge this centre of Buddhist culture was.

mirrors

Mirrors are frequently used to decorate walls

at Shwedagon & many other paya, I love them

almost as much as the gold-leafed Buddhas.

Hopefully I took enough large ones to play with.

I was several days in Yangon, then to the 'usual'

Inle lake, Mandalay, & Bagan. Had to cancel the

Bangkok sector at the end of October because

of their awful floods. It was an unusually heavy

& long monsoon across Asia.

Shwedagon

The Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon is breathtaking.

I went several times, there was always more to see

& something different happening.

As well as a place for devotion, people use it as a

place to meet, rest, meditate: it gives a wonderfully

complete sense of how alive Buddhism is there.

If you plan a trip to Burma, find a hotel nearby, the

downtown area is another story.

home again

The plane landed a few days ago, am nearly back in the body..

Took many photos in Burma, still sorting them.

These 2 are from the wondrous Shwedagon pagoda.

Dismayed to find that I fixed a setting in the smaller camera

incorrectly, so a lot are too small for what I'd planned.

Guess I'll have to figure another way to use them.

Or not.

Am still thinking what to say about the experience;

The people are beautiful. It also felt like my heart

was breaking several times a day.