across the river

More extravagantly carved teak. Sometimes, inside, it's gilded.

Outside the carving is weather worn, still fine inside

The posts & pillars are whole trees.

Two other places (maybe Mingun), I loved the leaning tower.

Now & again there's an unexplained detail: I don't know the

meaning of the creatures with double hind quarters,

maybe they are Nats, though they decorate Buddhist pagodas too.

ruins

The names won't mean much if you've not been there: more

interesting sites around Mandalay. Some were small, &

it gave a slight sense of stumbling upon them by chance

in the jungle..

Whenever there was a hill you could see that

the forests & fields are studded with pagodas,

& other buddhist ruins

full moon

Still there were full moon celebrations, the lion had a part.

The icecream cones were luminous pink & lime, the bullocks

were resting beside their taxi carts, at the river. There was a big

earthquake in Turkey while I was in Burma, sobering to

see earlier remains of seismic activity.

carved forests

We saw parts of the 'ancient cities' via the taxi/tuk-tuk,

boat, & horse cart, passing many small villages & compounds

of bamboo cottages, & some great trees, all interesting.

One pagoda aimed to be the tallest, but an earthquake,

or king's death intervened.. I forget which.

The teak monasteries were astonishing, carved all over,

inside too, except it was so dark, hard to see.

Whole forests of teak, but such a memorable use of it.

mandalay

From Inle lake I flew to Mandalay, & stayed at the delightful

Peacock Lodge, it reminded me happily of the old

raj places in India that I rented or stayed at, lovely hosts too.

One day I shared the GH taxi with another guest, we

visited several interesting sites up hills, & further away.

A long climb (for me) to the top for this paya at Sagaing, a splendid

view of the Irrawaddy. The city is big & kind of messy,

the trick is to get up early, before it all starts up,

& the light is at an angle

treasure

Many sites at Bagan had dim mysterious interiors,

&, in October, lots of big old green trees

There were intriguing paths off through the greenery,

nearly always someone selling quite interesting stuff, which

I didn't see in other towns, & occasional gilded treasures.

I might go back one day, I really liked it.

Of course the real treasure is the Burmese people.

chance

The chance of being somewhere just as the light

changes, don't you love it? There was heavy rain between me

& the large pagoda. In the village this lady right

was a Burmese Vermeer.