Day 10 - Back in Bagan, or Gimme More Temples, Please!

It's warm, it's dry, it has wi-fi! Having been thoroughly cleansed of temple fatigue by the misery of our Mindat trip, we joyfully set out on an e-bike to catch up on the significant temples we had missed.

First, a stop for a photo of the Bagan Beauty Hotel where Dana had gotten a touch-up yesterday, including a sometimes excruciating massage. No doubt she has described that in detail on Facebook.



Our first temple was the well-preserved Nagayon...



built by King Kyanzittha in 1192 to commemorate his being sheltered there by the hood of a snake while he was in hiding from his fratricidal brother. Hard to picture, I agree, but the main Buddha image is in fact sheltered by the hood of a snake.



Just a little unsettling.

We visited another temple nearby, built by Kyanzittha's Bengali wife, Abeyadana, which had some excellent frescoes of Hindu gods; however, they had been restored by UNESCO, apparently on the condition that no photos be allowed.

Our next was Gubyaukgyi, which also had frescoes, though not as good as some we saw later (to come), but which also neighbored a stone pillar with an inscription written on four sides in four languages, Pyu, Mon, Old Burmese and Pali.



It may occur to those of you in a particularly mindful state that it could serve as a Rosetta stone for deciphering the languages, which indeed it did.

Next was the Shwesandaw Paya - the temple preferred by sunset viewers, so chosen because of the exterior steps (first such use of those in Bagan) leading up to three high levels of terraces - i. e. sunset viewing spots.




The steps are formidable.


Apart from the sunsets, the most interesting thing here was a nearby building
housing a huge reclining Buddha....






that eerily projected a more commanding presence than the standing ones did - maybe the proximity?

We had lunch at a very good vegetarian restaurant, The Moon (great guacamole appetizer, and tamarind leaf curry main course, among several others).



Does she look like her mouth's watering?

We pushed on to the Sulamani Pahto, which for me was the most beautiful temple we saw here, both externally...




and internally.










We hit a little energy wall and decided to head back to the hotel for a bit, but our E-Bike battery had the same problem - not to worry, the iPhone brought a replacement within minutes.

The sun came on strong in the late afternoon, and so we knew we had to try the obligatory Bagan sunset photo-op, and though we'd been warned to avoid the Shwesandaw crowds we went there anyway, and were glad we did, not only for the views, which were nice...










but also, paradoxically for the crowd scenes.



The miraculous thing was how easy it was to find your shoes.

We finished the day with our third "trip to The Moon."

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