Bagan Again

Getting harder to get out of bed in the morning... we are all getting tired and it's very hot. But today was definitely worth getting out of bed for as our driver had heard about an initiation ceremony and took us to view a procession.

Leading the procession were the parents and grandparents.

They were followed by the young girls and boys either on horses or in horse or oxen drawn carts. The boys were going to the monastery where they'd get their heads shaved, don a robe and spend about a week learning how to be good Buddhists. A couple of the boys were as young as 3 but this was evidently because there were several sons in the family and it's cheaper to have one ceremony for all of them. If the child is really young their father may accompany them and they may not stay as long. Two meals a day..... breakfast and lunch must be hard for a 3 year old.

The girls don't have to go to be monks but they have their ears pierced.

The procession was followed by a mobile sound system blaring out very loud music .

Monks from the monastery watched.

There was much excitement in the village with a real party atmosphere and lots of food preparation.

We all got quite a buzz out of that experience and visiting a temple after that wasn't quite so exciting. However, the temples dated back to the 11 th and 12 th centuries and were amazing.... beautiful murals and enormous Buddhas.

Unfortunately we couldn't take a photo in the best one.

Our next stop was at a very traditional village. Hay Mar was armed with packets of detergent, shampoo, hotel toothbrushes and some medicine for the villagers.

We saw many aspects of village life.

There were a couple of modern touches to village life... many of the young people went off to university (95% literacy rate here) and of course TV.

We were dropped off at our hotel at lunchtime and left to do our own thing. Pat and I walked down the road and found a place that had chicken sandwiches for lunch... a welcome change from rice and noodles. Then we went shopping but the only thing we bought was deodorant... we sort of used more than normal. Therereally wasn't   anything much that we wanted to buy.

Just as we walked back through the hotel doors it started to rain ... great timing because when it rains it really rains. A shower and a lie down was very welcome. 

Walking back along the road it looked a bit like someone had been murdered  ...patches of red that looked like blood as we'd seen all over the roads of Burma ....bettlenut spit!!!

In the evening we had our farewell dinner because instead of flying back to Rangoon wiith us, two people are leaving us at the airport and going to a beach for a couple of days. It was a nice dinner with a big tip for Hay Mar. she has an 'outstanding' award from Explore and we know why. She was faultless... knowledgeable, reliable, organised, willing to depart from the Explore itinerary to give us a bit more of an experience, and nice. We have been lucky to have had her.

Two more days in Rangoon then home!