{"id":1152,"date":"2018-06-28T11:18:45","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T09:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cyclefoodfun.com\/?p=1152"},"modified":"2018-06-28T11:21:06","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T09:21:06","slug":"myanmar-bagan-wondrous-ancient-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyclefoodfun.co.za\/?p=1152","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar – Bagan – wondrous, ancient capital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bagan is located on the banks of the mighty Ayeyarwady\u00a0 (Irawaddy) river in central Myanmar.\u00a0 It is one of the world’s finest sites archaeologically speaking. It is ranked with Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu and rightly so.\u00a0 In keeping with the Buddhist philosophy where your good deeds on earth count towards merit for your future, various kings built thousands of temples in a 68 square kilometre area between AD1050 and AD1290.\u00a0 The estimates of the number of pagodas, temples and monasteries built varies depending on what you read but the numbers are between 5000 and 10000.\u00a0 Around 2200 of them still exist today.\u00a0 The landscape is flat and populated with tamarind trees. It is amazing to stand and just look around, you cannot look in any direction without seeing many temples rising out of the greenery of the forest.\u00a0 The empire that lasted over 540 years was brought down through invasions by Kublai Khan and the Mongols.\u00a0 Earthquakes also contributed to the demolition of many of these shrines.\u00a0 The most recent earthquake was in 2014, damage to many of the bigger temples was fairly extensive and a repair and renovation programme is in place.<\/p>\n

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Earthquake damage<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyone following my journey closely will realise that there a few days of cycling missing between Yangon and Bagan.\u00a0 This is because the monsoon season has set in, the rain in the South is extensive and cycling is difficult and unpleasant.\u00a0 In keeping with my philosophy of cycle_food_fun, I decided that it would not be fun to cycle days in the rain to Bagan and folk were telling me that the weather would be better up North.\u00a0 So I put Bobbie and me on an overnight bus and we arrived in Bagan to warm sultry weather.\u00a0 Good decision!\u00a0 It also had an unexpected and fun outcome.\u00a0 I had cycled the 45 kms from Thabarwa to the bus station in rain and drizzle and arrived there a couple of hours early for the bus.\u00a0 As I checked in, so did a young lady, Francien, from the Netherlands.\u00a0 With all that time to spare, I asked her if she would join me for a beer while we wait.\u00a0 We got on well and had a long chat.\u00a0 As it happened, Francien was staying at the same hostel as me.\u00a0 Subsequently we spent the next 4 days exploring Bagan together, literally from sunrise to sunset.\u00a0 We met at 04:30 in the morning, hired e-bikes and had a marvellous time riding around the vast area on little sand tracks through the trees, discovering temples and pagodas and taking endless pics, not stopping until well after sunset.<\/p>\n\n\t\t