Redemption

Our last full day in Myanmar. We are back in Yangon, doing a little laundry, finishing up a couple of novels, racing to the tea shop in the morning just in time for fried hot puffy bread soaked in sweet milk and egg, a fresh semolina cake, sanwin makan, which is pronounced nothing like it looks, and nam ja doe, Muz's noodle breakfast. But it is Asia, nothing is like it looks. Now that we are preparing to leave for Thailand, I find myself regretting it, but that is why we keep coming back...for one more trip. We are off to look for a flowered enameled tin lunch stack, not just the regular tiffins, but a fun Chinese one, maybe in pink. And, of course, one more visit to Bogyoke Aung San market.
Its hard to describe our last day in Bagan. The power was off and on for most of the day, but we spent one more morning in the Nyuang U market. Unlike the markets in Thailand and Laos, the markets in Burma open later...9 or even 10 am. I'm not sure why this is and because of my extremely poor language skills, it's impossible to get down to the fine points of time or anything philosophical that requires more than just one word declaratives. Needless to say, I did better with the Two Sisters, Myin Myin and Than Than. They were overjoyed to see me again, pulling out stools for us, producing glasses of tea and some little snacks on a tray. Then we got down to business...a lot of fabric business...concluding in a nice sale for them. Then out came their photo albums, the two unmarried sisters in an array of traditional costumes, their families, their parents, their school days. Impossible as it seems, they found a great shirt for Muzzy and a fun T shirt as well...full service shopping. They loved him! "So handsome, I think he is actor!" Muz was in heaven and his element. We left with something for everyone, including a huge stack of cheap napkins...it occurred to me that night in bed that they may not look so great after their first washing. I just loved these women, university grads, living near one another and running this stall in the Nyuang U market, so full of grace and humor and passion. I'd have kept buying just to sit with them and chat.
Around 3 in the afternoon, So Ren drove up in his horse cart to take us to view the sunset...again. He promised there would be no repeat of the previous night's experience, standing perilously on top of a temple on a narrow ledge with Germans, Japanese, Dutch, French, some really nasty Thai girls, and some confused Canadians, all trying to shoot the perfect sunset photo with their tour buses arrayed in the dirt yard below. And it was redemption, really. We went first to Suliman Paya, a 12th Century temple with a stunning entrance walkway leading to the ornate stone worked walls. The interior walls were still covered with original murals depicting the life of Buddha, the Jataka tales, reclining Buddhas and one breathtaking mural of his enlightenment surrounded by a pyramid of intricately detailed intertwined nagas. I was thrilled to be able to walk right up to the walls of the temple and examine the paintings closely. Muzzy did his very best to capture some of the images, but truth be told, how do you capture eternity? This was the very best temple we have ever seen...of the old ones, anyway. So Ren patiently walked us around, helped Muz with his camera equipment and stood with me passing the time as Muzzy bustled about. And indeed, some of the photos are quite wonderful!
After Suliman, which was pretty empty considering the hordes of people out in the fields, So Ren took us to his "spot", another 12th century temple that has not been closed to the public yet. By the time the builders at Bagan got to this century, they were building their stairways with a little more light, wider and more uniform steps. Still, all of these temples are filled with Buddha images and it's shoes off for everyone. I find it lovely that you go into some obscure little temple with crumbling facade and debris scattered everywhere and in front of an ancient statue of the Buddha is a vase or bouquet of flowers, a stick of incense and perhaps a small pile of rice that hasn't quite been eaten by the animal and bird life that abounds. We went up and up and up to the very top of this temple, whose name I cannot remember and is not on the LP "list", and while we were not completely alone, there were only about 15 of us and this is a big something. No doubt it will be discovered soon and thronged until someone falls and then it will be closed. Bagan is a very compromised archaeological area, odd and quirky in many ways, but still so stunning when you think about its history and where you are. 11th and 12th century payas, ancient kings and Kubla Khan, earthquakes and wars, all arrayed on a high plain next to the Irradwaddy. The sunset was nice...not spectacular, but still, a worthy sunset sitting atop an ancient brick temple in the middle of a field of temples as far as you can see. The drive back was a trip through time, the sound of So Ren speaking to his horse, the creak of the cart, and looking out the back with my legs dangling down, the silhouettes of the temples etched into the fading light. This was the best.