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| Mekong River and Luang Prabang (Laos) from the air |
Tuesday,
February 27
Laos
to Myanmar
Today
Mike and I were up at 6 AM – Mike
went swimming and I was working on the blog. Had our wheelies packed for pickup by 7:30 AM. We took our busses to the airport to
take the private jet to Myanmar this morning. It was interesting going past the old airport, right next to
the new one. The new one was built
by China about 4 years ago. China
is also building a railroad down the length of Laos from the north to the sea.
We
took a group picture on the tarmac with the TCS plane before our
departure. I really enjoyed Laos –
would love to come back and visit again.
Our hotel was really lovely as well. Our flight to Myanmar was pretty short – just over an
hour. Not much to see along the
way – hazy and flying above the clouds.
On our approach into Yangoon we could see some stupas – otherwise, the
terrain was fairly flat, with a rather large river.
We were greeted
in Yangoon with long stemmed red roses. We hopped through customs (took our passports) and security and were off with our group divided to take 2 separate
flights to Bagan. This was a prop jet flight;Mike and I sat in the front in row 2. It was a pleasant flight – they served served cookies (green tea shortbread – yum) and lunch (which I
skipped). We were met at the
airport with more roses, and took a short bus ride to our Aureum Palace Hotel.
There
are stupas/pagodas all over the place – more than 2200 – most from the 10th
– 12 th century. You could see
them as soon as you left the airport – dozens of them on both sides of the
road. Hotel was a quick drive
away. We arrived at a palacial,
spread out complex, complete with a Watchtower built to oversee the Bagan plain
and the views of the stupas.
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| Our staff on the Nat Geo and TCI plane - we took a group photo in Laos before departing |
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| Beautiful new Yangon (Rangoon) airport in Myanmar |
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| Welcome to Myanmar! |
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| We weren't in Yangon for long - our group split in two and flew on two prop jets to Bagan |
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| Countryside around Bagan is rather dry; land is demarcated with palm tree windbreaks |
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| Lovely little airport in Bagan, Myanmar |
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| New friends, Maureen and Jeff - happy to have survived the prop jet |
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| Even more warmly welcomed in Bagan |
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| Most extraordinary to see stupas in all directions as we departed the airport and drove to our hotel |
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| In addition to stupas, many temples. Stupas are funerary memorials - can't go inside. Temples have inside passages and buddha statues inside |
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| Typical bell shape for stupa in Myanmar |
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| Temple with flame terra cotta decorations around each door |
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