Day 37: Monywa to Bagan

-In the morning we drove to Pho Win Hill, known for Pho Win Daung temple complex. The area has lots of little manmade caves with Buddha images inside. We were more impressed with the monkeys that suddenly appeared once a local lady called them.  Interestingly she was feeding them rice. As we were walking down these young kids were walking behind us. I moved aside to let them pass but I guess they were following us. Our guide later explained they were from the countryside and we were the first white people they had seen, apart from in films and television.

-The rest of the morning was full of even more driving. We saw some copper mines on the way and learnt that the company who bought the mines also took away some of the local farming land from the people. They did this without any compensation for the land and in a very hush hush manner. I tried to relax and listen to some music for the rest of the drive but our guide, Jewel, was extremely chatty.

-We stopped very fast in Pho Win Daung to look at a woodcarving that was very impressive. Apparently it took two whole years to complete the whole thing. Then we drove to Pakokku to grab some lunch in a local teahouse. We received a lot of stares since we were probably the only tourists in town. Eating with Jewel and our driver lessened them a little.

-In the afternoon we took a two-hour boat ride across the Ayeyarwaddy River to Bagan. It was a beautiful boat ride. We tried to talk to our new guide over the sound of the motors but it proved to be a challenge. Once safely on the other side we drove from Old Bagan to New Bagan. The government moved people from Old to New Bagan in 1990 to help preserve the area. There are over 4,000 temples and pagodas in Old Bagan and that number keeps growing. Interestingly Bagan used to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but once the military took control of the country in 1962 they removed all funding.

-Dinner proved to be another fiasco as we were bombarded by local school children once reaching the main road. They wanted to know where we were going, where we were from, how old we were, and most importantly, would we buy them school supplies, sweets, or their hand drawn postcards? They were so funny and endearing that we eventually bought one boy's postcards and they were absolutely awful drawings. Marco and I couldn’t stop laughing. On the way back Marco started running away from the kids and then said his name was Mingalaba, which means hello in Burmese. They loved it.