Half of the day went in travel from Gangaw to Bagan, the land of Stupas (temples and can step in) and Pagodas (closed structure). Enroute Bagan at Sagaing, we stopped by a mom & pop grocery store to procure some lungis – Burmese ubiquitous dress for men, a tapered piece of cloth wrapped and tied as a protruding knot in front. I grew up wearing Lungi in South India, but Lungis in South India are tucked in differently. My take is that the Burmese style of wearing Lungi is an eye sore with a bulge at the center and shirt oddly tucked in but definitely provides better mobility. Plus in Myanmar everyone, across different strata of society, wears Lungis. Whereas in South India, Muslims predominantly wear it and in general one could be bucketed into a segment of society that may be perceived as not suave. Lungi the great equalizer in Myanmar.
With our sign language, we managed to communicate not only our needs to procure lungis but also to seek their help to switch over to Lungis.
The folks at the store were very intrigued by foreigners and the non-verbal signs were welcoming and comforting. The gracious and pleasant gentlemen took the boys to the back of the store to orient them and switch over to Lungis. Surprisingly, the boys quickly took on to the Lungis.
Soon after lunch at the hotel, our pre-arranged guide showed up with e-bikes for the tour of stupas/pagodas. This would be the first solo bike ride for the boys. After a quick orientation, the first foray was onto the main road with heavy traffic to reach the landscape scattered with stupas/pagodas. Definitely, not a comfortable feeling for the care taker, and long ways to go for the rest of the trip and we needed all parts of the body parts to be intact. After some initial swerves and near misses, the boys settled in with their bikes.
The engaging guide took us into key temples of Ananda and a few other temples. The sincerity and passion of our guide did help grab our attention to learn a few of the historical significances – original Buddha statues of 4th century, intricate architecture, and ongoing restoration nuances. We capped of the trip by driving around the landscape in our bikes and climbing on to one of the stupas for a sunset among the stupas.
The highlight of the dinner was a dog accompanying us during the dinner. It would wander off and come crash by the cooler by our table, didn’t beg for any food crumps but very picky by not touching vegetables! It became a common sight from there on in most other SE Asian countries for dogs to casually roam around in the street and come in to accompany the guests by the table! Almost every other establishment seemed to have adopted a couple of dogs!
