Location: Bagan, Myanmar
Camera: Canon EOS 500D
Lens: Tokina AT-X 124 AF Pro DX 12-24mm f/4
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-200 mm F3.5-5.6 IS
Filter: none
Post editing: PS CS3
Trip schedule and details: http://danlow.multiply.com/journal/item/91 Check this out if you plan to visit Myanmar, I have shared tonnes of goodies here.
Bagan, formerly Pagan, is an ancient city(800-1300AD) in the Mandalay Division of Burma. It was the ancient capital of several ancient kingdoms in Burma. It is located in the dry central plains of the country, on the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwady River, 90 miles (140 km) southwest of Mandalay.
Bagan was submitted to become a UNESCO heritage site but many speculate of politics as partly the reason for the exclusion. UNESCO does not designate Bagan as a World Heritage Site. The main reason given is that the military junta (SPDC) has haphazardly restored ancient stupas, temples and buildings, ignoring original architectural styles and using modern materials which bear little or no resemblance to the original designs. The junta has also established a golf course, a paved highway, and built a 200-foot (61-m) watchtower in the southeastern suburb of Minnanthu. Well those were just excuses to my opinion, Angkor has paved roads, etc etc as well. Penang and Melaka have even more roads and towers, bla bla bla...
It is hard to believe that Bagan is not listed as an UNESCO heritage site.
To me Bagan is amazing! This this is highlight of my 16 days trip to Myanmar.
Things I like about Bagan:
- Very beautiful ancient temples of various styles
- There is a statue of Buddha in each and every temple and pagoda, unlike Angkor Wat's temples are mostly empty
- Going from temple to temple, pagoda to pagoda, seeing them up close for 3 days and still unable to see them all. Bagan (Pagan) has over 2000 Pagodas/Temple/Stupas.
- Very few tourist when I was there
Things I don't like about Bagan:
- pheuuuu. .. it is a very hot place.
- expensive fuel = expensive taxi
- sticky gifts vendors at famous temples, so bear with it or skip those temples all togather
SLIDESHOW
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