Joys of cycling: Myanmar (2)

Monks (and a nun) of Myanmar

Breakfast time, Nuang Shwe

Feeding time at the monastery near Mandalay: youngsters run the gauntlet of tourists, for second and last meal of the day

Deeply undisturbed by the commentating French tourist guide and accompanying flock – nun at Bagan

Monks in monastery dining room, near Mandalay

The youngest monk and friends, Mandalay

Monk at work!

Here come the monks! Foreigners to look at…

Not quite got the dress code yet…

Contemplating the holy fish, Mandalay

Pagodas, Buddhas and bicycles

Have just returned from cycling in Myanmar (and Bangkok! at night! crazy or what?). The five days of cycling was pretty marvellous, enabling the usual handlebar height perusal of picturesque countryside, with many a ‘Mingalaba!’ (hello) along the way with the friendly locals. Sadly my camera died suddenly while I was snapping women roadworkers, and my backup camera only lasted for a few more days, so my picture haul isn’t so great. However…

Ready to take to the road in Mandalay

Myanmar is facing the challenge of extreme poverty in many parts, staggering corruption, poor infrastructure to cater for all the tourists wanting to visit, and mountains of rubbish polluting the environment, AND all the political, economic and social issues not being addressed by this blogger. One cannot turn around without seeing a Buddha, Pagoda or monk: Buddhism is taken very, very seriously.

Just a few of the Pagodas at magical Bagan

Many of the Pagodas are golden, many ochre coloured

And monks line up daily for the gift of food. All males are expected to do at least two stints (of extremely flexible length: 1 day to forever) as monks in their lifetime.

They don’t say thank you either

Appropriately, this is Buddha as Traveller

On the road, we saw beautiful trees in flower…

Exquisite flames in the forest tree, just before a great downhill run

Sustainable transport:

And just one more Buddha for this post (a large one):

We don’t point the soles of our feet at the Buddha; Buddha on the other hand…

More anon…