Myanmar
We had two and a half days here and one of our first sights was a small boat with some animals on board!
We were lucky enough to get a trip to Bagan to see the famous temples. This is an hour and 15 minute flight away from Rangoon (Yangon).
On our way to the airport, we visited a massive temple Shwedagon Pagoda with its golden stupa. Then we flew to the ancient capital, Bagan which once had thousands of religious monuments – temples, pagodas and stupas. There are more than a thousand left in old Bagan.
On arrival, we visited the sunset pagoda to see the vista, climbing a narrow inside stairway and then outside stairs, leading to a great view!
Then we checked into Bagan Lodge for the night. Lovely bungalows in lush grounds.
After breakfast we had a pony cart ride at 8am for 25 minutes through the back roads to see many more monuments. Richard was beside the driver and Frances was perched on the back with feet dangling.
That day we crammed in about 5 other temples or shrines as well as a lacquerware factory and a market. Stupa or pagoda is a massive structure, typically with a relic chamber inside. We visited several four face design buildings where there is a Buddha facing in each direction. There is a corridor that goes around the perimeter. Some are pyramidal and you can go up to a platform high up. These are used for meditation, devotional worship of the Buddha and other Buddhist rituals.
Everywhere we went there were hawkers. They jumped on their scooters to follow us from place to place.
Phuket, Thailand
Several of us took a cooking class with Pat’s Home Thai Cooking. We started with a market visit and then cooked in indoor outdoor kitchen.
At the market, we saw some very odd produce, like berry sized eggplant. Then we went back to Pat’s house to her teaching kitchen, which is open air but roofed. Pat was very organized and she had two young helpers for the ten of us.
We made spring rolls, hot and sour soup, mango salad and a chicken green curry. She made rice and a dessert of bananas in coconut broth. BTW, you are supposed to use unripe mangos for the traditional salad but she showed that we could use carrots or even cabbage. Another tip – always buy coconut milk, not cream. We made our own by squeezing grated coconut in warm water and then squeezing out the liquid. After that, we skimmed the cream off the top.
After cooking, we all went inside to her dining room and sat at her dining table to eat our soup, salad and curry. All delicious. Then we were driven back to the ship where there were market stalls set up at the dock. Time to spend our last baht!