5/24
昨天司机带着俺们去车站买了今天去蒲甘的大巴票。俺们如约一早六点就在酒店大堂等车来接了。俺婆姨在网上打听来的从曼德勒去蒲甘有豪华大巴带上网,9000块一张票,不到二百公里要跑近五小时。自己包车能快一小时到,但是价格是125000块,性价比太差!酒店餐厅的人挺好,昨晚在楼上喝酒服务员听说俺们一早要走赶不上早饭主动说给俺们包餐盒,好孩子!
拿了餐盒上了车,来的是一辆小巴,挺憋屈的,原本以为这车只是送俺们去车站,结果酒店服务员说就是这车开蒲甘。俺婆娘的感觉顿时就崩溃了,说好的豪华大巴带上网呢?!等又上了几个人一打听,人家的车票才4000块,合着昨天那个该天杀的司机骗了俺们!难怪俺昨天给他小费是他说不用,不过俺还是给他了一万块。听着够霸气吧!呵呵。。。其实司机工作也挺卖力,挺辛苦地。但是这骗人有些要不得。可见神马宗教信仰在钞票面前都是浮云!别跟俺理论这事儿,俺见得多了!
得,就当是体验生活吧!小孩子本来不用买票的,当然不买票也没座位。为了舒适俺也给她买了一张票,所以又多折进去5000块!这个一点也不豪华的中巴到处接了一圈人,终于坐满了,基本都是本地人,还好万幸没赶上带活鸡活鸭的大婶儿们。大约七点多从曼德勒出发,沿路走走停停,路况时好时坏,反正速度是没有。早上上车还有个小插曲,上车时服务生帮俺们把东西搬上车,俺要拿一千块小费给他忽然发现俺的五百刀拉现金不见了,早上明明记得放裤兜里了,吓得俺小脸儿都绿了!一通乱翻无果。等开出去有一小时了,俺无意中在另外一个口袋里摸到了类似纸币一样的物品 - 合着那五百刀拉放在平常不放钱的口袋里!经验主义要不得!呸,呸!!!为神马要带现金呢?因为貌似缅甸的提款机喜欢收手续费。所以去这种国家还是刀拉现钞最管用,还得是嘎嘎新的票子。
至此,今天的坏消息就结束了。一路上平淡无奇,看看缅甸的农村乡镇,不到五小时就到达了蒲甘新城的车站。说好的送酒店也没了,因为俺们的酒店在老城。下车后跟一个会英文的同学关于出租车去酒店的事宜扯皮了半天,合着人家是做旅游的,多新鲜哪,要不谁有工夫跟你扯!最后达成的协议是半天旅游两万二,免费送酒店。事后一了解,人家还真是挺诚实的,没有乱要价,包车一天算四万五。
到了酒店放下东西,稍事休息,司机下午一点准时来接俺们了。司机是个小年轻,穿着筒裙很窈窕的样纸,呵呵。。。胳膊上刺了个龙略微有些不协调。。。基本一句英语都不会。但是!俺们要去的庙名字他一听就明白,这就是本事!跑跑颠颠了一下午,看了几个事先选好的大庙,最后到了著名的“许三多”shwe san daw庙登高远望,欣赏到了闻名遐迩的千庙群奇观,名不虚传,不虚此行!可惜的是说好的美腻的不得了的落日又木有兑现。又当了半天的赤脚大仙 - 所有的庙、塔一律要求脱鞋脱袜脱鞋脱袜脱鞋脱袜!小宝在连着三天的热浪袭击下挺不住了,有些热伤风,忽冷忽热的,搞得俺们有些揪心。好在她的精神貌似还不错,不是生大病的样子。
回到酒店吃晚饭,没心思到本地餐厅觅食儿了。席间还有拉绳木偶表演,孩子看的很带劲。美好的一天又过去了!
百度百科:蒲甘王国
小宝赤脚溜达,大门口就得脱鞋脱袜
百度百科:终于找到了脱鞋脱袜的原因!
民俗风情
主庙在维修中。。。
信众捐款一览表,按月计进度。如果没看走眼的话有的月达好几十万美元。
这是主庙的照片
这是佛兽讨食儿吗?呵呵。。。
第二站 阿南达庙
阿南达寺
这小伙子看上俺婆娘了,让他拿5000头牛来换,他说木有,瞎耽误工夫!
第三站 大病牛庙
他冰瑜塔
第四站 “市委故意”庙 shwe gu yi 建于1131年
俺们包的小车
庙里面还有学生上课
庙顶
很多庙现在已经不让往上爬了,这个庙有个二楼,初窥千庙群的霓端。远处的马哈布迪庙。
远处的庙和塔
光脚走在这样的地面真的很酸爽!
涂鸦
梦寐以求的景色来了!
第四站 马哈布迪庙 mahabodi 1215年建,仿印度的同名庙 里面有佛祖修行的故事
“第四周 佛祖在菩提树北边的珠宝路上来回踱步”
第四周
第二周
第七周
第五站 “大妈养眼”庙 dhammayan gyi temple,建于1163年
百度百科:达玛雅吉佛塔是蒲甘地区最大的佛塔,公元1170年那拉都王所建。塔底座为正方形边长294英尺,高160英尺。塔内有通道直通塔顶。该塔不仅是蒲甘最大的佛塔,而且也是建筑艺术最好的佛塔。整个塔体全部由大块红砖砌成,砖与砖之间没有水泥相连却结合十分紧密,不仅看不见缝隙,甚至连针都插不进去,令人叹为观止。原来阿南达塔、达比纽佛塔和塔达玛雅吉佛塔这三座塔分别为父子两个国王所建。父亲仁慈爱民,阿南达和达比纽佛塔是他所建,尔后,他的次子弑父杀兄,篡夺了王位,据说由于对自己的罪恶赎罪,下令建成了这座最大的塔。不过,他的这一行为更像是好大喜功满足自己的权力欲的表现,在新国王的命令下,这座最大的佛塔,动用了无数人力财力,只一个月就建成。这个皇帝最后也落了个被人所害的下场,而在他死后,他的这座塔也无人维护,成为了蝙蝠巢。
瘦狗
榨甘蔗汁的工具
第六站 “许三多”shwe san daw temple 看千庙群最佳地点,不过要光脚上塔,好些个陡峭的台阶
瑞山都塔
may 24 -
we were told yesterday to be ready for pickup at the lobby at 6am. our breakfast boxes were waiting for us at the reception when we came to the lobby to check out, very nice! we found out that we were scammed when we boarded the mini bus and was told that this was the bus taking us to bagan, for we clearly told our tour driver from yesterday that we wanted to buy tickets for the big bus with wifi (jj express?) and we now had to settle with a rundown mini bus at an inflated price for 5 hours. after we consulted with another passenger about the price he paid it became clear that the driver from yesterday wasn't an honest person. the sad thing is that as a traveler there is plenty of chances to run into this kind of scumsbags!
on the other hand, the bad news stopped from here! the bus left manday at a little after 7am. roads from mandalay to bagan are a mix of rough ones and well paved ones. less than 5 hours later we landed in bagan bus station in the new town. of course, we were told that our hotel, thande hotel, was in the old bagan, and was not covered by their free drop off. the bus attendant found a guy who could speak English to lay the whole thing out for us. the guy turned out to be a tour operator - what a surprise! we agreed that he would send a car taking us to our hotel for free and doing a half day tour for 22000k. I have to admit that he didn't overcharge me too much because I was later offered 45000k for a whole day tour by some touts. I am sure if you possess great negotiation skills you could have done much better.
thande hotel was located in the old bagan by the river, a very nice hotel with a swimming pool and several restaurants and bars. our driver came to pick us up again at 1pm as scheduled. he didn't speak much English but was able to recognize all the names of temples we wanted to see. for the amount of time involved 22000k isn't too much to pay from 1pm to almost 6pm back to hotel. he was polite and cooperative, pleasant to be with. we ended up giving him a 3000k tip.
the tour of temples involved shoes and socks off everywhere. by now we were a bit fatigued to see all these temples. the highlight finally came at Shwesandaw Pagoda, where we got to climb up to appreciate the scenery of thousands of pagodas, stupas, and temples. but also at this temple we were stopped by some authority looking people and asked to buy tickets for the old bagan, which was 25000k per ticket. again, we were suspicious about these people's authority because they didn't seem to bother all foreign visitors. and the tickets were never checked again in the next two days.
the sunset didn't materialize due to heavy low clouds. but shwesandaw pagoda is right place for it!