#thatbinnyu

[ulfonso]

Frameview on Thatbinnyu just before sunset - probably built in the 12th century, this temple is the highest building in Bagan. As most of the bigger pagodas it has its own infrastructure of souvenir dealers, tiny shops and restaurants around. Plus, of course, beautiful and huge #buddhas inside. #travelgram #traveltheworld #travelphotography #traveltips #Thatbinnyu #ttemple #Myanmar #bagan #Reisetipp #wanderlust #photography #photooftheday #frame #frameshot #buddhism #southeastasia #asia #asien #buddhismus (at Bagan, Myanmar) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_LDvUxoXtL/?igshid=1x6abzwovobp8

[yunsangho]

#Thatbinnyu #Pagoda #Yangon, #버마 #미얀마 #양곤 #출장 #아침 산책 ㅎㅎ 어제 맥주를 마셨더니 입에서 알콜 냄새 ㅠㅠ 아침에 일어나 근처 뭐 있나 걸어서 산책하고 있는데 멀리 큰 #사원 이 보인다 역시 #불교 의 나라구나 멋지네 라고 생각하는데 입구에 가 보니 아침 8시 이후에 방문이 가능하다고 씌여있다 경비 아저씨 두분이 계시고 입장을 막는다 ㅠㅠ 구경하고 싶어 사진 찍고 구경하고 싶다고 하니 흔쾌히 들여보네 주시네 ㅎㅎ 큰 #탑 이다 한국의 #파고다 #탑골 공원도 생각나고 ㅎㅎ 근데 #여승 즉 #비구니 들이 있는 곳이라 외벽이 #흰색 이란다 신기하네 성스러운 곳이라 신발을 벗고 들어가야 한다 ㅎㅎ 양말까지 보고 나오니 기분도 상쾌하네 #Business #Trip #Myanmar #YANGONG #缅甸 #ミャンマー #ヤンゴン #仰光 #Thai #タイ #泰国(Thatbyinnyu Temple에서)

[intothewildy]

At That Bin Nyu, tallest temple in Bagan. 🌟🌟🌟 #bagan #myanmar #thatbinnyu #roadtrip #instatravel #instaphoto #instapic #travel #like #love #fun (at Thatbyinnyu Temple)

[yaycheese]

China & Myanmar 2019

Nov 12 - Tianjin - Breakfast in Ritz - Walked around Dagu road - Century Park - Porcelain House - Nitro matcha at Starbucks Reserve Heping - Walked down Heping road took picture with Babiboy sign - Muji at mall - Nanshi food Street - Guobao lunch snack at Xibei 西贝 - Mall with Coca-Cola store and bought Keith Harding hat - Guwenhuajie (bought spicy sauces) - Dinner with family Nov 13 - Tianjin - Breakfast at Ritz - Saw technicolor Tesla - Butterscotch and truffle lattes at Starbucks Reserve Heping - Shopping at Cos (bought a sweater) - Supermarket in basement of mall - Took a photo with the I❤️TJ cat - Guwenhuajie (got free tea at the metal work and jewelry store) - Walked along river - Sichuan dinner with cousins (Er Jie / Shao Chung / shauishaui, Da Jie / Qi Tao / bei bei) - Met Simon at the hotel lobby Nov 14 - Beijing - Breakfast at Ritz - High speed train to Beijing - Dropped bags at 161 Lenai - Walked down Nanluoguxiang: bought ceramics, stabbed a yoghurt, saw ptfo babies and “eat chicken tonight” waffles - Lunch at Kanpai Sanlitun - Taxi to airport, saw a lady doing donuts - Met Tun on airplane - Taxi from RGN to Pan Pacific Hotel at midnight Nov 15 - Yangon - Did laundry at wash n dry (very nice people, left a google review) - Tried Lucky Sevens teahouse (closed for renovations) - Lunch at Thai 47: fried chicken salad, pad thai, >, thai coffee - Picked up laundry and it was neatly folded! - Walked around Secretariat: saw art exhibition and the Facebook pop up - Took pictures at St Mary’s Cathedral - Attempted to enter Pegu club: denied - Walked through Bogyoke market: bought sheer shirt and four faced Buddha heads - Lounged, drank watermelon juice and napped during sunset at the Pan Pacific infinity pool - Dinner at Shan Kitchen (wasn’t great) - Pegu Club cocktail at Blind Tiger Nov 16 - Yangon - Breakfast at Rangoon Teahouse: chai, milk tea, milk tea with skin (custard), paratha, curry noodles, samosas (some of the best!). Purchased enamel bowls and tote bags - Went shopping at HLA, bought pants and 2 shirts - Walked to Bagan Book House and saw the Pandosa Burmese Brasserie on the way - Sule Pagoda and Independence Square - Refreshments and AC at the Strand Cafe - Chinatown: walked through the markets, saw the banana vendors, bought a Java apple - Rested at the Pan Pacific - Went to City Market and bought fruits, yoghurts and chips - Went to Shwedagon Pagoda for golden hour and sunset: saw the 4 Buddhas, bathed our birthday Buddha’s (Mouse for Thursday, Naga for Saturday), saw the sacred bodhi tree - Taxi into town (our driver knew sheise and gracias amigo — said the military government was bullshit and their environment is being destroyed) - dinner at 999 Shan Noodle House (arrived 2min before closing): dry fat fried noodles, garlicky chayote leaves, spicy basil ‘curry’, Hawthorne berry juice, passion fruit juice - Walked back to Pan Pacific Hotel to pack Nov 17 - Inle - Yoghurt and juice breakfast in taxi - 8a flight to Heho - Drive to Tuanggyi to pick up our local Pa’O guide, July-Thun - Walk through Kakku with July-Thun - Lunch at Hlaing Konn Pa’O National Restaurant (tried the local “guacamole”) - Arrival at Inle Princess Hotel (walked the grounds, found one of their Buremese cats) - Drinks and dinner at the hotel restaurant - Sauna and massages at hotel spa Nov 18 – Inle - 630a breakfast at the hotel - 715a boat tour departure - Market near Phaung Daw Do pagoda (bought bell 40k kyat and a metal spatula 3k kyat) - Silver workshop, saw Acacia nuts being used to polish silver and touchstone - Paper and umbrella-working workshop with long-necked women from Karen - Coconut water from Mr. Soe’s coconut boat (2k kyat) - Indein Temples (long hall with many vendors, saw puppies, took panoramas) - Road bikes to Bamboo Hut restaurant (had ginger salad, pork curry, fried noodles, lime juice, watermelon juice = 12k kyat) - Purchased teak hands, closed out with hotel) - 5:40pm flight from Heho to Nyaung U - Sorted Bagan itinerary with hotel concierge - Puppet show over dinner at Bagan Thande Hotel Nov 19 – Bagan - Sunrise and watching balloons at Nyaung Lat Phet Viewing Mound (with brief visit to Tha Beik Hmauk Gu Hpaya) - Breakfast at hotel - Tuktuk temple tour begins! - Shwezigon Pagonda (washed Buddhas, peered into reflection well, took photos through sunglass reflections, rang bells/gongs) - Htilominlo Temple (purchased bowl hand holder, bells, ogre puppet/ornament) - Shwegu Gyi Phaya (saw good views of Thatbyinnyu Phaya, got thannaka face paint, purchased sand paintings and lacquerware cups) - Gubyaukgyi Temple (saw old frescos on temple interior, washed buddhas, pet a small cat) - Lacquerware workshop - Lunch (had chicken curry, nasturtium/pennywort salad, lemongrass juice, coffee) - Rested at hotel - Ananda Temple (4 large golden Buddhas) - Thatbinnyu Phaya - Brief pit stop at Dhammayan Gyi Temple (saw field of cows on the way) - Sunset at Dhammayazaka Pagoda - Dinner at The Moon Vegetarian #2 (New Bagan) – watched ginger salad being made in kitchen, tasted tamarind candy Nov 20 - Mandalay - Started sunrise at Shwesandaw Pagoda, watched sunrise at 3 small temples ~300m directly south - Breakfast at hotel - 3.5hr drive to Mandalay - Lunch at Shan Ma Ma - Picked up coffee beans at Goffy Coffee (oddly the entire staff was Chinese) - Tuktuk to Shwenandaw Teak Monastery (took a photo with a monk drinking Coca-Cola) - Kuthodaw Pagoda (world’s largest “book”) - Mandalay Hill + Su Taung Pyi Pagoda (washed buddhas, drank holy water, watched sunset) - Tuktuk to Shwe Pyi Win Restaurant to try Spirulina Beer - Walked across street and purchased milky popsicle for 100 kyat ($0.066 !!!) - Burbit Beer at Tropical Bar (not very good) - Joy BBQ for dinner Nov 21 – Mandalay - Breakfast at hotel - Drive to Min Kun (saw a wedding and parade of decorated oxen for a monk ceremony) - Mya Thein Tan Pagoda (top room smelled deeply of fresh lilies, kid took our photos) - Min Kun Bell (at on time the largest in the world) - Min Kun Lions of Stone - Mingun Pahtodawgyi - Casting workshop + marble workshops (from the van) - Quick stop at Zay Cho Market (not much other than a ton of raw textiles) - Snack at Shwe Pyi Moe Café (Dosa, Samosas, Burmese banh beo, Chai with malai ‘milk skin’, strong tea) – all for ~3900 kyat - Shopping in Ocean Supercenter for local goodies - Quick stop at Nova Café (coffee was soso, not local but also a poor attempt at ‘Western style’) - Lunch at Mangalabar (salad, spicy and sour chicken curry) - One last souvenier run back at Shwenandaw Monastery! (bell, door knockers, puppets/ornaments, jade necklace) - Drive to MDL, layover in RGN, redeye to PEK Nov 22- Beijing - 5:55am arrival in PEK - 2 hour nap at 161 LeNai - Spa + Cat Café - Jianbings + watching the talking Hill Myna say Chi Bao Zi, Piao Liang, Gong Xi Fa Cai - 798 Art District // Voyage Coffee - Great Leap Brewing (got 2 flights, and on the way got a FAT persimmon and some Beijing LaoNai) - Pit stop at hotel - Dinner at Zhang Mama Jiaodaokou with Henry and Sophie (ordered the entire menu including delicious peanut milk drink) - Rice wine tasting at Nuoyan Rice wine - Bought Er Guo Tou on the walk back Nov 23 - Beijing 0.5 - Breakfast at Wiggly Jiggly’s Café - Walked to and around Guozijian - Browsed designer furniture at FNJI - Oolong tea at 月溪香林 - Walked around Wudaoying Hutong - Lunch at Xian Lao Man 馅老满 (pork and cabbage dumplings, cabbage salad, gong bao ji ding) - Wangfujing COS + supermarket - Hotel to grab bags - Didi to PEK

[memoirsofagenie]

Shwe Bagan: Hovering Over Golden Pinnacles

By: Genie

 Mingalarbar! Aside from the Burmese Harp, and much like “open sesame”, this expression will be the first sound you will hear upon arrival, and probably the only one you will remember upon departure. It is precisely with this passe-partout word, literally “hello/welcome”, spoken by thanaka-decorated, smiling faces of men and women, clad in longjis, that every journey begins, and everything reveals itself in Myanmar. Nonetheless, to talk or write about Myanmar, implies to venture into a semi-unknown world... at least to “lay” Western tourists who still haven’t pushed themselves that far into the East. Despite being strategically located between the two colossal neighbors, China and India, and despite being a quintessential component of the Indochina enclave, mass tourism, like the one witnessed in Thailand or Viet Nam, just to name two, has yet to invade Myanmar. 

Albeit this fact alone has its benefits (i.e., less pollution, less crowds, less queues, etc.), the major downside is that lesser-known towns are overshadowed in favor of Yangon, Bagan and Mandalay, respectively its current, former imperial and former religious capitals. Such is the case with Inle Lake, for example. Truth be told, travel literature and the internet are filled with countless images of Intha fishermen, depicting their singular leg-rowing technique and distinctive conical nets. But although they might seem representative of the Myanmese identity to foreign eyes, they become almost invisible and secondary once one makes his/her way through the pristine creeks and marshes of the Lake, where time seems to have stopped, crystallizing eternity into a lithography of yesteryear.

Having said this, it must be added that we live in an era where the demonization of technological devices and media, particularly social media, is rampant. Luckily, however, the usage that some of us make of it hasn’t drifted away from its original purpose; that is, sharing portions of one’s “real life” (all which occurs away from our electronic hardware and software) in a live, debonair fashion. Consequently, with this thought in mind, and wanting to describe as accurately as possible my personal odyssey on Inle Lake -and in Myanmar- the very day in which it began, I had to re-read my Facebook status of 20 January 2018, which can certainly convey the immediacy of my emotions past:

 Genie is feeling in a "Hanging Gardens of Babylon" state-of-mind at Inle Lake.

January 20 · Nyaung Shwe, Myanmar ·  

...I've always felt viscerally and primordially bonded to anything "summery" (or that has the summer feel) and the proximity to water. In fact, it's no wonder that, aside from Rome, some of my top destinations are Venice, Miami, Miyajima (in Japan) and Aswan (in Egypt). Yet today's venue not only made it to my top destinations list, but also elevated the aforementioned bond to significant new heights. If ever there was a place that brought to life the century-old "mental pictures or clichés" that Westerners have had all along regarding the Far East (so much so, that almost all European castles/palaces have a "Chinoiserie" room, with colorful maritime or pastoral scenes of the Orient), this must be it. By saying "clichés", I don't mean it in a negative way. On the contrary, the fairy-tale-like "Chinoiseries" have existed and are alive and well in Inle Lake. To summarize its allure and my sensations today, there can only be one word: PARADISIACAL!!!...

Naturally, this was written before witnessing the equally paradisiacal beauty of the three above-cited “capitals”, with their surviving, “unfinished” (Mingun) and/or precarious brick pagodas and their corresponding golden pinnacles, the Irrawaddy River running parallel to the numerous plains and the Royal Palace (in Mandalay), the wandering monks and nuns in their burgundy and pink attires and the monumental gold-leafed Buddhas. Unless one has seen them all, particularly Bagan, where the sunrises and sunsets acquire an overall breathtaking dimension and novel meaning, it is no wonder one can never be fully imbued with the Myanmese charm and age-old spirituality.

During its time as the Imperial Capital and prior to its final submission to the Mongols (i.e. from 849 until 1287 AD), over 10 000 pagodas/temples were built in the dry plains of Bagan. Moreover, Bagan is a highly seismic area, a characteristic that accounts for the major earthquakes that have plagued it and which, together with the temporal erosion, have brought down the pagodas/temples standing today to roughly 2 200, including the self-ironic “Leaning Pagoda of Pisa” (as an Italian, I must admit it put a smile on my face!) In any case, Bagan’s mythical status as a pilgrimage destination remains unaltered, especially thanks to its most famous monuments, that seem to have defied the adverse environmental conditions over the centuries and are visible in all their glory.

Interestingly enough, some of Bagan’s main highlights are nicknamed through superlatives. One cannot help but be blinded by the light of “the most beautiful pagoda”, the gold-plated Shwe Zi Gon. Following Shwe Zi Gon is the “tallest pagoda”, the two-storey Thatbinnyu temple, with its white-stucco coated walls. The “largest pagoda” is Dhammayangyi, which is said to have been inspired by the early step-pyramids of Egypt. Last but not least, among the most recent is the “most artistic” pagoda of the four, the majestic Ananda, erected in the 11th century and devoted to Buddha’s eponymous cousin and main disciple. In its interior, aside from towering golden Buddhas on each of the four main walls, are copious stylized golden arches and gold-framed niches containing gilded miniatures of Buddhas. Each visitor is bound to be inevitably overwhelmed with “shining” stupor!

Still and all, in February 1991, thus wrote of Bagan the noted Italian travel writer of the late 1900s, Tiziano Terzani: “[…] There are views in the world before which one feels proud to belong to the human race. Bagan at dawn is one of these. In the immense plain, marked only by the silver glimmering of the great Irrawaddy River, the clear silhouettes of hundreds of pagodas slowly emerge from the darkness and fog: elegant, light; each as a delicate hymn to Buddha. From the top of the Ananda temple you can hear the roosters singing, the horses pawing along the unpaved roads. It is as if some magic had stopped this valley in the bygone moment of its greatness.”

Surely, the golden obnubilation of the senses posited by Terzani must have manifested itself during an early morning hot-air balloon ride. Matter-of-factly, it is not until one has hovered over its golden pinnacles at the break of day that one can fully grasp the magic and magnificence of Bagan. As the sun rises in the East, its rays illuminate the entire archeological area. Little by little, the great plain becomes a diamond-studded bed that climbs over the Irrawaddy River and blends into the horizon, as the contours of the sun-kissed pagodas slowly spring up from the earth. Only then and there, in what would appear to be a figment of one’s imagination but is actually incredibly real, does one definitively discover the most authentic and immortal, shwe (gold) essence of Bagan.

 Rome, 20 April 2018