I’m tired right now. It’s 645 in the morning and I’m waiting to board the plane to Mandalay that leaves in about an hour. This part of the tour was supposed to be done by boat but a couple of days ago we were told that the river is too low to make the journey. So now I’m sitting here trying to keep my eyes open and hoping that the plane is going to be early.

Yesterday was a fun day. We started on bicycles at about 8 with the plan to go to a bunch of temples, and finally end the day watching the sun go down from the vantage point of a large temple. I mention this every year it seems and, I guess this is when I mention it this year, I really am not that interested in places of worship; churches, mosques, temples, and whatever. I generally love the history of the building and the architecture, but I don’t really feel anything to the spiritual side. I think it’s because of this that I generally get bored after seeing a couple of temples, they’re interesting, but there really isn’t anything unique after seeing the first one.

The day was spent bike riding around the area of Pagan, looking at temples, and bargaining with people selling. Some of the sellers were pretty tough, but most were pretty good when it came to me. One wasn’t getting anywhere with me and that was the way I wanted it, then she changed tactics, with nothing in her hands to sell she started following me around telling me that I’m handsome.  That in itself pretty much won me over, but then she started asking where I was from and other questions. I mean, she “cared” about “me” the real “me.” It was just funny how my attitude changed towards her after she changed tactics. I ended up buying a shirt from her, and I justified it more that I was paying to be complimented more than purchasing a shirt. Another temple we stopped at they had this kind of technique that was effective for me. After getting off the bikes we started to walk towards the temple, from nowhere one young girl (14 years old) went to each of us. It was like we were being “handled” like personal guests. No matter what you tried to do, these girls would not leave your side. Eventually I gave in, and she gave me a little tour of the site. Occasionally she would say, “You come to my store.” I think just to let me know that there wasn’t any choice in this, I had to go to her store. And I bought 2 lacquer tea cups, which will probably end up breaking in my backpack.