Sagaing Favorites

Favorite thing: Except for the hills right around Sagaing the area is quite flat. The trees that you can see at the bottom of my photo had a lot of squirells in them. They would stay still for me to take a photo as there were a couple of dogs on the ground barking at them.

Favorite thing: This covered walkway went a lot further than my photo shows. For those long barefooted walks these cavered walkways sure are a lifesaver. I wondered how long the tradition has been going with the covered walkways because all of the walkways that I saw were covered in tin. And Tin sheeting hasn't been around for hundreds of years!

Favorite thing: From the top of Sagaing Hill you can see the massive Ava Bridge It has 16 spans and is almost 1 km long. it has 3 lanes...2 for cars and down the middle there are train tracks. There is a small fee for crossing the bridge.

Favorite thing: In and around Sagaing you can find many Monasteries. Some small ones and others that have a few thousand students! You can make arrangements to visit them or at most of them it would be very easy to just show up and talk to some of the students. It might be good to talk to someone in charge so you don't get the lower students in trouble. It might be meditation or study time.

Favorite thing: For the most part and this is what I noticed and could be wrong...All of the Payas that are built on hills have covered walkways leading you up the hill. It does make it nice to not have to hike in 100 º temps with the sun frying your head!

Favorite thing: The steps were comfortably cool for the walk up to Umin Thounzeh. As with all Buddhist Temples in Myanmar you must remove your shoes and socks before entering the grounds. The steps here are done in white and don't absorb the heat of the sun like the darker colors that are usually used for the steps. Burning my feet raw become quite a reality on some days! LOL

Favorite thing: This is a view of Sagaing Hill from Umin Thounzeh. The photo is quite bleached out as I didn't use my polarizing filter and should have. Alot of my photos that were taken here at Sagaing were bleached out so I appologize for that but they are the only photos that I have so I'll be using them to build my pages. I just happened that we were there at about 1 pm and the sun was bright and extremely hot. I'm not sure of the temperature but when I returned home I checked the temp for a few days and it was over 100 º F (38º C) everyday!
There are covered walkways that connect many of the Payas. It would be nice to be able to spend some extended time here and just wander around all of the Temples that line the hilltop.

Favorite thing: The best views of the area are found at Soon U Ponya Shin Paya. The wind was quite cool when we were here too. It's tough to find a cool breeze in the middle of the day in Myanmar in March! Or at least it was for us.