lonely-planet-myanmar-burma-11-edition

146BAGAN & CENTRAL MYANMAR YANGON–BAGAN HIGHWAYBUSSING IT ACROSS THE BAGO YOMAVictoria Tofiq and John Greenhalgh, British travellers we met in Ngapali in 2011, told usabout their overland journey from Pyay via Taunggok, which took 18 hours and involvedthree changes of transport:VT: When we went to Pyay bus station, the people pointed to a picture of a minibus. Wefound a tiny van seating just eight.JG: They were worried about my height – it was very uncomfortable, impossible to sleep in.VT: There were 10 checkpoints on the road between Pyay and Taunggok – our guesthousein Pyay prepared 10 photocopies of our passports and visas for the driver to handout at each one. We arrived at the final checkpoint very early in the morning, so had towait several hours until it opened at 4.30am.JG: When it did open, we found we could have easily walked from there to Taunggok busstation! We decide to continue on to Ngapali when we found a big open-top pick-up truckleaving at 7am for Thandwe – that cost K2500.VT: It was packed with people and piled with sacks of produce, but had lots of atmosphere.We saw the sunrise and drove past beautiful landscapes and waving children.JG: At Thandwe we boarded a smaller pick-up that brought us to Ngapali for K2000 each.VT: The road was bumpy all the way, so we didn’t sleep and it was very tiring – it’s reallyroughing it! But it was also the most interesting journey of our visit. And Ngapali is abeautiful place at which to recover.few hours of laid-back exploration, often inisolation. Known to Pali-Sanskrit scholars asSri Ksetra (Fabulous City), Thayekhittaya isan enormous Pyu city that ruled in the areafrom the 5th to 9th centuries AD. Local legendlinks its origin to the mythical King Duttabaung,who supposedly worked with ogresand other supernatural creatures to buildthe ‘magical city’ in 443 BC. The earliest Paliinscriptions found here date back to the 5thor 6th centuries.Seeing the 5.5-sq-mile site means eitherwalking the 7.5-mile loop around it orhopping on the back of an ox-drawn cart(K5000; 3hr) for a bumpy, dusty journey pastthe spaced-out temples, most just outsidethe oval city walls. It’s a good idea to have aknowledgeable guide as well. Bicycles aren’tpermitted. Note that the site and museumfees go to the government (see p 21 ).1SightsAt the entrance to the site is the small, government-runSri Ksetra Museum (admission$5; hTue-Sat 10am-4pm) with its posted mapof the area and various artefacts from excavations,including Hindu deities, 6th-centuryBuddha images, Pyu beads and silver coins.Behind the museum to the south, theroad soon follows the remains of the old palacewalls. Ox-cart drivers – at a speed thatebbs and flows according to the mood of theox – make a counterclockwise loop of the followingsites.The first stop will be at a recent excavation:a large brick building that is thought to havebeen a palace. After 2.5 miles or so, the roadpasses Rahanta Gate, where fragments of theovergrown brick gate run alongside the dirtroad. Immediately south is the Rahanta cavetemple, thought to date to the Bagan periodand last repaired in the 1920s, with eight Buddhaimages lined along the south wall.About a mile south, the Bawbawgyi Paya(Big Grandfather Stupa) is Thayekhittaya’smost impressive site: a 50yd cylindrical stupawith a golden hti on its top. It’s amongthe oldest and least obviously renovated Pyusights, dating back to the 4th century. It’sthe prototype of many Myanmar pagodas.Two-hundred yards northeast is the smallercube-shaped Bebe Paya, which has acylindrical top and a few Buddha images inside;its thought to date to the 10th century.Just north is the squat Leimyethna Paya,which has a visible iron frame keeping it together.Inside four original Buddha reliefs (abit cracked, some faces missing) are visible.On either side of the roads around here, lookout for long ruts in the ground; they wereonce brick moats.A couple of hundred yards to the north isa fork in the road: to the right (north) is atin-roofed cemetery; to the left (west), on