We had an early start today, to make it to the airport for our early morning flight to Nyaung U and the temples of Bagan.

Airline of choice (i.e. the tour operator’s) for the 500km hop was Yangon Airways (“you’re safe with us”); the flight took a good hour and was operated by an ATR72 turboprop. Highlights included the garlic chicken burger, we got as snack – and the very specific horoscope in the airline’s in-flight magazine.

After arrival in Nyaung U our luggage got transported to the hotel, while we already got into sightseeing.

First stop was at Nanda Pyinnyar Cave monastery; here we first had a look into a nearby temple, to see the Buddha statues and frescoes – before making it into the cave with its little meditation rooms.

Our next stop was at Paya Thone Zu, from where we walked over to the outskirts of the village of Minnanthu, passing by an old reservoir.

It was now back to the bus, the next stop being the ဖွားစော အုတ်ကျောင်း monastery and then on to and up Temple 863 with superb views of the Dhammayazaka Pagoda, which – of course – we visited thereafter.

It now was time for a break from all those temples. We made it to a lacquer-ware manufactory, where we were introduced to the steps involved in creating lacquer-ware (obviously followed by an opportunity for some souvenir-shopping afterwards).

By now everyone was really hungry, so made it to a restaurant at a viewpoint overlooking the Irrawaddy river.

After lunch we were back to temple country – now heading for Sulamani Temple with its beautiful Buddha figures and paintings on the inside. We also had a quick look at Dhammayan Gyi Temple before making it to the sunset temple …