Myanmar Travel Notes: "Bagan. Morning Light (Part 1)"

How beautiful is Bagan in the morning light?

Just look at the pricing of the "Hot Air Balloon Overlooking Bagan" tour. $350 per person per hour. For comparison, a standard room for two people in a five-star garden hotel in Bagan costs about US$150 a day.

Maybe you will ask, "Shan Ying, when did you become so vulgar that you use price to measure beauty?"

I'm not vulgar, I'm short of words. I don't know how to describe that kind of beauty.

Under the pink sky, the forest on the field is soaked in morning mist. In the light and dense green, Chaoyang is a spendthrift and stubborn master. He is painting the pagodas with gold powder, one after another, very happy.

In my eyes, all this was like a "soaring" sound on the green sea, and a ball of flame suddenly rose. Then like magic, the flame turned into a golden ark to ferry all living beings to the Paradise. Those golden arks appeared one after another, and in an instant they turned into lotuses blooming in the paradise world.

At the same time, the chirping of birds was overwhelming. Groups of house crows and flocks of starlings are like messengers from the Eastern Emperor Taiyi, rushing to spread the news of his arrival to the earth. Uh...there seems to be something wrong. The Burmese people probably don't know who Donghuang Taiyi is. I can’t worry about that much. I just know that Donghuang Taiyi is the sun god mentioned in "Nine Songs".

Brother Chen and I got up early because we wanted to spend more time bird watching. Since there is no transportation, we can only travel around the hotel and its surroundings. Fortunately, Bagan City is a large rural area, so you can finally see some birds.

But I was still attracted by the pagodas in the countryside and couldn't help but get in and take a closer look.

It's very clean, and I can tell that someone should clean it every day.

The Buddha statues all have narrow clothes and slim waists, similar to the style of Buddhist statues from the Wei, Jin and Northern Dynasties periods in China. There is only one Buddha in the pagoda, but it does not appear lonely. The Buddha always kept a smile on his face, but some of them seemed to be greeting me, and some of them seemed to be that the Buddha himself had thoughts that were difficult for me to understand, so I was embarrassed to disturb him too much.

I walked gently into these pagodas with my bare feet, and walked out quietly. When the morning sun shone all over me again, I felt like I was reborn.

I feel like I can birdwatch in peace.

The "white-throated babbler", a unique bird species in Myanmar that surprised me yesterday, turned out to be a common bird here and can be seen everywhere. The black-winged bulbul on the tree is not a worry-free thing. The trees here are heavily obscured by their lush branches and leaves. It is jumping around, and it is almost impossible to see anything except the yellow belly. Occasionally, it leans down to reach the fruits on the branches, and then you have the opportunity to see its black and white wings. I was expecting it to be a Green Bird Bulbul, a rare species of Bulbul that looks very similar to it. But when it comes to bird watching, if you don't encounter it, you just won't encounter it. You can't force it. In the Buddhist world, in the final analysis, the most important thing is "fate"!

Of course, sometimes fate can be created by oneself.

I studied Google Maps for a long time and decided to go to two places. One was a pagoda by the river, because the map showed that the pagoda not only faces the Irrawaddy River to the west, but also has a square pond to the east. I thought there should be some Few wetlands rely on considerable bird species. Another place is a large garden adjacent to the pond. What fascinates me even more is that there seems to be a Buddhist pagoda hidden deep in the garden. Even if the map is zoomed in to the extreme, there is no accessible trail. It looks so lonely, and I want to accompany it.

The pagoda by the Irrawaddy River is built on a hill. I have forgotten its name, but I will not forget the hillside protected by the canopy of Jacaranda trees. Those big trees are so beautiful and big that the camera lens can no longer bear them. Keep it in mind. For me personally, the joy of standing under the tree is no less than that of seeing a rare bird.

Day and night, the big tree welcomes and greets those who come to worship Buddha, seeing all the joy in the world. You know it can't speak, but the birds in the tree can express its emotions for it. Listen, the trees are filled with the chirping of red-billed starlings, which are similar to the chanting in the temple. The red-billed starling is a natural rapper, so he is perfect for this job as a spokesperson.

The pagoda is on a small platform on the top of the mountain, like a big round golden potato with long and thin braids. Standing here and looking around, the sky is pure and flawless, the river is as quiet as a piece of jade, the boat has made slight scratches, and the fishermen who are collecting the nets are silent. There is a magnificent temple on the top of a distant mountain on the other side of the river, with numerous pagodas shining with golden light.

The pagoda and monastery next to me are pitifully small in comparison. However, the people who come here to worship Buddha do not have any objections. They offer fragrant flowers to the temple and pray in front of the pagoda. Their piety is no different from the worshipers I saw at the Shwedagon Pagoda, and there are even more fireworks. Angry - they must all be familiar with each other nearby, saying hello and chatting about home affairs. Although the "tenaka" applied on their faces for sun protection is large, it cannot hide the smiles at the corners of their eyes when greeting each other.

Unfortunately, except for the wide river channel, there is almost no typical wetland vegetation around, so there are few birds along the river. I can only place my hope on the artificial pond east of the temple.

When I walked over, I realized that this pond was the temple’s life-release pond. Burmese people will buy a lot of small goldfish and release them here, almost everyone has one. What is the significance of this kind of transactional release? It's so confusing.

There are tall trees around the release pond, and there are many birds, but most of them are willow warblers. In most cases, I have "turned a blind eye" to the domestic orioles, and I am even too lazy to take the time to carefully identify the foreign ones.

Feeling that there was nothing much going on, I was about to leave when a Red-throated Flycatcher and a Square-tailed Flycatcher flew out to attract me towards the south side of the pond. Unexpectedly, the bird situation was getting better and better, with all kinds of bulbuls, starlings, warblers, and butterflies arriving. Just when I felt a little overjoyed, a barbed wire fence blocked the way. If I were in China, I would probably find a way to get over, but in a place where I am unfamiliar with my life, it is better not to make any mistakes. If I accidentally enter the military territory, wouldn't I be asking for death? When going out, caution comes first.

So I took out my mobile phone and researched to see if there was a door that I could go through, and then I realized that this was not the second place I had planned to go to! It's just that the door doesn't open this way. That's easy, just go around in a circle. But before going there, I decided to take a walk around this pond. This is a place I carefully selected. In a short while, all the birds were the ones I had already seen, which made me feel a little dissatisfied.

My prayer in front of the pagoda came true. As soon as I walked to the north side of the pond, I saw an emerald squatting on a branch on the bank.

Myanmar is rich in jade, but this jade is not that jade. It is a kind of bird, an enlarged version of the ordinary kingfisher. Speaking of beauty, I think it is more beautiful than jadeite, because it is not only equally dazzling, but also full of life. This is a stork-beak jadeite, with a thick long red beak like a mini version of a white stork. Its gray hair hides the wisdom of the years. As for the feathers on its body, perhaps only the azure glaze color of Ru Kiln can match it. Comparable to it.

I was about to return satisfied when Lao Chen said there were other birds on the branches by the water in front.

When I saw it, yo! Isn’t this the green-throated bee-eater? Yesterday evening, I saw a bee-eater flying around near the ruins of the Bagan Palace, like small bombers circling in the sky. There was not enough light at the time to determine which one it was, but now the mystery was revealed.

There are no bee-eaters that are not beautiful. All of them are covered with green robes, and some bright colors are embellished on the top of the head, eyebrows, or neck. The green-throated bee-eater is the best among them. It has blond hair like a lion, a touch of copper blue on the chin, and a green color under the blue. It is also intercepted by a collar drawn with a stylus ink line. The rest of the body, They are all covered in verdant green like spring buds. Even though I had seen it several times, I was still charmed by its appearance, and it took me a long time to get over it on its own. Then Lao Chen and Lao Chen hurried to the planned big garden.

(To be continued)

Traveled on 19.12.20, recorded on 20.02.08