Christmas 2013 - USA

Finally went home for Christmas - first time in 4 years.  Had a quick stopover in Washington, DC and saw Kate and Carten.

Then Mom and Dad met me there and we took a train up to Kelly's in CT.  Heidi and Kelly were there to meet us.

We spent 5 days in CT and it was so great to see Austin and Heidi and celebrate their 11th and 9th birthdays with them.

Then we spent 36 hours in Washington.  I saw Kir and the family, Chris, Dave, Vicki and the twins and Sarah and Bill.  Not too shabby for 36 hours!

Then Mom, Dad and I drove back down to SC.  I spent a lot of time with my Grandma...  next post.

Hong Kong -

Went with Mom and Dad to Hong Kong.  They were playing in the International Seniors Amateur Golf Association tournament.  So spent a lot of time with the "seniors" touring around HK.  

But also got a chance to hang out with my childhood friend - Tim Lewis!

Fish Market 

Flower Market

 Bird Market

Hmm - which way?

Opening dinner with ISAGA....

boat cruises

horse races

Yangon, Myanmar

Last day in Yangon - visited the longest reclining Buddha in the world. Length from halo to foot 216 feet (65.83 meters).

Shwedagon Pagoda - pouring 41 cups of water on the day I was born.

At The Governor's Residence - last day.

Bagan, Myanmar

Bagan - Thursday October 17

We met Chang at 9:00 am, and loaded in our van to go the Viewing Tower (right beside our hotel). We went to the 9th floor where there is also a restaurant to see the spectacular view overlooking all the pagodas/temples. We learned from Chang about this area was destroyed by the Monogalians in the 11th century, so all theses temples are from the 11th and 13th centuries.  However in 1975 there was a huge earthquake which basically knocked the tops off the temples and since then they have been replaced but exactly how they looked.  There are 3 main architectural styles - those made from the Indians, those made from the Sri Lankans and those made by the Burmese. The king built the largest temples and the medium sized ones of from the other royal family members and the really small ones are made from civilians. It is believed that if you erect a pagoda you will go into the eternal life. 
We then hit a bank!  However Mom and Dads ATM card did not work.
Randomly we went into the slums of Bagan and ended up in a bean paste "old fashion" factory.  We saw all the steps of how the paste is made to the final packaging to be sold. It is considered "fast food" for the locals.
Next we went to "new" Bagan to see the most sacred temple - it is believed to have a tooth relic in it by a Buddhist. We walked around this one for about 30 minutes. 

Then we went into another temple which had 4 Buddhas in it but you were not allowed to take photos. However in this one  the walls were gated because some German made stole the painted panels off the walls and now they are displayed in some German museum 
The next temple we went into was called Ananda Phaya which had 4 huge standing Buddhas but only 2 of them were the originals. We learned about what the hand positions meant.  Hands together and 3 fingers up = first lesson/ teachings; hand out = no fear; hand with fingers touching ground calling the Earth spirits to come and ward off the evil spirits. 
Bob made a comment "hey that girl is wearing my skirt!"  The men have worn their longkos daily!  
Next we went to see how lacquer ware is made.  It is made from bamboo and resin from lacquer trees (grown in the northern part of Burma).  The process does take a long time to make.  After each coat of lacquer it takes a week to dry and the the best quality lacquer has 22 coats on it. We all went shopping and were glad they took visas!  

It is truly unbelievable that they really don't use any machinery for laborious work.  

We had a short break to rest and get out of the hot sun.  About 4 we went and got onto pony carts to have a nice ride by the temples with the sun hitting the buildings with a crisp light. About 5, we ended up near the river and were accosted by many children trying to sell us merchandise.  I gave my "do not buy things from children" speech to the kids and then to Jilla and Bob, Jilla escaped barely.... "But they are so cute!"
We watched the sun set whilst on a boat on the river and then returned back to the hotel via the van.  It was a full day but it was amazing all the stupas (you could say we were stupefied!)