Temples and sheep

I was going to take a pickup to Mount Popa, the Mount Olympus of Myanmar, and home of its 27 guardian spirits, or nat. But the hotel girl said it takes three hours to get there by pickup. I wish she would have said that a couple of days ago. I'll see if people will share a taxi tomorrow. Meanwhile, it's another day on a bike.

For a change of pace, I rode away from the archeological zone, into a desolate deforest area, that boasts of a new "people's forest, donated by ___." Funny that only Myanmar's most touristed attraction has "people's forests." A passing biker directed me to a cave temple in the middle of nowhere. Even though nothing was around for miles, a woman lived there, whose job was to show people around. What a job! She had a guest book, and only one or two people come each day (but ocasianally there is a group of five). I can't imagine what she does all day. The temple was moderately interesting, and had a cave that went deep into the mountain. She didn't take me too far. Afterwards, I humored her by looking at her table of knickknacks. I liked a little copper box, but she refused to bargain, only lowering her price from $7 to $6. So I gave her a 50 kyat donation instead.

Then I rode to Old Bagan and investigated some more temples. After four days I've seen all the major ones around Old bagan. A small temple had a guy living there with a key to unlock it, and showed me around. It was strange because it had a brand-new marble floor, and five brand-new Buddhas. I tried asking him why this obscure temple, kept locked all day, was getting so much attention, but he didn't understand.