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Bagan, Myanmar Pagoda Climbing
It is pretty hairy climbing some of the ancient monuments in Bagan, it’s not for the faint-hearted! The steps are crumbling, it’s a vertical climb or descent, in the tenth to twelfth centuries there was little thought to safety rails you know!
We discussed whether it was appropriate to climb, on so many fronts; safety, erosion and sanctity of the site. ‘It won’t be long before they rethink this’, we say! Little did we know that in less than two weeks later, the Myanmar authorities would issue a blanket ban on climbing all pagodas effective March 1st, 2016. They didn’t like the “disgraceful behaviour,” citing inappropriate attire, and dancing and sleeping on the monuments as the problem – and that wasn’t us! The Ministry of Culture did a U-turn the following day, to allow five pagodas to be exempt.
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| Bagan: temple climbing |
We talked about the dilemma that we faced when visiting Uluru, Australia: to climb or not? We elected not to climb Ayres Rock as requested by the Aboriginal people, but up to thirty percent do climb.
Daughter Number two just back from South America tells us she could not climb Chichén Itza, the world-famous complex of Mayan ruins on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, something Mr Wren and I did on our visit twenty-five years ago.
What would you do, ‘to climb or not to climb‘, that is the question?!
Linking with Thanks to Darren at Photalife
