Bagan by bike, kind of

(This post somewhat delayed by internet connection problems!)
Our visit to Mandalay concludes with a tour of the local sights and sites, including (along with the shrines et al) workshops of various kinds - gold, weaving, wood-carving, a visit to a nunnery and a sunset photo-op from the famous Ubein Bridge; notable for featuring on the cover of Amitav Ghosh's 2001 Novel "The Glass Palace", as well as for being - to our western eye at least - bloody dangerous to walk upon.
Then, after two short city stays we are on the road again, literally so this time, taking the bus from Mandalay northwards towards Bagan. This turns out to be a somewhat longer journey than originally billed, six and a half hours on a so-so coach with just one short comfort break around the four-hour mark. In flight entertainment comes in the shape of a TV mounted on the fore-deck, which kicked off with a solid half hour of Buddhist chanting, followed by a stream of shit (possibly) Korean music videos (wherein a series of Poor Little Rich boys slouch around being generally misunderstood by their accessory girlfriends) and then, pour le dessert a home-brewed comedy compilation for which imagine Carry on Camping without the sophistication. The point of this purgatory, of course, is to experience a bit of local life as it is lived whilst the countryside rolls by. That notwithstanding, rarely have a good book, a stout pair of headphones and a short-term subscription to Spotify seemed such a sound investment. Looking forward to that next domestic flight already.
Bagan district (which encompasses Old and New Bagan, and Nyaung-U, where we are staying) is basically one vast historical site, boasting more ancient and not-so-ancient stupas and pagodas than anywhere else in Myanmar. It's been compared to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and we can see why, both in terms of the number of sites to see and visit, and the expanse it covers. Safe to say, if one is not into Buddhist architectural history, better by far to look away now. If not, there are dozens if not hundreds of sites to explore - some dating back as far as the 11th century
On arrival we are met by our guide for the first half day, who sorts us out with mountain bikes to explore on. Our first, accompanied, half day teaches us a few fundamentals in this regard: (1) the mountain bikes are fun and easy to handle over the sandy tracks that criss-cross the individual temple sites (2) but to get to and between those sites one must ride along fairly busy main roads - not so much fun, and (3) It's bloody hot.
So - although we have the mountain bikes at our disposal for all of the next day, we decide to dig deep and fork out the additional 8000 Kyat (pron 'chat') - about a fiver - to hire a  chinese-built electric scooter for the day. As the proud temporary owners of these machine we are able to cruise the boulevards at a stately 15kph (rather less on anything approaching an incline), so hardly rapid, but quicker and easier than pedal-power and actually kind of fun too.