Myanmar: Bagan’s Ancient Temples


Bagan was a fairly short 7 hour bus ride from Inle Lake. We took the night bus which came with the bonus of a local lady passenger who was vomiting THE ENTIRE TIME. This seemingly defied all our combined knowledge of biology and physics but we had to endure it all the same.

We pulled in to Bagan around 3.30am. The Bagan area is actually comprised of three areas where people stay: Old Bagan, New Bagan and Nyaung U. The bus dropped us in a fairly random car park between these areas, but naturally there was a local crew of tuk-tuk and taxi drivers waiting for the morning arrival. We joined forces with another couple and split the cost of a taxi to our hotel in New Bagan.

On the way through to our hotel we stopped at a checkpoint to buy our Bagan Archaeological Zone ticket. Similar to Inle Lake you have to pay the government for a tourist pass to the area; this time it was $30 each. After getting ours we were dropped off in the dark and quiet outside the Mya Thida Hotel.

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The bonus of arriving at such an ungodly hour was that we got a full day including sunrise. Sunrise and sunsets in Bagan are where the magic really happens – especially where photography is concerned! We woke up one of the hotel staff sleeping in reception and he gave us the lowdown – we could dump our bags and rent e-bikes over the road from 5am to go explore.

We got kitted up with cameras, torches, suncream and insect repellent and went to get a bike. We thought the e-bikes would be like motor-powered regular bicycles but they turned out to be more like mopeds. We’d both never driven mopeds before so it was a bit of a shaky start. What we didn’t count on was that the second you get off the main roads you hit pure dry sand, which isn’t ideal for the tiny wheels of a moped style bike.

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After a dodgy start we reached our first temple. I’ll go into my favourite sunrise and sunset temples later. This was a nice quiet one looking east (as you would require for a nice sunrise). There were a few other people there but that is good going for Bagan. The keyholder was awake outside and showed us the passage to the top – shoes and socks off, of course.

Once up it was nice and peaceful at the top. We settled down to watch the predawn glow and the majesty of Bagan unfolded before us. Above the treeline the rising sun picked out the spires of countless temples across the plain ahead and laid bare the real scale of the place –  truly an awe inspiring sight.

The sun soon poked his head above the horizon and the chill in the air quickly lifted. That rise was quickly followed by that of around two dozen hot air balloons, taking to the skies to give tourists a very unique perspective on the area (something we were set to get the following day)and making for some more great pictures. Shortly after the hunger pangs kicked in and we had to move on via some breakfast.

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We ended up in the centre of Old Bagan, conveniently where most of the largest temples are located. After a decent breakfast we started to explore some of those up close. The 11th century Ananda Pahto is an impressive white temple with four huge 9.5m Bhuddas at each compass point.

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Further west we climbed up Mahazedi which offered good views of the surrounding temples which we then had a look around. It became pretty clear that quite a few temples were a lot more impressive on the outside than they were on the inside; you are unable to climb most of them or explore beyond the main entrance.

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We finished up in Old Bagan as the sun was really starting to pour down. We had heard that the middle of the day was ‘escape-to-air-conditioning’ time and after our long night bus journey we were in definite need of a rest so we retired back to our gaff for a lie down.

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A few hours later we woke up ready for a first Bagan sunset. I had done a bit of research on decent viewpoints beforehand so  headed out to Su Taung Pyi. It was a bit of a squeeze up to the very top but the reward was a quiet, peaceful sunset, away from the small crowds who hadn’t made it all the way up to the top level.

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So day one in Bagan was pretty much over. There’s very little in the way of nightlife etc. All that remained was to prepare for our adventure the next morning, taking a hot air balloon over the landscape.

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