Balloons over Bagan

Bagan

The night bus dropped off our group of the living dead in Bagan at 5.30am where we were all immediately accosted by a pack of taxi drivers charging exorbitant rates to drive 5km. We steadfastly refused to pay the fee and along with a guy from Slovakia, we jumped on a horse and cart and headed into town.  On our way in, we were demanded to hand over 25,000 kyat which is about £15, to enter the archaeological area of Bagan. At first we thought this was a scam but as we weren’t allowed any further without paying, we coughed up. We later saw why we paid it. Bagan is a fairly compact, extremely dusty city around 8 hours north of Yangon and is home to over 2000 Buddhist sites, such as pagodas, stupas and palaces. Instead of charging an entrance fee for each site, we had to pay one fee to cover them all, which made sense. The number of monuments was awesome. As we walked towards our hotel, the sun was coming up and suddenly we saw around 15 hot air balloons rise up over the city, which was just a stunning sight.  

Bagan balloons

Pagodas

We hired a scooter and spent the day visiting the different pagodas. They were a sight to behold and there were so many, so I will let the pictures describe them. 

 

Another pagoda

Another pair of trousers torn, another lovely lady re-stitching them for free – I paid her of course. Apart from the cab drivers who have already cottoned onto extortion and having a captive market of tourists, the people are delightful and so warm and welcoming. How long that will last I don’t know, as more and more tourists choose to come here, making the people more and more jaded sadly.

The next day we took out a scooter again and spent the day exploring before heading off to a boat trip to see the sunset over the river and to visit some pagodas with original 12^th century paintings inside and meditation caves full of bats.

Pagodas

River sunset

One pagoda, called Kyauk Gu U Min contained a cave leading to a tunnel which went all the way to Pindaya, some 350 km away. On the opposite side of the river it was sad to see some temporary dwellings of displaced people that lost everything after the earthquake in 2016.

Final day and we had plenty of time before getting the night bus to Inle Lake. So, yep you’ve guessed right, we took a scooter out and spent the day exploring. And drinking cocktails this time. We went to the town’s museum – I would say the actual building is more impressive than the contents but it was a good enough way to kill an hour. Then we climbed one of the less popular pagodas to watch the sunset. Unfortunately on both occasions we’ve watched the sun set over Bagan we were less than impressed. Bagan is meant to have these epic, magical sunsets, lighting up the red brick or gold pagodas. Just not when we’re in town obviously.

We were shown onto the night bus and we sat for 15 minutes before being chucked off. We were told that we should be on the other identical bus, of the same company, that was leaving at exactly the same time, going to exactly the same place. There ensued a proper faff because our luggage had been loaded on first, so all the bags had to come off the bus to retrieve ours. Finally, we were put onto the correct bus and away we went to Inle Lake. No, I didn’t get any sleep!

#myanmar #bagan