Yangon - Bagan
Departure 2013-Dec-10 - 19.00 Arrival 2013-Dec-11 - 4.30
To safe some time and the costs of one night in a hotel I take the night-bus to Bagan. Eventually, this turns out to be more expensive then a hotel, at least for foreigners who pay 10x the price compared to locals. The bus leaves at 7PM and is scheduled to arrive in Bagan at 5AM. I can't really figure out the logic behind this, because I am sure my pre-arranged room in the May Kha Lar guesthouse is either not ready or if it is, I will have to pay an extra fee for it. Arrival is even earlier then expected. At 4.30AM I stumble out of the bus and into a horse-carriage that brings me to the guesthouse. Yes, the room is not ready, but hey … at least somebody is awake to tell me!
As I am up anyways, I take the chance to see the sunrise from the top of one of the many stupas. I rent out a bike and follow two Chinese girls who are on their way to the temples. It is a 4km ride on the shabbiest bike I have ever been on and it is a real workout, considering I only had a few hours of sleep. When we finally arrive at the pagoda, many (!) people are lined up with cameras on tripods to capture the sun rising over a field of stupas/pagodas/temples. It really is something I have never seen before. Even though it is not the perfect sunset and hardly any hot-air balloons are rising…. I feel lucky to see this!
The area of Bagan is around 104sqm large and consists of three villages: Old Bagan, New Bagan and Nyaung-U. Its sights date back to the 11th century or earlier when Burma was still a kingdom. Back in the days, when Bagan was the capital, the reigning kings built more then 10.000 temples, monasteries and pagodas. Today, around 2200 are still standing and connected by sandy paths. Some buildings are restored, some are decaying, others are ruins. The government built a palace and a watchtower in recent years, which are disturbing the site a little as they don't match. Apart from that, it is simply beautiful. Visitors come from all over the world, amongst them many monks and tourists from within Myanmar. Depending on the time of day, Bagan has a different atmosphere, yet is always breathtaking.
You can spend days just roaming around the different sites, by horse cart, bike or on foot, even tour buses make their way through the small paths. The two days I spend here, I choose a bike to go around the sites, which is pure fun! Days are hot and sunny, the early mornings and nights are cold. Still, I feel like being in a wonderfully different world!
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