The hot plains of thousands of dotted temples, Bagan, Myanmar (12.-15.9.08)

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The modern airplane of Air Bagan landed softly in the former ancient capital of Bagan. We were astonished by the good service at board, but learnt later that the private run airline was owned by one of the ruling general sons and got grounded few month ago. There had been many incidents of planes near crash landing or missing the runway ends due to inexperienced pilots. Luckily we did not know about this . Bagan was refreshing silent with wide roads lined by overhanging trees making it perfect for a cycle ride. We found a nice guesthouse with terrace and ventured out on bicycles to discover the world of more than 4000 pagodas and stupas dotted on the more than 40 sqkm plain. Bagan is known not only for pagodas, but also for its extremely hot climate that can peak at more than 40 C temperature. We only had to manage around 35 C and adapted the strategy of riding bicycles on the morning and being back at the guesthouse in the afternoon, before looking for a nice quiet temple for the sunset. The temples are very different and many have small hidden staircases that lead to upper viewing platforms with another outside staircase. It is fun to stop, check the Buddha statues inside the stupa and try to find the hidden way up. The views are magnificent and stupas of all sizes and shapes can be seen on the horizon. Some of the main ones are extremely large with towers of almost 100m height.

We started late one morning and were still at noon time on the road due to a tire puncture, when a restaurant owner told us about the nearby village festival. We joined and found us soon surrounded by thousands of people that watched a procession of the nats to the village temple. Nats are spirits and remains of the animism before Buddhism arrived in Myanmar. One clever king had the idea to in cooperate them into the Buddhist system and made them a kind of minor to the Buddha. This avoided a lot of conflict and Buddhism prospered. We watched papmachees of angry nats carried by two young men through the crowd with wild dances.

The evenings were very quiet since most guesthouses did not have guests or best only few rooms booked. We realized that it made a big difference for the restaurant owners if we ate at their place or not. The dinner would certainly finance the family for few days. Only here in Bagan at the main tourist destination, we realized how much tourism had collapsed. Places that I experienced 6 years ago busy with 20-30 people see now only 1-3 guests a day - often none at all. One Indian complained that the government is now busy pouring a lot of money in its new capital in the middle of nowhere and not taking care about Myanmar people at all. Many people live now by only 1-2 US$ a day. So a meal at a restaurant for 10 US$ is a lot of money!

We left Bagan on a morning bus to Mandalay with the mixed feeling of a very beautiful area that can easily compete with the temples of Angkor Wat and at the same time of people craving for tourists to support their life.

Practicalities:
Flight Yangon-Bagan 80-90 US$
Guesthouse 10-18 US$
Entrance Fee Bagan 10 US$

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