Myanmar - Bagan

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Suzanne here...

Most people get the night bus from Inle to Bagan, and on reflection perhaps we should have done too. But we'd already booked and paid for the Bagan hotel and didn't want to waste a night. Plus we fancied seeing the scenery. There was a morning option, a mini bus, leaving at 7am, so we booked it. In fact, as this Asia, it didn't pick us up until 7.30am, collected a few others, then parked up at their office around the corner from our hotel for no apparent reason for 20 minutes. We departed at about 8.20am, with me cursing the loss of the extra hour I could have had in bed (I really am not a morning person).

The journey was bearable. A mini bus is never going to be as comfortable as a coach, in fact after a while it was decidedly uncomfortable. I'd picked up a cold so was feeling ill and sorry for myself. The two Spanish women with us were fine, but the four Russians were annoying as hell. At every stop they got out to smoke and held us up by ten minutes. It was a nine hour journey and I was feeling ill and grumpy. Still, some stunning scenery and we were dropped off at our hotel door at 5pm. Thankfully the first to be dropped off too. A bit better than being abandoned at the out of town bus station in the middle of the night. Cheaper than the coach too at 12,000 kyat. It's worth noting that you have to buy a tourist pass for Bagan at 25,000 kyat each on the way into town. Luckily we knew this so were prepared when the driver pulled up at the booth. Apparently not much of it goes towards actually conserving the area which is vexing.

I'd looked at loads of hotels in Bagan and the majority were overpriced and didn't look great. So in the end I compromised with the location, booking one a bit out of the town. It turned out to be a good decision. The Sky View Hotel was clean and modern with a good sized room and *gasp* an actual bath. No flooding the bathroom when you shower! At £26 a night it was pretty good value, and they hire ebikes so the distance wasn't a huge deal.

We didn't fancy trying ebikes for the first time in the dark so elected to walk the 30 minutes into town for dinner. Unfortunately I was still suffering with my cold and very grumpy. Poor David. We chose a highly rated Indian resturant called Wonderful Tasty. It was full so we hung around outside. We were just considering giving up when an English couple said they were nearly finished, and that the food was worth the wait. They moved on and we gratefully nabbed the table. Unfortunately we had to disagree with all the rave reviews. The food was poor. Not inedible, but too sour and salty. A disapointment.

The next day started slowly as we were still tired. The hotel breakfast wasn't great, but at least the fresh omelets were nice. It was noon by the time we got ebikes and headed out. The ebikes, basically electric mopeds, were easy to use and good fun. We had a great afternoon whizzing around the temples. Bagan is amazing. Thousands of temples and pagodas. You couldn't possibly see them all so we just stopped at those that took our fancy.

There was one sour note when I very stupidly got off my ebike, forgot to turn it off, and accidently reved it up. Cue bike and myself going flying. I felt like a total idiot - a stupid westerner that shouldn't be allowed near a bike. I brushed it off as I was embarrassed, but actually I'd hurt myself. Bruised ribs that would cause me quite a bit of pain. Five days later as about to publish this it still hurts to cough, move quickly or breath too deeply. Oh well, my own fault. It was still a great afternoon.

On the way back we stopped at Queen restaurant. Much better than the day before. At the end of the meal we were given the traditional tamarind flakes. I'd heard these were addictive but as I don't have much of a sweet tooth I didn't think this would apply to me. I was wrong. From the first mouthful I was wondering where I could get my next fix! On the way back we picked up some beer and whiskey at a little shop at nearly half the price of our hotel, in fact the cheapest beer we've found in Myanmar (the shop is on restaurant row next to Bagan Zay). We had a fridge in our room, always a bonus.

Everyone raves about sunrise and sunset in Bagan. We'd been told that the sunrise was superior and that we absolutely had to see it. The thought of getting up at 4.30am filled me with absolute horror frankly. Still, we prised ourselves out of bed, hired ebikes again, and tootled off to one of the smaller and quieter temples. Over about an hour the sky changed colour and the sun appeared. There were temples as far as the eye could see and the famous Bagan hot air balloons added to the ambiance. It was lovely. But given that there are other people around you all trying for that perfect photo, it's not the tranquil atmospheric experience it might once have been.

I must admit I didn't enjoy the ebikes as much that day. It wasn't much fun navigating in the dark. After the sunrise we tried to explore the lesser roads which were basically dirt tracks. Full of pot holes, roots, stones and deep sand that make you skid like mad. My ribs hurt with every bump. I even came off the bike at one point into a ditch (thankfully nobody around this time) like a fool and added to my collection of bruises. Having learnt to ride a motorbike at 17, this is rather mortifying. Still, this is supposed to be an honest blog!

Another thing (grump alert) we were getting a bit fed up of having to take our shoes off. I wouldn't dream of disrespecting the local people, and would never want to upset anyone. I know it's no it's no big deal. But I have little time for (any) religion and it's arbitrary rules. It's one thing taking off your shoes to go inside a nice clean indoor temple. Just like taking off your shoes to go into someones home. But to walk around a dirty outdoor space? How is that showing respect? Would Buddha really give a damn? I'd have thought he'd be more upset by the people touting tat, spitting, dropping cigarette butts and talking loudly on their phones myself. It's not nice to have filthy feet all day. Still, I know it's a small thing so I'll stop moaning! Oh ok, just one more moan... to the British woman who felt the need to tell the local (and clearly far from wealthy) girl that her lipstick was French and 'very expensive'... f**k you!!

As I've said, Bagan is amazing and it was good to see some more of it. But we were tired after the early start and I was getting fed up with my bike. So after an early lunch at the 'hilariously' named Weather Spoons (ok I suppose, but massively overated by travellers who seem to think it's fantastic) we headed back. The afternoon was spent at the hotel napping (me) having a bath (David) and reading. David also managed to book onward travel to Mandalay online. The internet really has revolutionised travel.

In the evening we decided against the ebikes and walked into town again. We had dinner at Bibo. As we arrived with ten minutes of happy hour remaining, so quickly ordered a cheeky lime daiquiri each. The food was very nice. But it was the usual randomess that is the norm in Asia and a mystery to us Brits. The food arrived before the drinks. One rice arrived but not the other. The bill was handed over with the acknowledgment that it was wrong before we'd even looked at it. The sink may have been cleaned some time in the past year, maybe not. But as I say, this is all the norm here and we still enjoyed the evening very much. We ended it with beer, whiskey and cards in our room. We were certainly not planning another early start the next day.

It was our final day in Bagan and we decided another day of ebikes and temples was unecessary. We made it to breakfast where to our suprise we saw Johannes, half of the German couple who had been staying at our hotel in Kalaw. Funny that they had chosen another hotel the same as us. We then had a lazy morning in the room blogging, reading and just relaxing. The big difference of 'traveling' rather than a holiday is that you don't have to squeeze as much sightseeeing as possible into every day.

Just before noon we got moving, taking the back roads to Nyaung U. First stop was for a sandwich and coffee at Friends Cafe, the first decent cup of coffee we've had in Myanmar. We had two. We then wandered around the town and market, David attracting the usual good-natured attention. Burmese people really are warm, friendly and curious about visitors.

I was determined to have a dry day, despite David's hints, so we passed a number of tempting beer stops. We ended up at the Shwe Zi Gon Pagoda. A bit different from the other old Bagan pagodas and more of an everyday place of worship. It was very beautiful and peaceful and we lingered quite a while. There were also a couple of lovely old pagoda's nearby that would be remarkable anywhere else but are commonplace here.

It was a bit early for dinner but we couldn't be bothered to walk back to the hotel and out again for dinner so we went to HTI Bar and Restaurant. A bit western admitedly, but nice. In a moment of weakness David talked me into a beer. So much for being dry. It's just every day feels like a holiday and it is hard to resist. We ended up having three bottles of Dagon between us. Now, here is a prime example of the honesty of the Burmese people. They were promotional bottles with various amounts of kyat to be won in the lid. They could easily have brought us the opened bottles, we'd never have known. Instead he opened them at the table and handed us the lid. We won 800 kyat from the three. Only pence really, but still satisfying. Our dinner was ok, if not fantastic (a common theme in Myanmar). It was now happy hour and, again, David browbeat me into more booze, this time in the shape of a whiskey sour. Naughty David. Even worse the two-four-one angle got mistranslated and we ended up with two each. Oh well, they were extremely tasty. We were back at the hotel by 7pm but the room was comfy and we felt no compulsion to go out again. We had to avoid drinking and get an early night as the taxi to the jetty was booked for 4.45am the following morning (*shudder*).

Bagan has been great. If I've seemed slightly moany, blame my cold and sore ribs! It's a place that I'd highly recommend and an absolute must-see in Myanmar. People do say that you should take however long you are planning to stay and double it. Well that might be true if you want to visit hundreds of temples. But I'd say that two or three days is enough to see the best, and some of the smaller ones, and leave feeling interested and engaged rather than never wanting to see another temple. Despite it being full of tourists people have been warm and friendly too. Overall a real highlight.

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Photos

Bagan Day 1
Huh. I don't actually want to walk barefoot on your stinking patch of wasteland thank you very much.

Comments

[Chee Song]

Question about Ebikes
Hi Suzanne, How much does it cost to rent the ebike? Is it difficult to handle the Ebike?

[SuzanneandDavid]

Ebikes
Hi Chee, Cannot remember the cost but it was quite cheap and it was through the hotel. Easy enough to handle, beware the sand though, it makes the bikes skid. Just take your time and you'll br fine.