Myanmar - Day 2: Bagan (7 Jun 2016)

The bus driver was really fast. We arrived in Bagan at 5am and the moment the bus stopped at the terminal, we could hear a lot of commotion below. Apparently, those are the locals trying to snatch customers based on their modes of transport. The transportation available are: horse cart, motorbike, rickshaw, taxi and mini van. So it depends on your group size and budget, they would offer you accordingly. I would recommend that you make some friends on board the bus and if you are staying nearby, share the transport (as the locals would charge differently based on the group size).

We were stuck among 3 vendors: rickshaw, horse cart and taxi. It took us a while (say 10 mins) before deciding and we could see the impatience in them. So in the end, we took the horse cart at 7,000 kyat (S$7.78)! The coachman (is that what he's called? Okay let's just call him driver) took over our bags and left it at the front of the cart next to his seat, and ensured that we got on the cart safely before setting off.

    

So while he was riding, A and I were facing the opposite direction. We had really good view simply because there was hardly any vehicles on the road, and we could see the sky gradually brightening. It was only 5.15am local Bagan time.

The driver offered us an option to watch the sunrise before heading to our accommodation. But we turned him down because we thought we could watch it the next day. And so, we headed straight to Royal Bagan Hotel (which is about 30-40 mins ride away). Somewhere midway, we were stopped at a kiosk and were told to pay 25,000 kyat each for the Temple Conservation Fees and they issued us a card each. There is no hotel lobby per se but the exterior does look kinda "royal". The hotel staffs greeted us with smiles and much energy, and took over our bags to the reception area. Settled our registration, but our room was not ready yet. We then asked for rental services of the e-bikes and bicycles. A tried the e-bike and didn't feel comfident because her feet couldn't reach the ground. 😁 So we agreed to just go for the traditional mode of transport, i.e. bicycles (not walking of course!). They charged us 3,000 kyat (S$3.33) per bicycle per day, which is really cheap for us!

Looks pretty grand hur.

   

After I happily changed out of my jeans, and we were ready to hop on our bicycles for the morning adventure, the hotel staff stopped me. Because I wasn't in the appropriate attire to enter the pagodas. (We totally forgot about it! So sadly, I had to change back into jeans...)

At 6.45am local time, we were already on the way for adventures! Alright, we didn't have much choice cos otherwise there was nothing else for us to do. So we didn't really have a plan but to just cycle around and see the smaller pagodas. We headed towards Shwezigon Pagoda and the first eye-catching pagoda we saw was She Myet Hna. It's really beautiful since it was well preserved and restored. Those whom have read about Bagan and their many abandoned pagodas/temples would have known by now that the locals didn't really bother about the origin of each. What's important to them was that they had a place to worship. Not many would make the effort to dig the history.

  

Our first stop: She Myet Hna.

We then headed towards Shwezigon. While making a turn to Shwezigon, you would notice a big patch of land with many small and abandoned pagodas. We left our bicycles under the tree and went to take a look, plus snap some pictures.

 

  

A good 10 minutes before we headed in to Shwezigon. The corridor leading to the the main entrance had small stalls selling souvenirs and merchandises. That's their way of making a living. One observation was, they were not pushy (as yet). 

Oh, before entering the temple, we had to remove our shoes/slippers. Apart from the dust, the area was quite clean. The structures were pretty with the gold platings and all. Most importantly it was quiet, partly because it's supposed to be a sacred place. But the main reason was probably cos Bagan is still a hidden gem where there are not many tourists.

   

We had a little episode in one of the pavilions in Shwezigon. So while exploring around, we got led into the pavilion by a local lady. With her very limited words, she gestured to us and said "here", "flowers", "pray". She kind of insisted that we used her flowers to pray to the gods. But we just wanted to look around, with no intention of praying of any sorts. So we kindly smiled back at her and gestured "no" and walked away. She caught up with us a little and still tried to push her luck. We basically ignored her and walked out of the pavilion. Both A and I obviously heard her mumbling unhappily and staring back at us. She probably was cursing at us (BUT... was she supposed to curse at us in such a sacred place?) Oh wells....

There is a reclining budhha in Shwezigon too. But there seems to be many of the reclining buddhas in the many pagodas/temples in Myanmar. I still don't know which is the original one.

We didn't want to go any further than Shwezigon and decided to head back to our hotel. On the way back, we passed by a few other abandoned pagodas (I can't name them because some are not even on the map). Oh one of them is Gu Byauk Nge (3rd photo below).

  

 

We were tired and sticky (because we haven't showered for over 24 hours!) 😁 We thought we could check in by the time we were back at 9am, but were told that the room was still not ready. So in the end, we just rested at the small reception area until 11am when we started feeling hungry. The Restaurant Row was not too far away from us (5 minutes or less on bicycle). We wanted to try Black Bamboo but it was not closed during the period that we were there. :( Our alternative was Weather Spoons. They are known for their burgers, BUT... we didn't order that! Apparently, many backpackers like us, often patronise this restaurant. I thought Phad Thai would be the safest but it turned out to be not what I expected! I mean... it's still edible but I was just disappointed because it's a far cry from the Phad Thai that I know. I can't remember what A ordered but both of our food, together with 2 drinks were ony 8,200 kyat (S$9.11).

This looks just like sin chow bee hoon or something lur! *hmph!*

After taking a slow lunch, we could finally check in to our room! The utmost priority we had was.. SHOWER and SLEEP! We took a 3-hour nap before heading out for the sunset. Because Bagan is known for sunrise and sunset views at the top of popular pagodas, the hotels even shared the sunrise and sunset timings with the guests and recommended the ideal spots.

  

We were told that Bulethi is a good spot for sunrise and sunset views. So we cycled our way to Bulethi. To get to the top of pagoda which guarantees a view, you will have to climb the steps up. It looks steep and for us, going up is not really a problem because we are petite hence our feet can fit into the steps nicely. We arrived at 5.15pm and stayed all the way till 6.35pm. Not that the sunset was so spectacular that we didn't want to leave, but we were waiting for the clouds to clear so we could see the sunset! But it didn't. We left Bulethi feeling disappointed and determined to come for sunrise the next morning. (Partly because we overheard someone saying that the sunrise that morning was beautiful!)

  

 

 

There were no streetlights on Bagan's roads, neither were there traffic lights. So as the sun set behind the clouds, we had to hurriedly cycle to Restaurant Row for dinner, using A's torchlight. Dinner was at La Pizza. The chicken mushroom was surprisingly good! I must say that it wasn't because we were hungry and had to wait 30 over minutes for the pizza. They were generous with the ingredients and it was really good. You wouldn't have expected to eat this standard in Bagan. With drinks, it only cost us 12,400 kyat (S$13.78)! They even provided us with a takeaway box for the leftovers.

And because it was really dark by the time we were done with dinner (almost 8pm local time), we cycled back pretty fast. Paid for another day of bicycle rental for the next day and went back to our room for rest.

Royal Bagan Hotel

Address: No. 1441 , Anawya Htar Road, Nyaung-U, Bagan, Myanmar

Getting Here: Via Taxi
Type of Room: Superior Room

[Pictures taken using Samsung Galaxy S5 and Oppo]

More on Myanmar:
Day 1: Yangon (6 Jun 2016)
Day 3: Bagan (8 Jun 2016)
Day 4: Yangon (9 Jun 2016)
Day 5: Yangon (10 Jun 2016)