BAGAN - TEMPLES IN THE DESERT
Bagan is basically 3 sections – Old Bagan, New Bagan (where the old one was moved to and all the people relocated, when the guy in charge realized how many tourist dollars could be made here) and Nyaung U. We stayed in Nyaung U for one reason and my mates will probably have guessed already – it’s cheaper!
After checking in, we quickly grabber a scooter – an electric one! That is the most dangerous thing they will let us tourists get on around here, as with a lot of Myanmar, we foreigners are not permitted to ride motorbikes here also.
The E-Bike did a terror-inducing top speed of 20 kmh, but I did get the beast up to 23 kmh at one point, on a slight downhill obviously. Not my normal style but better than a bicycle and it allowed us to make our way around with relative ease, as long as you weren’t in a hurry.
We spent the first afternoon exploring some of the 2000 plus temples, pagodas and stupas in the area, an absolutely awesome experience. Most of the day we were the only ones around, though the major temples get huge numbers of tourist’s, and almost equal numbers of stalls trying to sell you crap, though some of the photography for sale was just amazing.
You simply ride around looking at all the temples in the desert basically, or through villages, crops and barren scrubland, though there are still quite a few to see in the towns and along the main roads also. You could climb around in the temples and often make your way to the top, giving you a good feel for the structure plus incredible 360 degree views from the top, ancient relics as far as the eye could see, as well as the Ayeyarwady (or Irrawaddy) River and the mountain ranges looming over it all.
After trying to decide all day which would be our sunset viewing temple, we ended up on a mad dash late in the afternoon, miles from where we had intended, but you can’t help but to just keep riding, and finally found a spot with only 4 other tourists. I have the gps point for this one and will add it later, the popular viewing temples were just insanely crowded.
Great sunsets are the best way to round out a great day, Noi always asks me ‘Farang no have sunset at home??’!! Lol! Everywhere we go, tourists are always scrambling amongst each other to view the sun going down, and although she loves sunsets also, it seems a strange concept to her that we farang’s are so fascinated with them and would fly around the world to look at one!
The E-Bike rents out at around $8-10 a day, but only has battery power for 6 hours, so I rented one for 2 half days at $5 and $4 and got about 10 hours worth of sight-seeing in for that price, plus just cruising around was great, just wish I had a real bike to do it on.
We got our E-Bike just across the street from Pyinsa Rupa.
Dammit woman - never take pictures of an Aussie guy actually reading a map!
Super cool E-Bike...
Around Bagan Temples