The Temples of Bagan.
The bus from Mandalay to Bagan was very, very uncomfortable to say the least. An old 32 seater bus with about 50 people inside and who knows how many riding on the roof, it took 8 hours on a bumpy road to reach our destination. Whilst not as bad as many of the buses to rode in India, the fact that our hotel lied to us and assured us it was an air conditioned express bus (and overcharged us) made it much worse. On the bus we were lucky enough to meet two guys from Malaysia. One was a professional basketball player, playing point guard for the national team, and the other had traveled extensively, including cycling through China, Tibet, Nepal and India. We spent a few days cycling around the temples of Bagan with them. As for the temples themselves, to put it simply, there are a lot (4000 in fact). Individually, they are less impressive than some of the ruins you come across in other parts of Asia, but to see them spread out over the dusty plain from a higher view point is quite spectacular. There is a very expensive hot air balloon ride available over the temples of Bagan and I have no doubt it would be the best way of seeing them. However at $260 per person it was hugely out of our budget! The temples are quite well maintained however the roads are not, and most of them lie on what are basically shallow tracks in the sand which makes cycling more of a walking exercise. The hot, dusty, exhausting hours spent visiting the temples were definitely made much easier with the presence of our two new friends, who were both extremely funny. We discovered that Michael, the basketball player, had 2 amazing talents (other than his basketball skills). One was to be able to break the ice with literally anyone and get them laughing within minutes (even people who couldn’t speak English!) and second was to get stuff for free. I don’t think I have met anyone who has gotten so much stuff just by asking. With every purchase, even for lunch, he would ask for something like more food or bottles of water or little knick knacks and he would get them. All of these odds and ends would then be handed out to local kids or adults we met around the place. Thanks to him we got some great opportunities to interact with the people of Myanmar that we might not have had otherwise. We had planned to spend around 4 days in Bagan, but after 2 days of temples we felt it was enough and decided to follow Michael and Wayne to Inle Lake a little earlier.
One thing that surprised me about Bagan was the number of hawkers selling the usual wood carvings, paintings and postcards. There were more hawkers in than in Angkor Wat, even though far fewer tourists visit. Furthermore a lot of these hawkers are children. At first we were disapproving of the fact that these children were probably out here on the demands of their parents selling postcards for a dollar rather than in school. However we discovered that they did go to school and came out to sell stuff after school or on their days off. When we visited the local school in Nyang U we chanced upon a few of the children we had befriended at one of the temples (while they were trying to sell us postcards). They explained they studied properly and hawking at the temples was only done in their free time to make money (of course) and to practice their language skills. We were hugely impressed at how hard working these young children were to study so diligently at school and then work afterwards. We handed out all the pens we could muster up and said a slightly sad goodbye.
Bagan is one of the must-see places in Myanmar and is often compared to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. If you do compare them, Angkor Wat will probably win out since it is much more atmospheric and each temple is much more impressive. I’m not sure though, if this is a fair comparison since each should be appreciated in its own way. The temples of Angkor are better seen close-up, while the temples of Bagan are better seen from afar.
From here we have a 12 hour local bus ride along one of the worst roads in Myanmar. The bus leaves at 3:30AM so it most certainly will not be the most enjoyable of experiences. The hardest part of budget travel in Myanmar is definitely the many long, uncomfortable bus rides that are involved.
Ben.