BAGAN, MYANMAR
2016-02-26, 23:30, THORIN
BUDGET, STAY: PANN CHERRY GUESTHOUSE
Bagan is a town and national monument area in central Myanmar, about 6 hours south of Mandalay. It has history coming out the wazoo, but basically from the 9th-13th century it was super important, and from the 11th-13th century the powers that be decided to build as many pagodas as humanly possible. Bagan was on the trade route between China and India, and one the edge of the Ayerwaddi River, so was very prosperous. In fact the city hit 200,000 inhabitants at that time, which is a number it hasn't seen since! It took those arseholes the Mongols to destroy the power of the Bagan Kingdom and it never quite recovered.
Anyway, the main attraction of Bagan is the array of 2200+ pagodas that dot the area. Some have been repaired or completely rebuilt by the Myanmar government (using poor practices according to UNESCO who won't award them heritage status), especially after the big earthquake in the 70s. However, most of the pagodas have been left in their original state. The big ones, which draw the most tourists, are the ones that government money has gone too. For the most part you can't tell, apart from a few walls that have been whitewashed, and two buildings that look very recently refurbished. Regardless, there is certainly an 'ancient' air around the place, making it feel more-or-less authentically a millenia old.
We arrived with the night bus from Yangon -- a 7pm-5am jobbie. Why these buses can't leave at 10ish and get into Bagan at a sensible hour is beyond me, but nevermind. The bus stops every few hours, but only the first stop are you forced to get off. The bus drivers (yes, about 4 people take turns!) sing Burmese pop songs for the majority, but we were knackered and knocked out for most of it. Arriving in Bagan there is literally a crowd of taxi drivers surrounding the bus door, touting everyone getting off. We had initially planned to walk to Bagan (about 8km) but the streets are not lit in anyway, so we decided to just bite the bullet and take the taxi. Touts offer ridiculous prices (why not?), but we haggled one bloke down from 12,000 kyat to 8,000 kyat. Obviously it is hard to pay for each individual pagoda, so the Myanmar government has entry checkpoints around the perimeter of the town. Entry fee has rather cheekily been increased to 20 USD (used to be 10 USD) which apparently goes straight into the government's coffers and bypasses the locals or the site.
We had a couple of hotels in mind, as our first choice has no website, and when you call on the phone they only speak Burmese. Luckily, we arrived there at ~6am (Pann Cherry Guest House) and they had a double bed available immediately, charging only for one night. We snapped it up (for 7 USD) and immediately rented bicycles to go and see the sunrise. We made it to a pagoda that has stair to the top section, and sat with a handful of other travellers watching the sun rise over the thousands of pagodas. It is a remarkable sight, particularly when all you can see over the horizon are trees and pagodas.
According to Myanmar buddhist custom, one should cover the knees and shoulders when walking into and around a pagoda, as well as walk barefoot. We dressed accordingly in an attempt to be as inoffensive as possible (as inoffensive as gawking toursits can be).
The next 3-4 hours we spent cycling around the main pagoda areas, going inside them, walking around them, etc. We went into one giant temple (Hitmonlo) where we met this girl who told us we could climb to the top of an old monastery to get a good view of the sunrise. The sun had already risen (but i didn't like to say anything) but she ran off and got a key to a gate from someone, and led us to a two-storey building with an entrance one metre high and teeming with mosquitoes. However, we climbed up a pitch black stone staircase to the top and from there had a terrific view of hot air balloons flying across the horizon. Hot air balloon rides in the morning are one of the 'must-dos' of Bagan according to tourist sites and the Myanmar government, but they have only been running for 10 years (hardly traditional!) and cost 350USD. To put that in perspective, we did our whole trip <300USD! Anyway, it was cool to see them, especially as the yapparently don't fly everyday (as we found out later), so we took a few pictures to prove it!
We went back to the hotel around 10:30 and slept for an hour and a half before going into Nyaung U for some lunch. We walked around the local market for a while, then ate at a shophouse on the side of the road. In true Myanmar style, they have no English menu (or menu of any kind) and the owner looked at us and said 'chicken or pork?'. After sitting down they brought about 10 dishes - two meat dishes (chicken and pork) and the rest are different veg dishes and soups. It was all superb, although we were a little hesitant to see the final figure -- this kind of meal in a restaurant with an English menu could be >10,000 kyat. Anyway, we ask for the final price and they told us 3000 kyat, which is about US$2.4. Super reasonable for some of the best food we had in Myanmar!
In the afternoon we decided to cycle around the archaeological area in a big loop, seeing all the smaller pagodas in the south and travelling through new Bagan. When Began was rebuilt in the late 90s, the entire population of Old Bagan were relocated to new Bagan, which seems rude. The town is now the middle-class resort area for those who can't afford the super high end resorts in Bagan itself, but who want more than cheap hotels for backpackers in Nyaung U. The sun was incredibly hot and we laboriously cycled around on rubbish bikes we had rented early in the morning. My chain kept jumping off which was incredibly irritating, and I had to keep getting oil all over my hands fixing it back on.
The terrain is not too bad when you are on the tarmac-ed roads, but when you off road down the dust trails to the pagodas you often get waylayed in sand which is hilariously deep and kept forcing us to semi-walk our bicycles by propelling our legs until the surface was hard enough to cycle like regular humans. We saw other people on scooters and stuff stopping in the deep sand and slowly toppling over, which made us feel a bit better. We ended the cycle going to a large pagoda to watch the sunset. A large group of tourists from southern China were there and apparently had never seen other humans before, as after they finished taking 15mins of pictures within their group they started taking photos with everybody! Regardless of race, gender, or age, they want a photo with everyone!
We cycled back to the hotel trying to beat the failing light, as the streets are either poorly lit or just not lit at all. Dinner was a selection of Burmese salads at a local shophouse (which was divine) and then we walked around Nyaung U before turning in for the night.
The next day we had debated about going to some cliff temple about 20km away, but we missed the cheaper shared taxi from the hotel (still 10,000kyat+) and were being forced to pay ~40,000 kyat if we wanted a taxi. Which is insane. So instead we went to the local pagoda in Nyaung U, which itself is pretty cool. After pottering around there for a bit we googled some of the bigger pagodas we may have missed, and went out to see them, as well as go to a small pagoda on the coast called Bupaya, which is one of the oldest. The river is humungous, and the coastline is remarkable. We stopped there for some food at a food stall where we had no idea what anything was as no-one spoke English, so we just pointed at what looked good and had that!
Burmese food is quite unique in the flavours compared to the rest of SE Asia. It is not as sour as Thai food, but tends to be quite salty - possibly due to lack of storage accessibility (like fridges, etc). I found the soup and noodles dishes the tastiest. Also, the Burmese tea (which is similar to teh tarik) is delicious and ubiquitous. The amount of tea we downed is embarassing. Also, all restaurants and shophouses have unlimited green tea, which was a welcome refreshment! It's funny when these hot countries have hot soups and drinks, but it makes sense from a hygiene level - if the water has to be boiled because it is not potable, then those kinds of foods are easy to make and sanitary.
We made our way back to Nyaung U around 5ish to catch some dinner and get a free bus ride to the bus station, organised by the shuttle. We found some street stall operated outside the owner's living area (with everyone she had ever met inside) and had some incredible noodles for like 500 kyat each. We then went to another place and had more Burmese salads, before jumping onto the bus (which is like the Manila jeepney's but less robust) that took us to the bus station, preparing for another overnight bus journey back to Yangon!