Before travelling to Myanmar, the only place I wanted to see was Bagan. So the hype was high for this place. I knew I was going to wake up every morning and go on top of a temple way before sunrise to try to take a classic Bagan picture, the one with the hot air balloon over the temples and pagodas.

After a long night bus ride from Yangon, I finally arrived at 5 am in Bagan. As I quickly realised, that I was pretty far from my hostel and wouldn’t be able to do it on foot. Therefore, the only option was to take a taxi which I should have predicted when I got down of the bus and 10 people tried to catch my attention.

On the way to the hostel, the driver casually asked me if I wanted to see the sunrise from what he called “THE BEST” temple. Before dropping the bad news: adding 5000MMK to the ride even tho it was on the way. I accepted it after haggling a bit and we stopped at Shwesandaw Pagoda – probably the most crowded pagoda for the sunset.

Some photographers having a smoke while waiting for the sunrise. Please do not smoke on the pagodas

As we arrived fairly early, I managed to get a place on the steep stairs and waited patiently for the sunrise. No tripod, no place for it, but I wasn’t sure if I truly needed one while the sun would be out and the hot air balloon high in the sky. The view was more spectacular than what I had imagined – The hot air balloons were flying in line and the pagodas started appearing. That was it. Done. I travelled all the way to Bagan and after less than 2 hours there, I had experienced what I was there for. So what was I going to do for the next 3 days?

Exploration

Little didn’t know we were going to have so much freedom. Despite on the biggest pagodas, there is no control. We could drive everywhere with no restriction and go into any pagodas. Driving around and trying to find a pagoda for the next sunrise or next sunset was actually the best part of this trip. Although every time I thought I had found a unique place, I would always end up with at least 3 other people. A good way to know if the temple is popular with the tourists: how many vendors or children are at the temple. More vendors/ children = more tourists.

After 2 days exploring, I finally found 2 temples I really liked, both for sunrise and sunset. On one of them was only one vendor, selling his sand painting. The unique aspect of this temple was its location, the hot air balloons were sometimes flying over us which gave another perspective on them. As I saw them from the classic point of view the first day, I tried to find other angles. Usually, after watching the sunrise and the balloons flying, I was visiting either the big pagodas before most of the tourists woke up or explored and tried to find small pagodas for the next sunrise/sunset. Quick little tip: wear flip-flops. As you are supposed to take off your shoes before getting into any pagodas, it would be more convenient and faster.

The Silent Killer

You can rent a bicycle to explore Bagan but I would recommend getting an E-Bike (electric scooter). It would be faster to go around and it is really easy to drive. They come fully charge and I usually used 1/4 of the battery. If you are used to driving a normal scooter, it may be a bit weird to drive this silent vehicle.

Overall, Bagan was one of my favorite places I visited in SE Asia. I would highly recommend it before it becomes the new Angkor Wat. Rent an E-Bike and explore Bagan by yourself. Actually, there isn’t any other way. Well, you can go on a hot air balloon but it would cost you 100x more and last only 45 minutes. So wake up early, take your E-Bike and enjoy the sunrise.