Bagan, Myanmar (Burma) is the most incredible place I have ever visited. As a family, we would agree that we had a wonderful time in Bagan. The children will tell you that they got templed and pagoda’d out! There are thousands of brick-red points poking above the trees in every direction. Every few feet from the ground view you will see large and small red brick pagodas and temples. It is an incredible sight and worth every effort to get there. Our advice: bring the kids to Bagan!
Hotel
We stayed at Mya Thida Hotel and while it wasn’t completely horrible, I don’t reccommend staying there unless you are a backpacker used to very basic accommodations. It worked out fine for us because we were out the entire day both days we were there and only needed a place to sleep. However, the pillows were hard as rocks and so tall we got kinks in our neck while sleeping. Our shower had a problem with water coming out the hose instead of the shower head. We instead had to squat beneath the faucet to get enough water to wash with. The hotel comes with breakfast of egg over rice and beans and gigantic bananas. They also serve coffee. For a basic and inexpensive place to stay, this will work well. If you want something a bit more comfortable, I’d look elsewhere.
What You Will See
The temples here are very different from Chiang Mai and Cambodia temples in many ways. These are built mostly out of red brick, just a couple are made from stone. Some of the brick temples are built without the use of mortar, if you can imagine that. I don’t quite know how they are standing after hundreds of years and several earthquakes. Where Chiang Mai temples are flashy and decorated with shiny materials and gems and bright-colored paint- these are all brick-red and just in different shapes. Some are tiny, some are large, and some are medium size. Each of them have Buddhas inside where families still go to worship. Each temple or pagoda is taken care of by the family that built it or another family that took over the responsibility. Like temples in Cambodia, you will see some with a lot of destruction and many undergoing renovation. This renovation is done by the families who own the temple or groups within Myanmar. We did not see any of the temples being renovated by a group as you see in Cambodia.
Touring Bagan By Taxi
For our first day of touring through Bagan we hired a taxi to take us around. It cost $30 for the whole day. We used Backpacker Lee’s list of must see temples and got through about fifteen of them. We recommend going down his list because you will see the most fascinating temples out there. I will share with you another way to see the temples next that will allow you to see some off the beaten path. The temples on the list are going to have the tourist buses and larger amounts of people. Thought the crowds for most of them are not going to be anywhere near the Chiang Mai and Angkor Wat amount of people at this point (2016). You will have to look at hundreds of sand paintings, jade elephants, postcards, and Buddha heads while the shop owners follow you through the temples to get you to there shop after you have a look. It is a way of life for them, understandably, but as a tourist who is not interested in souvenirs it can be really hard to shake them.
We watched the most beautiful sunset on one of the tallest temples, () with hundreds of other people. If you are intent on seeing the sunset from this temple, you will needs to stake your place early. This is where tour buses take their participants, taxi drivers take their clients, and people ride their bikes to for a most incredible view. We endured the crowds, the very steep stair cases, and elbowing Chinese to catch a glimpse of the valley while the sun made its way down. It was worth it for one night. It is a beautiful area of the country and does not disappoint. Just be calm, take it easy, and if you are scared about the steep stairs, just wait for the crowds to mostly be done making their way down before you head down. Having small kids we enjoyed hanging around the temple until the crowds left before we attempted our descent.
Another Way to See Bagan
Our second day in Bagan was one of favorite days yet while on the road. We rented ebikes from a shop across from our hotel for $2.50 for the whole day. If you are on a budget, this is the way to see Bagan! Not having ridden a motorcycle in years, and even before that just once, I needed to take it for a ride around before I put a child on the back of it.
The scene is hilarious: I hop on this ebike, which resembles a moped, the engine is started and I twist the handlebar to make the bike go ever so slowly. My arms were shaking back and forth, the bike was wobbling, I had to make a turn which was okay. As I got going a bit faster the shaking went down a bit. So I turn around to head back to the shop and I couldn’t stop at the corner! I dart out into traffic and headed straight for a van that was coming. I couldn’t turn the bike sharp enough to make the turn! It was frightening and so funny all at once. Now picture Jake, and Bryndee (his sister), all three children watching me as I try to ride this bike. They were all quite frightened for me and did not have a lot of faith in my ability to drive the ebikes. I took it a little further down the road, practiced turning (which I never totally got down, but ended up okay) and got the shaking under control and returned ready to put a child on the back of the bike.
Jake took Tage, I had Bryndee take Averi because she was nervous to begin with and would not have done well with me, so Claire was the winner to go with me. She is not afraid at all of my moped driving skills. She was so cute and told me, “by the end of the day, you’ll have this down!” I loved her confidence in my to not crash and that I would get better. She is good at providing encouragement when it is needed the most. We had a great time on the bike while she told me all her wants and wishes in life. Averi loosened up and ended up having the time of her life with Bryndee. Tage just loves bikes and usually has a great attitude about adventure.
We had a general plan of the last few temples we wanted to see and set off to find our way. It was a lot harder to find some of the temples until we got our bearings right and could better read the maps along the way. We found most of the last of the temples on Backpacker Lee’s list and a few off the beaten path. You take dirt road and sandy roads and paved roads and just stop whenever you see something that interests you. I recommend seeing Bagan the way we did- one day with a taxi and the next day with an ebike. This way you are sure to see the temples you want because the taxi driver knows where they are and the next day you can be free to choose your own adventure. Either way you choose will be a good choice-you can’t go wrong in Bagan.
Bus From Bagan to Yangon
Just like the bus reviews from Mandalay to Bagan, my hopes were not high that things were going to go well. We did purchase the VIP bus tickets again and they are worth every cent. We rode the Bagan Min Thar VIP bus. A jeep came to pick us up from our hotel to take us to the bus station. The bus had wonderful cushy seats that reclined sufficiently for a good night sleep. They provided a neck pillow and blanket for comfort. You will be so glad you have that blanket as they pump the aircon to the max. Even knowing this before hand and mostly prepared, we were all still very cold. In the seat back pocket they provided us with a small can of Coke, a bottle of water, a snack, and a toothbrush packet. This bus also had a working toilet on board. No loud music played and it was an uneventful ride. The bus stopped once for dinner and bathroom stop for thirty minutes. As we were on the 8pm bus, the children were all fast asleep by the time we stopped for dinner at 10pm.
The horror stories will say their bus ride lasted fourteen hours, played loud music, and was so bumpy they were flying out of their seat. If I can provide a glimmer of hope that your bus ride will not be awful, I will count that as success. Our bus played no music, no movie, the toilet worked, and was no more bumpy than the ride from Mandalay to Bagan. We arrived in ten hours, slept a good amount, and had an uneventful ride.
Did you miss our trip to Mandalay? Read about it here. You can continue reading our Myanmar adventure here.