(If you’re just here to see pretty pictures, you want this post instead!)

I arrived in Bagan at 4.00am and was brought to the hostel on a recommendation by the taxi driver. I should have known better by then than to listen to the taxi drivers, but hey, I was totally shattered, and he said it was a good place to meet people.
Actually, it looked really nice, so I checked in and was offered a bed on the rooftop until morning, or invited to join in with the sunrise tour, starting in a few minutes!
Other than the facts that I’d hardly slept on the bus, was totally wiped out from walking and cycling, wasn’t really wearing the right stuff, hadn’t showered in 2 days and didn’t have a clue what I was going to do all day and I’d never ridden an e-bike before, I couldn’t see why not, so I signed up.
About 10 seconds later, another equally shattered guest (introducing himself as Thijs from Amsterdam) rolled out of a taxi and was also easily persuaded to join us.

We bargained the e-bike fees (worked out as about $2 for the day, including free laundry, which is hilarious), joined “Akira” from Japan and scooted off after the guide into the cool, dry air – a refreshing change from the mugginess of the rest of Myanmar. Bearing in mind it was pitch black when I arrived in Bagan, you can imagine that climbing a pagoda to watch the sun rise over this unique landscape for the first time is quite an experience:

If you ever come to Myanmar, even for a day, come to Bagan and watch the sun rising. And setting. And watch it doing everything in-between.

Returning to the hostel in time for breakfast, the group of us that had watched the sunset decided to spend the entire day using the e-bikes to take us from temple to temple. Another chappy from Japan joined us, making 4 lads on e-bikes ready to storm Bagan:

We soon discovered the structures come in all shapes and sizes; stepped or smooth, round, square, rectangular, brick, stone, tall, tiny, climbable, ruined, recently restored and even one that leant disconcertingly and was affectionately nicknamed “temple Pisa”.

Seeing as I took so many, I’ve collected all of my “generic temple” photos here. It includes a few sunset pics so it’s worth a glance!

Although it wasn’t raining, the sky was pretty cloudy and the day’s heat grew, with dust swirling as winds picked up. It left me feeling constantly coated in a thin layer of clay-like mud, and stained everything like cacao powder.
We stopped off at a couple of major pagodas, the most impressive of which was the Schwezigon (almost the same name as the one in Yangon, though actually not as extensive or well-kept):

Bagan is also famous for its laquerware, so we stopped at a family run workshop. The owner took us on a proud tour of the modest factory, showing us the various stages in the process of creating the ornaments and tableware, which overall takes around 6-12 months depending on design and quality. Everything from start to finish is done by hand, and all the ingredients are entirely natural. Except perhaps the turpentine that they use to wash their hands when done…

I would have loved to bring something back with me, but had horrible images of the delicate bamboo and clay splintering and filling my bag with expensive dust, so abstained. Perhaps next time.

We stopped for a great home-made lemonade over at the river-view hotel, which looks out over the Aryewaddy river:

Lunch was a quick-stop for noodles. When you’re in a photographer/explorer/adventurist playground, food is the last thing on your mind. It’s incredible out here in the wild, where you have your electric bike, no speed limits, no restrictions on where you can go, and no rules except taking off your shoes when you enter a temple. It’s hard to imagine growing tired of this place. Also, monks eat lunch too:

At one moment, I was fortune enough to witness a local placing gold leaf onto the Buddha:

Traditionally, the Buddha statues are made with stone, marble, brass, or even iron, and then it’s down to the local people, monks and pilgrims to coat them in gold.

On the way back I took a rather cross-country route and ended up finding a great pagoda to climb up and watch the sunset from. It wasn’t too impressive, due to cloud cover, but the next day it was incredible! You’ll have to head over to my feature post for the photos!

Back at the hostel, Thijs, Akira and I signed up to a day-trip to Mt Popa, a nearby pagoda on a hill with phenomenal viewpoints and resident monkeys. We persuaded two girls to join us (Sabrina and Clara) and after a “sensible” number of drinks at the hostel bar we retired for the night, prepped to leave early. This would be my last day in Bagan, so to end the post, here’s a few photos of me really, really having a great time!:

Finally I’m back online!

I was off the grid for days, due to a combination of things! Wi-fi out here in Myanmar is either non-existent, or exists but doesn’t work very well. The dated telephonic infrastructure of the country is clearly bursting trying to cope with the sudden influx of tourists and high-end dual-sim Chinese smartphones… which are actually awesome.

The biggest delay has come from me losing my laptop charger, and therefore carrying around a brick for the past week. So, now I’ll explain what I’ve been up to and try to catch up, backdating posts so they make sense.

On Tuesday I took an early bus from Bago to Taungoo, taking 5 hours to get there via the old state highway. It’s bustling with traffic from busses to freight lorries to mopeds with goats on the back, yet wouldn’t really earn more than “single-track road” status in Europe. Illustration:

I was dumped in the city of “Taungoo” in the afternoon, hopped onto the back of a suicide  and promptly booked my onward travel to Kalaw, anxious to get trekking the next day. I had a few hours to kill so I took a wander into town (goo).

I found the pagoda interesting; run down but clearly in the process of renovation. It’s very similar to other major city pagodas.

I was directed towards a palace garden by a helpful caretaker – he said “very good very good” a lot of times. So, I had high expectations, which weren’t entirely met… I’d probably give it no more than one “very good”.

I didn’t have long before my bus, but I did still figure I had time for a game of football with the local kids!

Food in Taungoo was a quick and practical affair, at a Chinese-style restaurant which treated my like royalty. I practically had my own room (outside, under a beautiful palm pergola) and was fed a huge quantity of questionable, cold food. As I ate, I was thinking “this will definitely make me feel ill”. Tune in to tomorrow’s post to see how THAT went down. Disclaimer – it’s not pretty.

Overall Taungoo was strange, I seemed to attract a lot of attention and didn’t see any other tourists during my time there. It even went so far that the staff in the shop I went to buy phone credit from thought I was selfie-worthy:

Whilst that may be refreshing in some places, actually it just made me feel like I was standing around in the wrong place.

After watching Myanmar beat Singapore 5-1 at the bus stop TV I jumped onto the night bus and headed on further North to the mountain town of Kalaw.

This morning, three of us jumped on the train to Bago, itching to see a different city and see some Burmese countryside, even if just from the train window.

Bago didn’t do much to impress at first, the train station is a bit of a dump.

In honesty, Bago in general is a bit of a dump. I’ve heard great things about it, but it’s either gone downhill since, or we missed the good bits, or perhaps it’s just not great in the rainy season.

If there’s one thing we did learn, it’s to ignore the first people that approach you when you step off the plane/train/bus. They’re usually over-charging time wasters. Or even if they mean well, they’re probably a bit annoying.

Still, we got away from the train station by each hopping onto the back of a scooter (I’ve never ridden pillion before, this was sort of a trial by fire, it was great) and getting a hotel room. After dumping our bags we hired bicycles for the day and rode off to find some food. After nearly being crushed, knocked off, swept aside, drowned, mauled and falling down a pothole about 4 bajillion times we stopped for chow at the “Royal Taste”. It was good enough, and being the only people in there we got top service and fresh cooked food. My Mynamar curry was amazing.

Venturing out again, we went to what was undoubtedly the highlight of the day, the Snake Monastery. Featuring a python who has lived in the monastery for 125 years (so it’s said), the snake is one of the largest in the world. And it’s right in front of you, being washed and pampered with care by the keepers.

We cycled on back to the hotel (3 crammed into a double room – cosy) and snacked on misc. Asian treats for dinner. Got to be up fresh and early for the train tomorrow – I’m headed North!

At the Pagoda on I was invited to help out with an English class the next morning, but I didn’t make it. Not for trying though – I walked for over 30 minutes down the road, counting down the numbers until… the road ended unexpectedly.
Not really sure what to do from there, I sat down in a local café and grabbed some coffee and a few cakes for breakfast. Nice atmosphere, nice cakes, interesting coffee (thick enough to stand a spoon in, and rammed with sugar) and all only $1.

I wandered back to the hostel, gathered my things and met with some other Westerners to travel over to the Drug Elimination museum in the northern area of Yangon. After I snapped a couple of shots at Yangon Central we took the train over there, which was probably about as interesting as the museum itself in the end!

Still, quite a good adventure, and I’ll never forget the smell of these fish being grilled by the train bridge:

After we got back from the museum we headed into Yangon to check out 19th street, in the centre of China town.
There was a pretty awesome looking array of vegetables and assorted seafood/landfood, so we grabbed a basket full of stuff we couldn’t really identify and sat as they were freshly barbequeued in front of us. They went down REALLY well with a bottle of the local Myanmar brew.

I had a moment to snap a couple of interesting items at the markets on the way home too.

Given that we found a bar where Mojitos are <$1 each, I felt a little worse for wear in the morning. But that didn’t stop me getting up and out – stay tuned!

I was glad I booked the earlier shuttle this morning.
Arriving at the airport 2 hours before my flight, I went to check-in to discover that my visa strictly required a proof of onward travel. Thai Smile insisted that they wouldn’t let me onto the plane without it.