Today we woke up early at 4 am to catch sunrise from the top of a pagoda called Buhlaygyi (don’t search it on the internet, there’s no result on it), we went from our hotel (Su Tine San, a very good and affordable hotel whose guest are only two person, us) at 5 am. The site was 10 minutes away by car and we arrived at 5.15 when the sky was still dark. The pagoda isn’t as tall as Shwesandaw pagoda where we spent our sunset yesterday, the view is great though. There were also fewer tourist in the pagoda compared to Shwesandaw.
Bagan after sunrise
Bagan at the morning
We descent the pagoda at 6 am, the sun is already out and the sky is light blue, we drove back to hotel for breakfast and shower. We started our city tour at 8 am, visiting in total 15 pagodas across Bagan. Today’s tour is exhausting, at noon both of my feet have scratches due to the extensive use of slippers and walking barefoot. Mind you that we have to take off shoes and socks before entering each pagoda. We see too many pagoda to remember one by one, but here is some pagoda we visited, in order:
Sunrise at Buhlaygyi, Shwezigon, Gubyaukgyi, Htilominlo, Ananda, Thatbyinnyu, Shwe Gu Gyi, Manuhar, Nanphayar, Dhamanyangyi, Sularmani, Pyathatdar, Sunset at Pyathatgyi
Landscape in Bagan
Ananda, one of the most magnificent pagoda in Bagan
Dhammayangyi temple at the right side of image
Closer look of Dhammayangyi temple, Bagan
Random pagodas in Bagan
Another random pagodas I forgot the name
There are mostly Buddha statue inside each temple, with some temple could be hiked to the top, an opportunity to capture great panorama of Bagan’s 2000 temples. After visiting Thatbyinnyu, we have our lunch at Sunset Garden Restaurant, a very nice and affordable restaurant by the river. I would recommend having lunch there after half day walking under the sun.
We were scheduled to take two hours rest at the hotel after lunch, simply because it is too hot to walk around at 13-15 o’clock in Bagan. Instead of going back to hotel, we were looking for a reflexiologist and finally found one with reasonable price near our hotel. One hour of massage cost $15, significantly cheaper than in Bagan Lodge (5 stars resort) which cost $65.
We eventually walk back to our hotel and took a shower before beginning the city tour again at 15.00. The temples in Bagan are similar with each other, except Ananda, the most beautiful one covered with white colour. We also saw many tourist, mostly western, who rent a bicycle or electric bike and tour around the small road. Renting a bike cost 10000-15000 Kyat ($10-15) for the whole day.
Thatbyinnyu temple, taken from other temple in Bagan
The magnificent landscape of Bagan, a combination of pagodas, jungle and mountains
Shwezigon pagoda under reconstruction or repainting every 5 years
Dhammayangyi temple at noon, Bagan
Our tour guide name is Aung, a 23 year old guy with extensive knowledge in history and proficient in English. He showed us photo spots for taking great photographs around Bagan, even though it wasn’t in the itinerary program. Should you want to hire him, let me know, I have his contact. There were few Indonesian tourist we met in Myanmar, however we were asked several times by the local to exchange Rupiah to Kyat, it seems that there are Indonesian fooling around Bagan and paying with Rupiah.
We close our day by watching sunset on the top of Pyathatgyi pagoda, a large pagoda with open top where we could climb and sit on the wall facing the landscape of Bagan. We were there early at 5 pm and the sunset was at 6.50, so we have plenty of time to take photos 360 degrees of the temple. After finding the perfect spot for taking photo, I sat on the wall and listened to an album of Andrea Boccéli while enjoying the scenery, it was a very pleasant experience to me.
Goats running near a lake in Bagan
Herds roaming on the wilderness of Bagan
Sunset in Bagan from Pyathatgyi
It was 7 pm when we left Pyathatgyi, then we have dinner at Star Beam Restaurant in downtown area of Bagan. The price for one meal cost between 15000-75000 kyat ($1.5-7.5), very reasonable for the food we ate. Since there wasn’t any interesting places to visit at night, we got back to hotel and rest, for tomorrow we are leaving Bagan to Mandalay.
Journeyman 