Nanda & Nathan The Travellers: Bagan (Day 2)

June 11, 2014 ---- Our second day in Bagan was a biking tour day. We rented two regular bicycles from the hotel for 8,000 Kayat or US$ 8 each for the day. You can also buy a private tour or hire a horse-drawn carriage, which is very slow and looks uncomfortable. I think biking is the best way to tour around the Bagan plain because it's cheap and you have control over how much time or how many pagodas you want to visit.

There are thousands of pagodas in Bagan! Some of them were destroyed in a big earthquake many years back and many were later reconstructed. Therefore, all the pagodas on the plain are a mix of truly old and new ones.

I would say it's best to go to Bagan in the fall or winter (November to February) because it's very hot and dry in the summer. Nathan and I went in June and it was rainy and hot as hell! As a result, we went biking in the morning till lunch time and came back to rest in our air-con room in the afternoon and went back out after 4 p.m. for more biking.

We started the day at the Bagan Archaeological Museum located right next to our hotel (Bagan Thande Hotel). The entrance fee was 5,000 Kyat or US$ 5 each, and we had to put all our stuff including camera in a locker because they didn't allow anything to be carried inside except my wallet. Overall, it was a nice museum with good collections and worth the money.

After the museum, we biked around Old Bagan and visited many Buddhist temples and pagodas. In a day we could see Myet Taw Pyay Phaya, Bu Paya, Shwe Hti Saung Phaya, Mahabodhi Phaya, Ananda Phaya, Oak Kyaung Gyi, Minochantha, Htilominlo Temple, Upali Thein, Bagan Thirizayabumi Golden Palace, Mingala Zedi, Gu Byauk Gyi, and Shwesandaw.

At lunch we ate at Golden Myanmar Restaurant located across the street from Ananda Phaya. It was a set of traditional Burmese food consisting of three kinds of curry, eight vegetable side dishes, one fried fish and meat, and two bowl of soup. It was more like all-you-can-eat because they keep adding food till you are full.

In the evening we biked to Shwesandaw for the view of the sunset, and we, for the first time, encountered a ticket checkpoint. I had no idea that all tourists are supposed to pay the city entrance fee of US$ 15 once you enter Bagan because I had not seen any ticket booth or checkpoint at any site we visited prior to that point. Well, we ended up paying the fee on our last day and at the very last site we visited in Bagan.

At dinner we just ate at our hotel restaurant. The weather was nice that evening, so the outdoor restaurant was open and had some traditional Burmese music playing. Good food, fabulous view of the Irrawaddy River, and beautiful music. :-)