Mythical Bagan, Sunrise to Sunset

I woke up this morning and stepped outside, it was again hot. The picture that brought me here was of the sunset over the hundreds of temples of Bagan, it reminded me of something out of Star Wars. So having pretended to be Indiana Jones yesterday I was looking forward to pretending to be Luke Skywalker today. I met my guide and driver and we headed out. It did not take long before I was consumed by the temples, I had gone back in time, old dirt roads, horse and carriages, and very old temples, lots of temples.


Standing at the top of My Nyein Gone temple as the sun came up.






The morning sun was amazing and there was nothing but temples as far as the eye can see.


It was completely silent except for the wind, there is no one else here except for my guide.


This is truly a magical place, the views alone invoke emotion, and a curiosity of the past.


There is no entrance fee, they are just here for anyone to walk up and explore.




But the best part is not just viewing these, you can climb up them.




And then head inside to the tunnels and temples.


The stairs make for a steep descent, and it was a little tight.


Kind of a spiral staircase.




The long tunnel inside.


Almost there.


We finally reached the temple room.


This was amazing and I was afraid to touch anything in fear of a giant boulder that would come rolling down after me, at least my guide has not said anything about snakes yet.


We then took the easy way back outside.


OK, that was very cool and I told my guide that I very much had to see and crawl around more of these. He pretty much said I had endless options, and he was right, no matter what direction I looked there were more temples to explore. He did say we had to be careful because these are old and are falling apart. I explored a few others and then we moved on to a different section, passing the main gate, Sarapah.


We headed to the Nyaung U market for lunch.




This lady was in the smoking section.


But this lady knew how to smoke.


Some fried tofu and fried vegetables where on the menu, along with a side of chilies and pickled bamboo.




We walked through the market before heading on to see more temples.


Twins, but they were not actually for sale, they were just to get people in the store.


The clothing department.


The produce department.


Some vendors even use old batteries as weights to figure out how much to charge for their items.


Hey, I think this lady bought one of those twins, I did not know you could split up the pair.


The "what was once known as fish" department.




An actual fish.




Another restaurant.


And more tofu, just not fried this time.




Now this is a real pharmacy. I had a little bit of a cold but I’m not sure I’m ready for this stuff.


We stopped at a modern pagoda, Shwe Zi Gone, which was nice, but I wanted to get back out in the untouched ruins.






Approaching the Hi Lo Min Lo temple.




A lot of locals still come here and many of the original Buddha statues have been cleaned and covered in fresh gold leaf.






We headed on to another temple that was part of this same grouping, that still had a lot of its painting intact.




Reclining Buddha.








I think this one has something to do with the Ark of the Covenant.






Of course it also had a temple room.


We headed upstairs to a second temple room.


This Buddha was wearing a hat, I thought perhaps because the roof leaked.


This was a more well known and visited temple, and on the way out they had a few merchants trying to sell me trinkets, or souvenirs for the customs officials.


It was getting late but we had enough time to see one more temple before sunset, so we stopped at the Amanda temple.




They are actually restoring this one.


Inside the walls were covered with cubbies filled with Buddhas.




As well as large Buddhas.






The large Buddha also had a large bowl as well, and monks came by to toss rice in it. I’m not really sure what happens when it gets filled up.


Maybe this sign has some information on it, my only problem is that I can barely read English, let alone Burmese, so for now this will have to stay a mystery. Maybe Buddha really is eating the rice?


The sun was getting close to its descent so we headed to Shwe San Daw and climbed up to the top.


Temples all around as far as I can see, grabbing the last few rays of this day, before being reborn in the morning.












I walked around the top waiting for the sun to fall and had that all familiar feeling. Overcome with emotion I thanked the universe for this amazing moment, and knew how lucky I was to be here where few others have been in recent years. Hidden in the heart of Myanmar and largely unknown to the outside world, Bagan was now in my heart as well. I have seen a lot of amazing sunsets in my life, but this one was the most impressive, this one meant the most.










It could have been a scene from some fantasy science fiction movie, but it was not, it was simply Bagan, Myanmar. The simplest things in life have the most profound effect, I don’t need much, just these experiences, and I’m happy.








We got back to the hotel, and without a single worry on my mind, not an ounce of stress in my body, I drifted off to sleep, no, it's not a bad life, my life.

VIDEO: Day 7 - Bagan