Being in Myanmar and not visiting Bagan, an ancient city still waiting to be enlisted the UNESCO World Heritage Site, would equal to not seeing the temples of Angkor while your stay in Cambodia. The Kingdom of Pagan gave rise to the modern Myanmar (Burma) and was the first kingdom unifying regions. The admission fee every tourist has to pay when entering Bagan Archaeological Zone is $ 25 and it’s valid for 5 days. To visit this wonderful city on a budget we rented an e-bike (electronic bicycle) for 10.000MMK (7,50USD) for the whole day. Exploring Bagan on an e-bike was pure fun 🙂
The package tours offered by various travel agencies are very expensive and are time-consuming, as the guides tell you the story of each and every temple you visit in detail. Believe us that after 2 hours of sightseeing having your own map and following the signs you will know what’s more interesting for you, where to spend less time, what to skip, where to stay longer and take a seat on a nice pagoda, the one that will impress you personally and will have the view that will satisfy your taste. What’s more, there are more than 1,000 pagodas ! Not sure how many of them are included in travel agencies’ sightseeing programme but for sure you wouldn’t like to analyze each Buddha statue present inside the majority of these temples! We can recommend you the below map as it contains the most important bigger temple points, but it’s worth getting lost on the way to less well-known temples not present there to feel the authentic Bagan and its grandeur!
We do not recommend the accommodation in Old Bagan or New Bagan, you’d better stay in Nyaung-U located nearby (6km from the temples of Bagan). Why? You will pay much cheaper there (about 8USD), and besides, you will have a short distance to the brand new bus station (it’s exactly 2,5km to Ever New Guesthouse), which currently commute night buses from Hsipaw, Mandalay and Inle Lake. We arrived there by a night bus from Hsipaw and upon getting off from the bus we were approached by taxi drivers demanding from us the price: 10.000MMK-7,50USD for 2km! After more than 30 minutes of haggling (really!) they finally agreed for 2.500MMK-2USD, but we were so pissed-off that we were almost there on the way determined to get to the guesthouse on foot. So imagine the tourists who wanted to get to their hotels 8km away and the local cabbies knew perfectly well that they would not go on foot all that way (as it was dark as hell ’cause the night bus arrived earlier during the night), so they didn’t want to lower the price..
Now you could think: ”Why should I pay less for accommodation and later pay additionally for the transport to the temples whereas I can pay more now and at least be there near Bagan and not spend the money for transportation when moving around?” Well, not exactly, the temples do not stand in a row next to each other, they occupy a huge area! The Bagan Archaeological Zone is an area 13km long and 8km wide. You can rent a bike, e-bike, motorbike or arrange a driver / taxi, which, however, will not be able to pass narrow paths among the temples so it would require you walking a lot. We opted for the e-bike as you can do it nice, cheap and without feeling exhausted afterwards. You can be there to see the sunset and reach your hostel very quickly later when it’s dark!
Above you can see Shwe San Thaw Pagoda slowly filling up with people willing to see the sunset.
The time to find your shoes hehe…:) Remember that you are obliged to climb pagodas barefoot only.
You’d better come 1-2h earlier before the sunset if you want to ‘book’ a good place to snap a photo.
We visited Bagan in 1.5 days, but due to the fact that we didn’t start early in the morning and later stopped for a while in New Bagan, where people from the village were passing over their small children to the monastery (to make them start their service there before they become monks), which we mentioned in one of our previous posts about Myanmar. This was the place where we ate for free with the villagers 🙂
Ananda Paya – the most distinctive pagoda in Bagan.
Da Ma Yar Za Ka Pagoda (above).
Su Lar Ma Nai Pagoda (above).
Bupaya Pagoda (above), which gives a nice view of the riverside (below).
The entrance fee to Bagan Golden Palace (above) is 5.000MMK (4USD), but you are allowed to take a photo of the building outside at no extra charge.
Shwe Gu Gyi Pagoda (above).
The admission fee to Bagan Archaeological Museum (above) is 5.000MMK(4USD).
