Bagan, Myanmar

We spent four full days exploring the temples, monasteries and stupas in Bagan, which was amazing. It's in the top three things I've ever seen in the world.

We wanted to explore the temples on our own (rather than with a guide) so rented bicycles for the whole time ($2.50 per day). This is by far the best way to see them (in our opinion :) ).

The 3000+ temples are strewn across everywhere you look, across an area about 70 sq km, built between 1050 and 1280. I had originally planned out the major ones we wanted to see, carefully circling them on the map and plotting the optimal route. We threw that planning out the window about an hour in. The real fun is just cycling along and stopping at the ones we found interesting. Locals pointed out hidden staircases where it was possible to climb the temples for amazing views. The top-listed temples were invariably packed with tourists, which kills the mystique. Our favourites were the not-so-famous ones, which allowed great views of the top ones, and usually had no tourists at all (North Guni was my favourite).

The first time I climbed a temple and saw the view I couldn't believe it. It really is amazing.

The first day we biked on the road between New Bagan (where we were staying) and Old Bagan, about 5km one way. The following days we explored the plains, biking on sandy paths, which was far better. Aside from no traffic, there were also very few tourists. We biked past ruins and sights that anywhere else would be a destination - here it was just background that we just glanced at because there were even cooler views. It was so much fun exploring!

It had just finished three days of rain when we arrived. Our first day was really overcast (and cooler temperature), the next days were sunny and hot (29C).

We booked the balloon ride based on the weather forecast, which turned out accurate and the best morning to go. We were picked up from our hotel at 5:20am and drove to the lift off site. A short safety review, they inflated the balloons, we got in the basket, and we were off, just as the sun rose.

The balloon experience itself was cool, but I preferred the views from climbing the temples. There's great pics from the balloon, and I took my favourite pic from there, but you don't get the same magical feeling as being on a temple looking out.

Likewise we watched the sunset from a semi-popular viewing site. It was cool and had great pics, but you lose something when there's a couple hundred other people there with you.

Overall we had an amazing time here. It's still possible to see Bagan tourist-free if you stay away from the main temples. Even if those were tourist-free, I'd still recommend the secondary ones because they have the best views of the main temples. After three days we were out-templed, and spent our last day souvenir shopping and relaxing.

FYI I've posted some pics, to both Facebook and Google Photo. You can see them by clicking on the link in the right nav bar (under This Trip). I'll be adding pics as we go.