Bagan

Bagan, a highlight on each travel to Myanmar, is ranking with Angkor to be the most famous religious place in Southeast Asia. The ruins of Bagan cover an area of 16 square miles and originally it had more than 4000 temples! The area is huge and there are still about 2000 left to explore, too many for 2 days, probably even a week wouldn't be enough to see them all. The majority of the buildings were built in the 11th to 13th centuries, during the time Bagan was the capital of the Myanmar. Of course such place is a UNESCO world heritage.
When we were there, on the 1st day we went to the temples which are further away by taxi and on the 2nd day we rented bicycles to get around. It was sunny and hot and there was nearly no shade available, only a few palm trees. Ruins are seen everywhere, but many are so badly destroyed that it wasn't worth to stop.
In front of the main tourist temples are souvenir vendors, but compared with other countries we had visited, it was hassle free.

The temples and stupas have many different shapes, old are all, even if some look newer because they were covered with gold recently.


Inside the temples are Buddha statues, often one in each direction. Originally they were all painted and also the walls, but many are damaged and so only in a few places they are still good visible.


Most of the temples and stupas are now closed for tourists to climb up. However where it is still possible we got a tremendous view over the landscape full of other stupas rising up to the sky. The steps leading to the top are often small and very steep, but it is worth it, also Fredi had a nice and time and enjoyed the sun.

There are a few places to get to the top and even fewer of them offer a good sunset. On the first evening we were unlucky and it had to many clouds to see the sun, but afterwards the sky turned to a nice red colour. On the 2nd day we had more luck and sun was going down behind all the stupas.

People here often still use horse carts to carry things from and to the fields. Such a horse cart in front of the temples and stupas is the famous picture of Bagan! (click on the 2nd photo wo see it better.) The Irrawaddy river flows nearby and many people use it, to wash and also as transport opportunity as roads in this part of the country are bad.