Bagan, Myanmar

We arrived at Bagan bus station around 5am on a Friday.  A group of men greeted us with offers to take us to a cheap guesthouse for a nominal fee.  There were also a few horses with carriages parked in the station waiting to take us somewhere to see the sunrise.  We decide to walk around on our own looking for a place to stay.

 

There is something magical about early mornings in Myanmar.  The whole neighborhood was awakening still in the dark.  The restaurants were opening for breakfast.  The wood fires were being lit for cooking.  Some locals were going for the morning stroll.  Others were taking tourists to the guesthouses or to see the sunrise.  Some tourists passed us by on bicycles going to meet the sun on their own.

We found a very basic room with cement floors for $15.  Before going to rest after a sleepless night, we went to have a breakfast in one of the restaurants.  We had some samosas, eggs and tea.  The food was good, but the early morning atmosphere was incredible.  By the time we finished breakfast, it got lighter.  The horses with carriages were also hired by locals to take them places.  In the naturally dim light, the place reminded me of the paintings of famous Lithuanian artist M. K. Ciurlionis.

It always takes us a day to recover after a night bus ride, so we decided to take it easy that day.  After a nap and a lunch, I washed our dirty clothes in bucket in the back yard of our guesthouse.  No more coin operated automatic washing machines on the streets.  The local women were also washing clothes by beating them with a stick.  One girl, wrapped in a sheet, was even washing her hair outside.  She was using a cup to rinse her hair with water, while bending over not to wet the sheet.  The everyday life outside of Yangon takes us back in time.  It is much more exciting to see than the thousands of pagodas, which Bagan is famous for. 

The plan for the next day was to rent a bicycle before the sunrise and ride around the town all day.  But since Dangis got food poisoning eating fried been salad for dinner, the plan changed.  Instead Dangis was sleeping all day, and I was reading and writing. 

On Sunday we woke up around 5am ready to explore.  We rode the bicycles to the spot where the sunrise is supposed to be the most beautiful in the area.  We climbed one of the pagodas still in the dark and waited.  A lot of other tourists came also.  It started getting lighter, the sun peaked a little and went into the cloud.  The sky got red.  The view was spectacular.  Many small pagodas were becoming visible with soft lines, then brighter.  The air balloons with people passes us by.  It was the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen.  Soon the guy came selling paintings.

It was time for breakfast.  Dangis was very hungry after not eating a previous day.  The breakfast in our guesthouse was simple, but good.  The service was great.  The little girl came to ask us our preferences for drink and eggs as soon as we sat down.  The other little girl started frying eggs in a pan on ashes right away.

After breakfast we took our bicycles of the tourist path.  For some distances we had to walk our bicycles through the sand.  We passed people’s houses.  Most of them were woven from leaves, some were built from bricks.  The spaces were open.  We could see inside most of people’s houses.  The kids were playing outside by themselves.  It is very dry in Myanmar.  It seems like it is drowning in dust.  Sand everywhere.  So it is surprising to also see a lot of vegetable gardens.

After lunch we just rode our bicycle around town passing its many pagodas.  We were exhausted at the end of the day.  We could spend a month or more trying to see all the pagodas in the area, but one day was enough for us.

On Monday morning we left for Mandalay.  We bought bus tickets from the guesthouse manager the previous day.  The bus stopped to pick us up from the guesthouse on time.  And the manager even came out to make sure we got on the right bus.