In the morning we leave for Bagan. This is a historic city, where more than 2,200 temples and pagodas remain, dating from the 11th until the 13th century. The road takes us to the main highway, and it’s in a surprisingly good condition without almost any traffic. The highway is quite boring and there’s no shade so we are happy to leave the highway, back on the small roads. We pass a group of begging children, who are yelling and pulling our luggage. The worst part is that they are standing on a sandy road, so it takes some time to shake them off. We arrive at the hotel in Bagan and are instructed to put our tent on the parking spot of this fancy hotel. We are not allowed to put up the tent in the grass but Christian and Francessca start looking for a nice spot where we don’t bother the guests of the hotel. They arrange the best camping spot ever for the tents! Our tents are next to a temple from the 11th century, among the trees and overlooking the river. When we are done setting up the tent, we can enjoy sunset over the river.

Our Camping Spot

This evening we spend together with Umut and Demet at the campsite while the others are at the parking lot. It’s cosier under our lighted trees. We have a very nice evening and are happy we got to know these people a little better.
When you go to Bagan, you have to pay a “zone fee”. This ticket is valid for all the temples in and around Bagan. When we booked our trip through Myanmar, it was stated that everything was included, except for sightseeing. The tour guide mentioned that sightseeing was free of choice. However, the next day he comes to us asking for the money for the zone fee. We tell him we aren’t interested in going to the temples (we saw most of them already on the way in) and that we prefer to stay in the hotel. He tells us we don’t have a choice and the zone fee is mandatory once you have entered Bagan. Kitty says we paid for the trip from India to Thailand and if he chooses to go through Bagan, he should have calculated it in the price. Eventually, we don’t have to pay the fee zone but he gives us our tickets anyway. In the afternoon, we drive through Bagan with the motorbike.

Driving through Bagan

The temples themselves are not really so special but it’s really impressive to see so many temples scattered around on such a relatively small place. Why would they put so many temples in one place?
The whole day we say to each other how nice it would be to go to higher ground and have a good overview on the area. Unfortunately, there’s no mountain nearby. Luckily we hear about a temple known as sunset temple where we go to for sunset. This turns out to be really nice and we can see the whole area from here.

View from Sunset Temple

It’s also nice to drive around in Bagan at night, because most of the temples are illuminated.
We spend the evening at the tent and, of course, there is beer!

Mmmm, beer

The Temples of Bagan

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