Previously
I had a few weeks to chill out in Singapore but had a big health scare in that time! Luckily, I recovered and flew to Yangon to start my trip seeing the awesome Shwedagon Pagoda!
Bagan Arrival and Shwe San Daw
I just took a night bus from Yangon and arrived at 5 am in Bagan and I was recommended by my cab driver in Yangon to go straight from the bus station to a pagoda to see the sunrise. I took a motorbike tuk tuk to Shwe San Daw pagoda (tuk tuk recommended) and had the driver wait at the pagoda for a bit. The sunrise was absolutely beautiful with a high view of tons of smaller pagodas as well as hot air balloons rising in the air! There were also not a ton of tourists which was really lucky as I found out later this was the most touristy pagoda, especially for sunrise and sunset. I also met a French solo traveler named Samir and after talking to him for a while we exchanged contact info to maybe see Bagan together. After enjoying the view for a while and getting some pictures, I got my tuk tuk to my hostel and on the way I noticed there were tons of pagodas all over.
When I got to the hostel, I paid for my room but couldn’t check in yet so I relaxed there and got some breakfast while planning out what I wanted to do and see in Bagan. When I figured out what I wanted to do, I rented an e-bike from across the street. It was funny because there were two companies across our hostel that did e-bike rentals, bus tickets, laundry service, and as soon as you exit the hostel, they compete and try to get you to go with them. I rented an e-bike from one company and also bought a bus ticket from them to go to Mandalay in a few days. I was pretty confident in my motorbiking ability after doing it in Vietnam!
Pagodas Pagodas Pagodas
After getting the e-bike, I hit up a lot of temples/pagodas. I went to a random one then Lowkananda Pagoda. After that while biking around, I ended up biking down some stairs by accident! Luckily a local helped me lift my bike up the stairs. I went to a few more pagodas and for most people they would be tired of them but I did find them interesting, especially in Bagan they were beautiful and not very touristy which was rare.
At one of the pagodas I visited I made a local friend who gave me advice of good spots to see the sunrise and sunset in Myanmar. When she found out I was Canadian she said “Burmese people love Justin Bieber’s music” which was really funny! She tried selling me post cards which I didn’t want but I gave her money just for being so nice and she rejected it which I couldn’t believe, maybe it was a sense of pride. For all these pagodas you have to be in bare feet and throughout the day my feet were just turning black from all the dirt. In the afternoon it was insanely hot too and walking with bare feet practically burns them!
Chill Time
Later, I passed by the Bagan museum and I decided to check that out to give me a break of the afternoon heat. I couldn’t bring my phone inside because pictures weren’t allowed but it was pretty cool of the history specifically to Bagan. After I was done checking out the museum, I wanted to go to a big pagoda for sunset and I accidentally went to the same one as sunrise! It looked different compared to the darkness in the morning and I couldn’t believe this was the same pagoda because there were tons of people now compared to the morning. The sunset view was not great at all due to a lot of fog, I later learned that the sunrise looks a lot nicer in Bagan. It was a lot of pagodas for the day but I still appreciated the beauty of them and I know a lot of people could take these for granted really quickly. It was also a lot of fun motorbiking around the area.
On my way back to the hostel I saw Samir (the French guy from the morning) biking too so we’re talking while motorbiking which was funny. I found out he was at the same hostel as me!. I got back to the hostel to shower and relax. I grabbed dinner with Samir at a restaurant down the street from our hostel and we arranged to meet at 5:15 am tomorrow to go to a different pagoda for sunrise. I got back to the hostel and chilled for a bit, it was St. Patty’s today too! Our hostel was really chill and probably the best hostel I have stayed at with a really good vibe and not too rowdy. The hostel had free coffee, tea, drinking water and breakfast. They had decorations for St. Patty’s and encouraged everyone to wear green (discount on Irish mojitos for wearing green at their bar). They also passed around free shots! After having one of those I went to sleep soon after to get up early for sunrise.
Day 2
I woke up at 5 am the next morning for sunrise and was joined by 2 other young travellers, Kaz (from Japan) and Molly (from UK) along with Samir. We motorbiked to Bulethi Temple which wasn’t great and it was also cloudy for sunrise unfortunately. However, the hot air balloons came very close to us which looked really cool and I got a good time lapse of the sunrise with the balloons. Here’s a clip of us biking through some temples:
We then decided to go to the market nearby known to be popular in the morning. We got there a bit too early though and walked through it briefly but everything was barely opened. Samir and Kaz headed back to the hostel while Molly and I went to Shwe Pagoda which was really beautiful. We went to two other smaller temples and then Ananda temple. Molly then head back to the hostel and I went to Thinbuya temple. I got back to the hostel to chill for a bit and have lunch. Then I see a ton more smaller pagodas and caught the sunset on top of a pagoda without any tourists which was really nice and peaceful! I grabbed dinner and tried to do homework after but fell asleep pretty easily.
Day 3
The next morning I got up at 4:45 am and went to Shwe San Daw pagoda for sunrise (same as the first place right from the bus station but many more tourists this time). I met Jap, an NTU friend on the top of the pagoda! I sort of expected to meet him since I knew he was in Bagan as well and this was the most popular temple for sunrise. Here’s a timelapse of the sunrise:
Afterwards we explored nearby temples and saw a temple with light through the window which had a cool effect. I learned that there was a different local family that took care of each one of these temples. The locals at the temple we were at showed us their money collection of currency from around the world which was pretty neat. We then went to Sulamani temple and an abandoned monastery which was cool. We had the entire place to ourselves with a great view from the top of the pagoda. After, we got back to the hostel for breakfast and checked out more temples as well as an abandoned temple. This temple had a cave which we were excited for but it was very small and only meant for meditation.
We had lunch nearby at a restaurant and chilled there for a while since it was really hot out. We checked out the Minnathu village since we already there and got a tour by a local. It was neat as she showed us around the village and saw how different things worked and were made. We went to another village after and saw how crafts were made. We then went back to the hostel, where I planned out my time in Mandalay. I also did some homework, had dinner quickly, then bussed to Mandalay in the night. I arrived for 1:30 am, sat in the back of a truck as my taxi, checked in the hostel and slept.
Next
Up next was spending a few days in Mandalay, seeing some temples and getting into a motorbiking accident!
Cruzin the World 