Travelling in Myanmar

The main activity in Bagan, Myanmar is watching the sunrise and sunset and climbing up one of the stupas. For our first sunrise, we picked one mentioned in our guidebook and headed out before dawn. We rode our bikes down the main road and turned down the dark dirt path. A hundred or so yards in, it was clear we weren’t alone, for many people like us had been up long before dawn to find a seat at the guidebook-recommended spot. We climbed up to the top, where 30 or so people were already there and watched as the area below us filled up with dozens of bicycles and cars. By the time the sun came up, there had been more than a hundred people with us. After visiting some must-see views, we decided to search the guidebook for the rest of the trip, and we visited some other temples that weren’t marked on any maps. We had long conversations with locals, not other tourists. We watched the sunset atop a stupa with only a handful of people. On one of our favorite adventures, we went to a temple recommended by a French couple, which wasn’t in their guidebook. Someone had just recommended it to them the day before. “It’s all the way on the other side of town,” they said. “You’ll go over crazy bridges, up and down some hills, and get lost a hundred times, but it’s totally worth it.” They were right. We rode through villages, up and down hills, over crazy bridges, and turned up half a dozen wrong roads. No one we passed spoke a word of English, but everyone smiled and gestured to help us find the way. When we got there, we were greeted by a monk. He smiled his big smile, pointed us up the hill, and served as our tour guide. Then he took us to the incredible temple. It was, indeed, totally worth it.