Bagan was my favorite place not only in Myanmar but in whole Southeast Asia and it belongs to one of my most beloved trips up to date! It is hard to describe Bagan’s atmosphere other than magical. There are thousands of Buddhist pagodas and temples on relatively small space and you can discover every day new ones and new ones. Some of them are in very good condition but on others you can see the relentless impact of time with big signs not to enter or get close because of falling bricks and rocks. Luckily, Bagan’s application to UNESCO was finally approved this year (2019) so hopefully soon more pagodas will be repaired and this place won’t be losing any more of its charms. what to do in bagan
We stayed in Bagan for 3 days and I think for us it was just the right amount time. You can of course stay much longer if you please, there are enough of temples to explore new ones every day during a year! In those three days I collected good amount of information to make your future planning easier, so I hope you’ll find it useful. what to do in bagan
Temples of Bagan
From the 9th to 13th centuries during Pagan Kingdom, there were more than 10,000 temples built on a relatively small area. Unfortunately over the years, most of them were destroyed by earthquakes and other natural disasters, or they were robbed by treasure hunters. As I said, you can visit new pagodas every day, but from those that are in the best condition, I’d like to mention you these few:
- Shwezigon Pagoda
- Ananda Temple
- Golden Palace - There’s a 5,000 MMK entrance fee to the Golden Palace, as there’s also a museum inside and an archaeological site.
- Sunrise Pagoda
- Dhammayazaka Pagoda
- Htilominlo Temple
- Bu Paya
- Gawdawpalin
- Thinganyone Temple
- Utrecht Pagoda
Bagan is large and there are many amazing places to visit, but often the names of the oldest big temples are long forgotten and you can find them more or less only by “an accident”. I definitely recommend you to just wander around aimlessly to see what you can discover (honestly this is the best thing about Bagan), but check out these temples too because they are definitely worth your time. what to do in bagan
Temple fees in Bagan
In Bagan you have to pay area fee, because almost all of the temples are free of charge. You pay immediately when entering Bagan (we paid in the bus) and you have to pay cash. It was 50,000 MMK for 2 of us for three days. You cannot pre-book and pay online. After you pay you will receive a docket that you should carry with yourself at all times (or you can take a photo of it and keep it in your phone).
Watching sunrise in Bagan
There are many photos on social media of people climbing on different pagodas to watch sunrise with famous hot air balloons in the background, however, today it is not allowed to climb on most of the pagodas and I wouldn’t recommend doing so, even if you don’t see any signs that you shouldn’t. It’s not only dangerous but also disrespectful!
Luckily, the officials still keep few open for climbing, but these change every now and then (as they want to protect the temples from too many people climbing up). It’s hard to keep track and many blogs are not up to date. In this matter, I would recommend you to trust the locals because they know the best. Many of them don’t even want money from you (if this happened to us, we tipped them anyway). They are there, waiting every morning for people looking for pagodas to climb and they really can help you so let them. We found one pagoda by ourselves but it took us several days of searching so if you have limited time in Bagan, don’t lose it by looking if others can help you.
Other option than climbing a pagoda is simply watching the sunrise and sunset from a viewing platform. There are few in around Bagan and they were built solely for this purpose, however, I can imagine that they can get pretty crowded.
Getting around Bagan
The best way to get across Bagan’s archaeological site is by hiring an e-bike from your hotel, hostel or nearby tour agency. The prices range from 5,000 to 10,000 MMK per day (approx. 5 – 10 USD) – newer bikes are more expensive. We usually left for sunrise at 5 am and by 3 pm the battery was low, so we had to go back to charge it (and to take a nap) and then went out again in the evening. We got our e-bike from our hotel and it was 6,000 MMK for the whole day. In hotels they know you will want to go out early so there always will be someone to give you the bike even at 5 am.
E-bikes are easy to navigate, but if you are not comfortable riding them on dusty roads, you can hire a private driver or a horse with carriage, but be prepared to pay much bigger amount of money. I wouldn’t recommend hiring a normal bicycle because Bagan is very big and it gets very hot there.
Bagan is actually an archaeological site with thousands of temples. There are three villages around the site – Old Bagan, New Bagan and Nyaung-U. Old Bagan is in the closest proximity to the temples, but it’s also the most expensive with many luxurious hotels around. If your budget allows you to splurge, this is your location! However, if you are travelling on budget, New Bagan and Nyaung-U offer low to mid-range accommodations, with many hostels and guest houses to choose from.
Even though they are not as close to the temples, you can still reach them within 30 minutes on your e-bike. The bus we took to Bagan from Mandalay dropped us off in Nyaung-U and then a taxi took us to New Bagan where our guest house was. I think it was great area to stay and we saved lots of money.
Where to eat in Bagan
Bagan has a unique cuisine which locals describe as “the true taste of Asia”, as it combines Indian, Thai and Chinese flavors and there are also many amazing places to try the local dishes. Here are some of our favorites:
- K7 – traditional Burmese food and barbecue
- A little bit of Bagan– cute café that also serves lunch. I had the most amazing banana pancakes here.
- Perfect restaurant
- Sharky’s – unfortunately we didn’t get to go there because it’s not open off season, but I read many good reviews about this place.
- La pizza – yes, we went for some wood fired pizza in Asia because after couple of weeks we needed some western food. No shame! I had a “Myanmar style pizza” with tea leaves and it was one of the best pizzas in my life!
- Date cafe and bakery
- Leo restaurant
Best time to visit Bagan
Weather in Bagan is hot throughout the year! The peak season starts from October and lasts until the end of February, when the temperatures go up to around 30 degrees of Celsius. During this time you can watch the famous picturesque balloons flying over the thousands of temples.
We visited Bagan in June, when the rain season starts, however, we got maybe one rainy afternoon. The rest of our stay was sunny, but very hot. The first day I didn’t cover my head when riding our e-bike and I got really bad heat stroke, which prevented us from going to see the sunset. After that I never left the hotel without a scarf or a hat and I was fine. In Bagan, you want to wake up for the sunrise because it’s so magical. If you wake up before 5 am, then at 10 am you are ready for a nap and that’s what we did every day. 5 hours exploring the temples, breakfast, back to hotel and we went out again when the temperatures were dropping later in the afternoon.
Our stay in Bagan was awesome and I wish to go there again, in spite of almost fainting of a heat stroke and getting lost countless times in the fields in the middle of nowhere. The views over the temples are breathtaking and the e-bike gives you the freedom to explore by yourself and feel like Indiana Jones. If you’ve been to Bagan, please let me know about your trip in the comments! And for those who haven’t visited yet, I hope you will go there soon. For more information about Myanmar, travel tips and which places to visit in this country, check out my other articles here and here.
I hope you will have amazing time!
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