Sunrise(s) in Bagan!

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Bagan... the place that absolutely everybody visits when coming to Myanmar!

I arrived in Bagan at 5am from Yangon and half asleep got off the night bus. It was pitched dark and I knew I had to get a taxi to the hotel and I also knew it would be a struggle to get one at a fair price given it was 5am.

I grabbed my backpack and stopped to look at what was going on, people were already pulled aside by taxi drivers and deals were in the making. I went straight to a girl who was alone and already talking to a cab driver and asked to share, then I saw a couple from my bus and asked to joined us and work together on getting a taxi. The funny thing about the taxi struggle is that there was a banner that read TAXI 7,000kyats but guess what?!?! These cheeky drivers started telling us that it was 7,000 kyats per person... are you kidding me?!? For a 10km ride? It was crazy to pay $5.20 PER PERSON, a total of $21 for a less than 10 minute drive in Myanmar!!

I immediately got my phone out and googled it, read some reviews on trip advisor and displayed my phone and said we wouldn't pay that much. The drivers were stubborn but at the end we bargained down to 7,000kyats per couple, meaning 3,500kyats per person; double the real cost but at 5am that was the best we could do.

We got on the taxi and mid way our taxi stopped and a guy asked each of us for 25,000kyat ($18) entrance fee!!! We thought it was a scam, it all seamed so sketchy and unofficial! Some didn't have money so the guy told us there was an ATM close by and he would follow us on his bike... and he did!

We arrived at the hostel and quickly dropped our bags and since check in wasn't until 2pm we decided to go for sunrise so we all rented e-bikes. I had never ridden a scooter but in Sri Lanka I got a quick lesson so I got the basics and I was confident the e-bikes weren't too hard to manage.
A girl I met in Borneo had told me about a nice place for sunrise so I had Kam and the couple follow me. I drove in the freezing cold (i'm exaggerating a little), shaking and praying not to fall off the bike. After 10 mins or so I stopped and looked behind me and at least 6 bikes were following me! I quickly learned that in the morning people just start following e-bikes in hopes to go to a good sunrise pagoda.

The ride, as I said, was freezing so we were all glad when we finally reached the pagoda. If other bikes wouldn't have followed us it would have been almost empty so now we know we need to be sneaky if we want a clear view without tripods and people standing in front.

We sat on top of the pagoda for a while, the sun started to come out and we still couldn't see the famous hot air balloons. The morning was foggy and we could see the clouds moving through the temples and for a little while I was worried that the morning was too foggy for the balloons to come out.

Shortly after the sun came out so did the balloons! Yeay!

A super foggy morning!

Loved the thin layers of clouds passing through.

I spy some balloons.

The view was really nice and I was very excited about seeing the hot air balloons fly over Bagan!

2nd sunrise.

For the second morning Kam, Zarina, Jayden, and myself decided to go to a different temple to watch the sunrise. I put the route on my phone and left. The road was dark and then to get to the temple we had to go through sandy paths. Being new (and somehow scared) at this e-bike stuff I of course fell off my bike when it was super sandy! But it was better than the day before when I fell and then trying to get back on I turned the accelerator and my e-bike ended up in the bushes!!! Haha

We finally arrived at Pyathada Paya Pagoda and there were already some people there but the pagoda was so big that it didn't feel overwhelming.

Jayden and Zarina patiently waiting for sunrise

The sun and the balloons started rising, this time we were so much closer to the starting point of the balloons and the view was just spectacular!

All the tourists and the selfie sticks!!!

At one point the balloons were flying so close to us... it felt magical!

I thought this time-lapse video was so cool!

3rd sunrise.

Nope, I hadn't had enough sunrises so once again I decided to wake up at 5:20am and go for sunrise.

The night before we had gone to a pagoda that was amazing and supposedly the sunrise was just mind blowing so with 6 friends we grabbed our e-bikes (except Remy who is in over achiever and went on my bike and ran back to the hostel) and rode for 25 minutes in the freezing cold to be blown away by the sunrise.

We arrived at the pagoda and we were so disappointed to see it super crowded! People were super crammed and it kind of took some of the excitement away.

The hot air balloons were now even closer than the day before, the starting point was probably 500m away and in a way it was cool to see them go up in the air.

The view from this pagoda was good, we could really see a lot of temples and the balloons flying on top but yesterday's was definitely much more spectacular!

The first balloon

Crammed on top of the Pagoda

So many balloons!

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!