After a great first afternoon and sunset in Bagan, we were excited to see more temples and pagodas while getting to know the area better. I set an alarm for 6:00am, which would be early enough to wake up and set out to see the sunrise. The alarm went off, but Bryden and I looked at each other, and decided that after four 6:00am days in a row, we wanted to just sleep in, so we did.
At around 10:00, we were finally awake, showered, and well rested. We have spent the majority of this trip waking up early and going to bed late, so having the opportunity to sleep in was incredible. The hotel we were staying at had concluded its breakfast service, so we rented electric scooters again and headed off in search of food.
We ended up going to a restaurant called Be Kind to Animals: The Moon 1, which was just opening as we arrived. This vegetarian restaurant was incredibly good, and after a meal of curry and rice and a smoothie and fried tofu I was beyond stuffed. Back on our scooters, we embarked to see more of the area.
We spent the day riding around on skinny, sandy roads. The area was brilliant. Although Bagan is well known and placed in the middle of the Myanmar tourist trail, we spent the day seeing practically no-one at all. Being in solitude while wandering around these ancient ruins made me feel like I was removed from all civilization and technology of the modern day. When I set down my camera, and looked away from the electric scooters, it was impossible to distinguish the time period we were in.
After a while we decided to search for more food. After such a good breakfast, we navigated towards Be Kind to Animals: The Moon 2, the second installation of the first restaurant we had been to. After finding the restaurant we took a seat at one of the most incredible shaded restaurant gardens imaginable. Surrounded by huge amounts of petrified wood and under a large bamboo trellis, we sat on short wicker chairs surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees. We ordered fresh fruit smoothies, tzatziki with papadums (a garlic-y, yoghurt-based cucumber salad served with thin flaky crackers), and relaxed. The food, again, was incredible.
We then went to find a temple I read about online that was supposed to offer both a great view and a fair amount of isolation from other tourists. After some confused directions, we arrived and found that we were alone.
After climbing the temple and seeing that the view was incredible, we decided to wait to see the sunset. Eventually, a couple others showed up, who were all incredibly friendly. The sun set and the view of the temples sitting in front of silhouetted mountains was gorgeous. We eventually embarked and returned to our hotel to get an early sleep.
The next morning we did wake up early for sunrise and we made it back to the same temple. Again, there were a few other people, but seeing the sun rise across the pagoda and temple filled plains, with hot air balloons floating by, felt unreal.
This second day we had more time and less to see, so we drove around somewhat aimlessly again, seeing more of the 2000-plus temples and pagodas, and ate more delicious food at more great little cheap restaurants. Eventually the sun set so we relaxed at a restaurant, eventually returned to our hotel, and relaxed more. We expected a bus from JJ Express (the company that put us on the terrible bus to Bagan) to pick us up at 10:00pm.
Thankfully, at 10:00pm on-the-dot, the bus arrived, and as promised, it was brilliant. The seats were huge and leather and reclined and there were large footrests and small TVs in the seatbacks. After enjoying some chocolate cake provided and some tea (which came in small cups and was nearly impossible to drink without spilling on the bumpy roads) I fell asleep for the night. This bus would comfortably take us to Inle Lake in the Shan State. This beautiful lake will serve as a stopping point between Bagan and Yangon, our final destination in Myanmar.