Bagan, Myanmar

This town has a special place in my heart. There’s something about going to a place that is still so raw with culture and hasn’t been oversaturated by tourist. As soon as we arrived we could feel the history behind Bagan. A landscape that extends over 40 miles covered in thousands of temples, some that have been abandoned and some that host locals. These temples aren’t your typical Southeast Asian architectural design, they are similar to the ancient temples in Cambodia. We arrived in Bagan by bus from Yangon ( the capital city of Myanmar), which took about 9.5 hours.

There are plenty of places to choose from in terms of accommodation in Bagan, we chose the Royal Bagan Hotel because after a 10 hour bus ride, I wanted a decent private room to enjoy haha. There are two different places to stay in Bagan, Old Town and New town. We stayed in old town as it was the perfect spot in the midst of all the temples and had a decent amount of options for food.

Pro Tip: You’ll end up renting an e-bike to explore the temples, but heres a pro tip, do NOT rent them from the hotels. They inflate the prices, so you will probably pay around double the amount you’d find in town or even on the side of the street. Also, before you leave to explore, you’ll need to dress appropriately. Like most Southeast Asian countries, you’ll need to cover your shoulders and knees when entering Temples or Pagodas.

The highlights of my trip in Bagan were waking up every single morning about an hour before sunrise, while it was still dark, to hop on the bikes and find the perfect set of temples climb to watch the hot air balloons cruise over the horizon. Y’all, I use the term breathtaking a lot when describing amazing moments or views, but honestly this was incredible and yes…. Breathtaking haha. It was amazing to watch the sky go from black and blues to hues of pink, bright oranges and reds. We ended up finding a couple temples that weren’t saturated with people. That stunning view, with nothing but the birds chirping and the sound of the hot air balloons torching their flames in the distance made for a dreamy sunrise every morning. I could’ve easily stayed a couple weeks there to enjoy that sunrise every morning

Pro Tip: The hot air balloons tend to leave from different spots throughout the week, so it’s kind of a coin toss to find the right temples to watch them fly over! Find temples that you’d want to watch them from the day before and pin them on your map. This will help immensely on your search in the dark the next morning. Also, wake up and get to the temples you want to watch them from EARLY. I’m talking like be on the road at least 1 hour to 45 minutes before the sun rises. Those hot air balloons hit the sky early so you’ll miss them if you’re planning to get on the road when its light out.

After capturing sunrise everyday we’d start our adventure across the fields of temples and explore with no agenda but to see as much as we could! A couple of the temples were locked up but we found a toooon that we were able to go inside and check out. Some even hosted locals that were happy to tell us the history behind the structures. Some of the larger more touristy temples were covered in souvenir shops and vendors, which was to be expected, but drive past all the well known temples to find more secluded ones and you’ll have them all to yourself to explore!

We stopped in New Bagan for lunches and breaks multiple times between our temple hopping. Both New and Old Bagan have plenty of options for snacks and meals for vegetarians and meat eaters alike!

Sunsets were absolute FIRE in Bagan! I’m talking, the sun was literally red haha, it was insane! We’d find secluded temples to climb and post up for the entire sunset and just chat about life and how incredible our experiences were so far in Bagan.

Nightlife was not much of a thing in Bagan. Ostello Bello Hostel was probably the only place we heard about that had a social drinking atmosphere. Too be fair though, as much as I love to party, that wasn’t my main focus on this trip as I was waking up before the sun came up every morning.

Bagan is an incredible town and was absolutely the highlight of my entire trip in Myanmar. I do regret not staying longer than 4 nights, but we were limited on time in the country as we only had 2 weeks in the entire country before we had to head to the Philippines! Make sure to push Bagan to the top of your list on places to see in Myanmar.

For more videos and photos from my trip to Myanmar, check out my instagram highlight reel!