Pagan - Temples, Pagodas and monestaries

We took the Express Boat from Manadaly to Bagan early in the morning. It was a very pleasant ride and we could see a lot of river life:

We arrived at 16:30 in Bagan and took a horsecart to the Motel Eden. We rented bicycles for the next day (1500K per day) and enjoyed a nice dinner with Bjoern from Netherland!

Unfortunately there was a lot of mould in the bathroom, so we could barely slept. Hence we decided to switch Hotels as soon as possible (I would not recommend Motel Eden). We took our bicycles and shopped at 7am around. We were lucky and got a nice and quiete room at New Palace Hotel (very recommended) for the same price and we could pay in Kyat, so we can save our last Dollars newer than 2003!

After bringing our luggage on the bicycle to the new Hotel, we immediately started our pagoda tour.For hours we were visiting al lot of Pagodas, temples and monasteries. It is just amazing, what they build 800-1000 years ago on the river Irrawaday. It is truly a big religious spot with wonderful architecture!

In the evening we climbed the large Shwe San Daw Paya Pagoda, unfortunately the only one which is officially open to climb. You have such a great view, despite the many tourists around you. The light is shining on those old buildings and you really feel the religious spirit of the past!

I was in Burma in 93 and 94 again, as it was for magic wonderland. Since than 20 years passed by and the development did not stop. In Pagan the old village (where I stayed back than) is now a top htel resort and ALL the burmanese inhabitants had to move to New Pagan. Also they build a 4 lane road (pretty big for a 3000 people village, but it gives you a glimpse, what will come... Furthermore they build a watchtower (!!!) Into this ancient place. When I was there you could just climb every pagada and enjoy the sunset, with maybe 10-15 other tourists in the whole area. Now there are a lot of busses bringing tourist groups to the temples. Nevertheless you have still the pagodas and you can manage to be alone in this vast area, if you go to small places or to remote ones. The local hawkers you cannot avoid, even at small places they have their booth and wants to sell you paintings, jade, postcards, etc. Once we were visiting a small complex and we thought, nobody was there. Out of a sudden a little boy shows up and said: ”I can draw!”, trying to sell drawings to us. You are rarely allone in Pagan...

I hope, I got not misunderstood, Pagan is just great and one of the big wonders in South East Asia! If you stroll with the bicycle around the pagodas you will find many wonderful things. You can see great architectures, buddhas and really nice paintings, hundreds of years old:

In the evening you can sit outside in the mild evening and enjoy talking to your fellow travelers.

Recommendations:
- take a bike for 2 days and explore the area on your own
- get up early (5am) and get a nice sunrise
- find a nice pagoda and ask the door keeper for a little donation to Buddha to open the lock to go upstairs, e.g. At Gu Taw Thit
- enjoy the very old paintings inside of the pagoda, which are sometimes hard to find, e.g. Ape ya da na
- remember, it is still magnificent and in a couple of years it will be crowded like Angkor, so enjoy it!

Special for Uta: es ist immer noch sehr schoen, aber 94 war es einfach irre, weil so wenige Menschen da waren.