Bagan-Myanmar!

Bagan was born when King Anawrahta took the thrown in 1044.The Bagan archaeological zone stretches 42 square km.During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas still survive to the present day. Bagan is not yet a UNESCO World Heritage Site (which is a travesty in my opinion) it is easily one of the most spectacular sights in SE Asia!!

We decided to get up and cycle to the sight before sunrise (early start and hard ride but well worth the effort) even if I did nearly get attacked by 5 dogs! Although the architecture of the temples at Bagan are not as intricate as those at Angkor the amount of temples takes your breath away (they are everywhere you look and stretch further than you can see) and for this reason Bagan impressed me far more! I would even go as far to say that Bagan should hold 'Wonder' status.

 

Unfortunately because of the situation in Myanmar and the difficulty in organising a trip here (mainly no ATM's and the need for crisp, new US Dollars) not enough people visit Myanmar and are unaware of Bagan so no one votes it as a 'Wonder'!! All I can say is if you can be bothered to make the effort it's well worth it.The only negative thing about Bagan is that you have to pay 10 US Dollars to enter the Bagan archaeological zone...this goes directly to the government (although it is claimed it is used for preservation and restoration).

 

If you don't know about the situation in Myanmar and the reason why I wouldn't want to give any money to the government let me explain.

Myanmar is ruled by an oppressive military regime by giving money it can be seen to legitimise the government and most definitely contributes to it's piggy bank!

Anyway,thankfully we had left early enough that we managed to get back to our hotel before the full heat of the day had kicked in (100oF) or we would have melted in our bike seats.