Burma: Part 3 - Bagan

So a little tipsily, I hopped on the night train to Bagan and settled in for the 8 hour journey in my cushioned Upper Class seat.  Having heard that these particular tracks were the worst in the country, my expectations weren't high but I was still hoping to get some shut-eye and make an early start around the temples in the morning.  As it was only 9pm, I started talking to some fellow passengers to pass the time and discovered the group sitting across from me were also Melburnians - how nice it was to hear the familiar accent and have a conversation with someone who understood my points of reference!  There wasn't as many vendors aboard this train, but I did manage to buy a couple of late night samosas as a snack.  As it grew late everyone in the cabin slowly started drifting off to sleep and I curled under a few layers of extra clothing to keep warm as the temperature plummeted.  It didn't take long for us all to be awoken with a bang though as a couple of large backpacks dropped from the overhead railing due to the incredible swaying of the train.  Seriously, it was like being on a boat!  I hardly got any sleep at all.

Arriving in Bagan at 4am was a nightmare.  Sleepily, we all grabbed our things and got off the train only to be met by utility truck taxi drivers vying for our business into the town centre.  A few of us decided to share a cab and after some fussing around hopped on the back of the ute.  We stopped a short time later at a government checkpoint/paystation (it costs 10USD to enter the area) and spent a few minutes checking over the necessary paperwork before continuing on into town. One by one the cab dropped us off at our hotels and it was about 5am when I arrived at Pyinsarupa Guest House.

This place had been recommended to me by a Japanese girl I had met the day before in Mandalay and I had directions to ask for the owner, a man named Kyaw Kyaw - who oddly enough was fluent in Japanese.  When I arrived however, everyone was still sleeping and Kyaw Kyaw was not due in until 10am.  I was also starting to feel rather dodgy - unsure at this point whether I was hungover, tired or about to get hit with samosa-related-food-poisoning...  The half-asleep guy behind the counter kindly led me to a vacant room in the back though and let me snooze for a few hours unhindered.  I was woken up at 10am on the dot by a smiling Kyaw Kyaw who took me upstairs to a room that I'd be sharing with some fellow Japan-based travellers.  My dodgy stomach turning out to be food poisoning of the very worst sort, I gratefully crawled into bed and casting all temple plans aside stayed there for a full 24 hours.  So much for getting back to Yangon in time for New Year's Eve!

Kyaw Kyaw.

The following day however, I was back to my old self (almost) and decided to embark on the temple tour.  Initially I had wanted to go by bicycle but as I still felt a little weak I decided to rent a horse and cart instead.  That turned out to be a mistake!  Though it lent the day an air of whimsy, travelling by this method tended to be ridiculously slow and my driver ended up being a bit of a weirdo.  Also, I was locked into his 5-temple-timeline and my racing through some of the smaller (more boring) ones at the start just led me to spend an extra hour lingering at the prescribed lunch drop point.  In retrospect, I should've stuck to the bikes but at 15USD for a whole day's tour by horse and cart I guess I can't complain too much.  And I managed to see the last sunset of 2012 sitting atop a hundreds-of-years-old temple in the middle of Myanmar and for that I really cannot complain!

Just as the night sky was starting to settle over Bagan my driver dropped me back at Pyinsarupa and I headed upstairs to shower, change and figure out a plan for the rest of the night (NYE!!).  Randomly, one of my fellow room-mates (a Japanese guy called Yuki) was also of this mind and so in a snap decision we decided to spend NYE together.

First we went to a Burmese BBQ restaurant.  It was busy!  I ordered a whole BBQ fish for dinner and several beers to wash it down with, so was rather surprised when the total bill at the end of the night was only 10USD for both of us combined!  After dinner we ran into my fellow Melburnians again and decided to go with them to a bonfire party down the road.  We made a quick stop for some Myanmar whiskey and then proceeded to dance our asses off around the bonfire until about 2am.  I had a great time (despite the countdown coming an odd, full 2 minutes early) though if I never hear the song Gangnam Style again it will be too soon!  After some bicycle-related shenanigans and hand-holding down the streets of Bagan, we made it back to the Guesthouse and slipped into bed by around 2.30am.  Poor Yuki had wanted to get up and watch the first sunrise of 2013, but after such a big night we both slept soundly through until mid-morning.  It was a good New Years.

The only photo I have of me and Yuki on NYE - blurry and drunkenly!

On New Year's Day I had made plans to travel back to Yangon by bus, departing Bagan at 6pm.  Yuki and I decided to spend the day together exploring Bagan in the meantime though and so after pulling ourselves together we set off on foot, clutching our cameras, in search of hidden wonders.  First, we spent some time looking for a temple carved into a cliff face that I had my heart set on visiting, only to realise later that it was actually located just outside Mandalay, not Bagan :(  Next we followed some winding paths down to the riverside where we made friends with some local kids and watched as the village women lined up to pull water from the nearby well.  We also had a big curry lunch at a small family restaurant and managed to revisit a few of the bigger, more impressive temples we had seen previously.  And over a few late afternoon beers, Yuki introduced me to some of his friends, Taku and Take, who were also bound for Yangon on the same bus as me.  It was sad to leave him behind when I got on the bus - a hazard for the solo traveller I guess - though I was happy to have met him and have some new friends to look out for me on the trip down to Yangon.

Overall, Bagan was good.  A little too "countryside" for me but probably somewhere I would revisit, if only to tour some of the more obscure and further away temples one day.  Also, the people here were beautifully friendly and heading back just to see Kyaw Kyaw again might be worth the trip!