Following a morning flight from Yangon to Bagan, I took a taxi to Old Bagan to begin my temple run. There are those who do this with horse carriages, some who do this with electric scooters (which is what I did on day 2), but for the first day, I just did my Bagan temple run on foot. Although this may seem crazy when temperatures are 37-40c, in what feels like desert area, I must say it was a fairly positive experience, and felt much more local. I met a lot more people, I experienced things as the locals do, and I really felt the contrasts between the outside and the very cool temple indoors. This does make you want to linger in each temple as long as possible, and that’s when seeing a friendly Buddha face is the reassurance of a cool revival from the scorching heat outside.
Most of the temples are very close to one another, so you can just pick one starting point and randomly jump between them. In the first part (Bagan Day 1 Temple Run Part 1 : Burma) I wrote about Ananda temple, That Bin Nyu, and Myat Taw Pyay, close to the center of the old Bagan area, and this continues to part two from that point.
The great thing about Shinbinthalyaung & Shwesandaw Pagoda is that you can climb on top to get some grand views of the area, and from there I walked towards the area of my hotel in new Bagan going through all the road side temples, near Mya Zedi Pagoda area, with a slightly more funky local feel, and lots of local restaurants.
Shinbinthalyaung & Shwesandaw Pagoda
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Mya Zedi Pagoda
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More yet to come from my second day touring around on an electric bike.