Sunrise to Sunset: What You Need to Know About Bagan

In my office, I have a photo ripped out of an old calendar of the Bagan temples at sunrise. The temples appear golden as the morning sun shines and there are several hot air balloons soaring through the sky. I have dreamed of visiting this place in person, and I finally achieved that dream.

How long should you spend in Bagan?

We spent a total of two days and three nights in Bagan. This gave us plenty of opportunities to see several sunrises and sunsets. We recommend seeing as many as possible and it’s super easy to do. When choosing a hotel, you have the option to stay in New Bagan, Old Bagan, or Nyaung-U. We stayed at the Golden Myanmar Guesthouse in Nyaung-U. We felt this was the perfect location to explore the temples and be in walking distance to several bars and restaurants, despite spotty WiFi. This problem, we soon learned, was widespread throughout Myanmar. Hence the lack of posts!

There are many options to get to Bagan. It is possible to arrive by boat, plane, train, or car. We arrived by mini-bus from Mandalay which took about 6 hours. There is one bathroom break along the way. Bring your own toilet paper and get ready for that squatting toilet! Chris informed me that the urinal is nothing more than a slab of concrete people pee on.

Best Temples for Sunrise and Sunset

Law Ka Ou Shaung – We ended up enjoying our first Bagan sunrise here. It turns out navigating to the temples at 5am in the dark and after a night of heavy rain can be muddy and nearly impossible. We spent a lot of time stumbling around in the dark, but we were lucky to find this temple just as the sun started to rise. It wasn’t too crowded and we managed to get a good view. This turned out to be our best sunrise and once the hot air balloons flew by the pictures got even better! Since the temple has stairs on all four sides, this is a good option for viewing the sunset as well.

Myauk Guni – A very popular sunset spot, but it is not too crowded as the big tourist buses cannot make it down the road to the temple. Our e-bike got us there with no problems, but we had a cloudy and rainy sunset.

Ta Wet Hpaya – We tried to reach this “secret” temple for our first sunrise, but we couldn’t make it because of the mud. The second morning we were determined and prepared! We both had our headlamps and what do you know, it’s amazing how easy it is to find a road when you have light! We still encountered a fair amount of mud, but the headlamps helped us navigate to more solid ground. We reached the “secret” temple and climbed up to the top. It was an amazing view, but unfortunately we had a cloudy sunrise. It is possible to climb on all four sides of the temple so we returned at night to catch the sunset which was alas – a good one! One good sunrise and sunset during our time in Bagan, we can’t complain about that!

Other Favorite Temples in Bagan

Manuha Temple – This temple has several giant Buddha’s inside and one laying down Buddha!

Shwezigon Pagoda – This pagoda was in walking distance from our hotel, so we checked it out on our first night in Bagan. It was big, beautiful, and shiny!

Dhammayan Gyi Temple – We enjoyed this temple so much that we visited it twice! Not intentionally, but after walking around for a solid 10 minutes, I started have some serious deja-vu. It turns out you can access this temple from four different sides and we had indeed been here the day before. This has to happen to other people when they visit Bagan, right??

Any temple off the beaten tourist path – Having e-bike gives you the luxury of driving down small side roads that can’t fit the large tourist buses. During your time in Bagan you should certainly see some of the main temples, but venture to the less popular areas. Nothing is better than having a temple all to yourself to explore! It is also relaxing to enjoy a temple without the many locals trying to sell you postcards or other souvenirs.

Rent an e-bike!

We have mentioned that we traveled from temple to temple on e-bike and we can not recommend this enough! It was easy and quick to see as many temples as we possibly could! A one day rental will cost about 6,000 Kyat ($4.50). Chris loved zipping around Bagan. Riding the e-bike can help you stay cool in the heat of the day. Bagan is relatively flat and can be explored by bicycle, but be prepared to sweat! We saw a few people biking and they certainly looked like they were earning their Myanmar beer.

Do you really need to purchase a Bagan Archaeological Zone Pass for 25,000 Kyat??

The answer to this question is yes and we learned this lesson the hard way. We did some research prior to arriving in Bagan, but none of the blogs that I read mentioned anything about purchasing a zone pass. We were surprised when we were asked for a ticket as we walked into the Ananda Temple. We had been visiting temples all day and this was the first time we were asked to pay. To put a long story short, we were hassled by two women to pay 25,000 Kyat each on the spot. I did not have that much money on me and the women insisted I pay or tell her the name of my hotel. I told her I would visit an ATM and then return. (I also wanted to look up the pass online to ensure I wasn’t falling for a scam before paying the fee). The women followed Chris and I out of the temple as we tried to leave. They continued to insist that we needed to pay or they would call the police. I felt like a broken record, but I kept saying I needed to go to an ATM. What a scene! We hopped on our e-bike and drove away from the loud women. I was convinced we were going to be pulled over and thrown in jail, nothing like that happened of course. We went to a cafe and had some tea while cracking the internet password from the hotel across the street. Turns out the zone pass was legitimate, so we stopped at three ATMs (another widespread problem) until we found one that worked and took out 50,000 kyat to be prepared to pay next time we were asked. We paid for our pass at sunset while visiting the Myauk Guni temple. The women there were much nicer, I guess as long as you have enough money there are no issues. So take our advice and keep some money on you as you will probably run into a few zone pass checks during your visit.

Bagan Travel Considerations

During our 8-week backpacking trip in Asia, we questioned the decision to travel to Myanmar due to the government’s treatment of ethnic minorities. In the end we cancelled our full Myanmar itinerary, and only visited Bagan. We always recommend being a responsible traveler, do you research researching and understand what is important to know before backpacking Myanmar.

Bagan Essentials to Pack

For your travel in Myanmar, be sure to pack light conservative clothing. Remember short shorts and tank tops are not permitted to visit the temples. The best options to stay cool and dress respectfully were lightweight capris or long dresses with short sleeves. We highly recommend wearing sandals that are easy to take on and off. All of the temples require you to visit barefoot (no socks), wearing sandals saves yourself so much time taking sneakers and socks on and off countless times. Another must have is a headlamp or flashlight. These were so helpful for getting to the temples and walking through them in the dark while waiting to watch the sunrise.