Finally, my temple hopping in Bagan is done. I managed to visit most of the significant temples in Bagan. Although nowhere near as many temples visited as when I was in Cambodia. This was just as exhausting. Despite just sitting inside the horse cart most of the time. The heat can really get to you. I have been to a lot of hot places but this place is really very dry. No wonder the temples of Bagan were preserved so well.
As it turns out, my driver had one last temple for me to visit. I wasn’t sure about the name of the temple but this is definitely the last one. I mentioned to him that I wanted to get a sunset photo of Bagan. I’ve seen lots of impressive photos on the sunset in Bagan and I wanted to see if I can get one myself. Just off a dirt road near the Sulamani Temple, was a set of pagodas. My horse cart driver said that this dirt road sees very little travellers since the road was very rough. However, he still pushes through with the detour.
We arrived at the temple quite early in the afternoon and the sun was still quite high in the sky. So I decided to hangout in the horse cart while waiting for the sun to go down. As soon as I realized that it was time, I set out to climb the pagoda. Apparently, some kid already beat me to it. And he was not alone. It turns out that both of them were selling stuff, one was selling postcards, the other was selling souvenir items.
They started bugging me to buy something from them. As usual, it didn’t work. They even tried the old “Where do you come from?” trick. But to no avail. I was just there for the sunset and some photos. At that time, there was an American visitor taking photos and they didn’t get anything out of him either. Fortunately for me, there were a few Europeans that came to the same pagoda and that basically got rid of the kids for me.
The sunset was rather unspectacular, the sun didn’t even make it behind the mountains but disappeared behind a thick layer of haze. The golden sunset colors I was hoping for didn’t materialize and I guess you can say that all of us were quite disappointed. I managed to talk to a few tourists and they felt the same way. I didn’t manage to get a sunrise photo of Bagan either. I think you need to stay much longer than a day to be able to get a great sunset photo.
I didn’t catch the name of our sunset pagoda, but it seems this particular one was a popular spot for taking sunset photos. However, it is by no means the only one you can take sunset photos from. Bagan is littered with hundreds of these pagodas and unlike my sunset pagoda, you can have those all to yourself. Visitors might want to ask around for alternatives, but then Bagan is not as touristed as Thailand so even if you did find someone else sharing your pagoda, there is enough room for all.
Bagan is probably one of the most amazing places you never heard of. Compared to the famous temple of Angkor, the temples of Bagan are relative unknowns. However, the sheer number of temples in Bagan will certainly overwhelm Angkor anytime. A proper way of visiting Bagan will be to take your time going to the temples and noting the details of each temple. One would appreciate the lack of tourist buzz in Bagan, with locals outnumbering tourists. Bagan certainly counts as a UNESCO World Heritage Site but the world body has still to award it pending the government’s lack of care in preserving the temples.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/SuLaMaNiPahto.kmz} zoom=14]