Myanmar Trip: Three-Point Bagan

When my friend first mentioned about Myanmar to me a while back, all I knew was Yangon. The word Bagan didn't ring as much bell as Angkor, need not to mention about Mandalay. As I went along in this trip with him, it was a journey of discovery on the places that were foreign to me. There were a number of experiences that I didn't foresee.

We were approached by taxi drivers the moment we got off the train at Bagan Railway Station in which we didn't even get to walk pass it. We actually attempted booking for Grab at first but unfortunately it wasn't available in the region. One of the drivers claimed that he knew where our hostel was. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, we agreed to go with him with reasonable fare. It was all sandy around us as we cruised along the road. We needed to pay 25000 kyat for entering Bagan Archaeological Zone and the ticket was valid for five days. We were only asked for it once for the entire trip.

View of Bagan Railway Station from our taxi

Entrance ticket to Bagan Archaeological Park. Only one ticket issued for both of us.

As shops started to appear as we looked out through the car window, we knew we were close to New Bagan. The traffic was rather minimal or I daresay, there was almost no car on the road as we arrived at Ostello Bello Bagan. We were asked to fill up some sort of welcoming form while waiting for the room to be ready. 48 dollars for 2 nights, it was one of the nicest hostels that I ever stayed, if not in Myanmar perhaps among all the trips that I had previously. Cozy room and clean toilet, the hostel also hosted nightly game activities in which we joined for both nights. We went on to refresh ourselves after long journey since the day before (Remembered the twenty hours train ride?)

Our hostel was strategically located in the heart of New Bagan whereby the little town can be covered on foot. The air was rather sandy/dusty and hence I would recommend a face mask. We noticed there was plenty of scooter (or locally called it as e-bike) rentals around. Every time we passed by those little tents we would hear "e-bike?" which would follow up by question of asking for where we were from and ringgit notes as souvenirs. There was one particular boy called us "Malaysia" wherever he saw us while we were temples hopping.  Too bad we didn't get a picture of him as there was no sign of him upon our return.

We had our first lunch in Bagan at Shwe Ou Food Garden. I have to say, most of the eateries were not air-conditioned despite of the hot weather. The ceiling fan didn't seem to help much either. We relieved ourself from the heat temporarily with home made ice cream as our dessert. We started exploring New Bagan on foot as we found our way to the riverside of Irrawaddy (or Ayeyarwaddy) River, the largest river in Myanmar, nicknamed "The Road to Mandalay". The intention was going to the lookout point but eventually decided to detour back to the hostel as the place seemed to be not really accessible. Along the way, we could see some of the temples, a prelude for what is going to happen on the next day. I could feel that my skin was almost burning walking under the hot sun and it was around 3pm. There was barely any shade and the distance towards our hostel seem to be extended due to the heat. We checked the temperature on that day was as high as 41 degree Celcius. That was a record for me. We chilled out in the room before visiting another spot of ruins in the late evening. Had our dinner at Black Rose which was just ordinary - hunger filler for the night.

First lunch in Bagan. Buttermilk Curry Chicken and Cowpea. Nyum.

Ice cream to cool ourselves. Mine was the strawberry oyster, no real oyster. Basically just strawberry ice cream served between the bread and jelly. Tasted a little too sweet.

We saw this signage while exploring Bagan. Apparently need to call for Grab around this area.

Remnants of ancient temple within New Bagan

First sunset in Bagan

Pork Curry. The curry in this country wasn't that spicy in my opinion.

Next day started as early as 4.00 am as we planned to catch the sunrise. The receptionist recommended a spot and at first we thought the place would be less touristy. We were joined by another traveller from India in which we met during "Stop!" game the night before. Initially we thought of renting two bikes but eventually we resorted to one big bike (luckily we did) for 9000 kyat. We had a test ride at the roundabout right in front of the hostel. I have fear of bikes and to ride one of these things was a step up for me. When my friend mentioned about renting one before our travel, I didn't really dwell that much and it was too late to turn back at that point of time. At first, I thought it was manageable, just need get used to the control; right hand to accelerate, left hand to brake. I told myself, "I can do this!" Or so I thought.

My friend was the first rider for the sunrise spot as I navigated the way. As we were off the main road, the pathway was not properly paved and not well illuminated. There was another sunrise spot that we missed in which we only noticed when we were on the way back in the evening. The receptionist told us it would be quite a hike to get to the sunrise spot which turned out to be just a little slope. I could have just worn my Birkenstock sandals instead of sport shoes. To my surprise, the place was already crowded with tourists, mostly coming from the mainland. There were lots of buses and horse carriages at the parking lot. I wasn't sure what to expect for the view but my friend didn't seem to be pleased as it didn't appear as what he hoped for I suppose. It was very cloudy and by the time the sun made its appearance, it already went beyond the horizon.

Look at the crowd. Look at that sun.

This is our version of Bagan sunrise.

Temples of Bagan. We were going to tick them off in a while.

We went off to our very first temple, Htilominlo Temple, a three-storey tall red brick temple. Be mindful that no footwear was allowed in all temples. Since we were early, we were the first to be there, I reckoned. Next pagoda in the plan was Shwezigon Pagoda which was quite a distant as we passed by some local neighbourhood and it appeared to be less touristy. We didn't get to go in as nature called for my friend. The mission soon became looking for water closet before we stopped by a random temple which was unplanned. That was the perk of exploring the place with scooter, can be more flexible in the itinerary. But, I won't be able to do it alone, not right here.

Side of Htilominlo Temple. There was some work ongoing at the top.

The still joyful me with bike in front of Ywa Haung Gyi Temple.

Ananda Temple by far was the prettiest temple I have seen in the zone with the golden dome and surrounded by white structure. Dhammayangyi Temple was claimed to be the largest temple in the area. Taking a brief break from the temples, we visited Bagan Golden Palace with additional fee. It was a small complex which can be easily covered in less than hour. Thatbinyinyu Temple was the tallest temple but it was under renovation work. One of the kids approached us selling postcards, saying she needed money for her to get into university.

Ananda Temple. I think this was the easiest name to remember among others.

Monks walking towards the pyramid style Dhammayangyi Temple.

Posing right in front of the archway

Thirizayabumi Golden Palace. The whole palace was rebuilt. 5000 kyat entrance fee.

Thatbnyinyu Temple. The peak was under with scaffolding so we settled with the side view.

Welcoming to Bagan sign. Didn't notice this the day before.

Completed the agenda in the morning, we were off for our breakfast at Kan Htoo Get to try the unofficial dish of Myanmar , Mohinga and the owner told us they only left one for us to try. I was expecting it to be good and turned out I kinda liked it, reminded me of Malaysian version of laksa.

Myanmar Style breakfast. A good feast to nourish ourselves after all the temples visit

We returned to the hostel as we planned the next activity in the evening to avoid the almost unbearable heat. Unexpected downpour happened afternoon which may have cooled off the surrounding a little as we chilled at the common area. Free pasta was served at 1pm.  We had our late lunch at The Moon, a vegetarian restaurant. I ordered noodle soup which was nyum. Free mango slices were served as our dessert. I have been craving for eating mango since I saw them in Yangon but dare not to try due to hygiene issue. From there we went to Shwesandow Temple for planned sunset view. Unfortunately, the staircase was closed and hence, no sunset view from there. As we rode around, we have been approached by the locals whether we were interested for temple climbing. It seemed to be a thing there, or it used to be. We were told that the temples climbing was no longer allowed due to earthquakes that hit the place few years back which may have compromised the integrity of the temples. We explored the temple before attempting another site for sunset view but it was in vain too. At last, we went back to the same spot we went for in the earlier day. There were two French girls who seemed to be looking for sunset vantage point and my friend invited them to follow us.

Satisfying late lunch at The Moon.

Tamarind Flakes which tasted similar to Hawthorn Flakes. Sweet mango cutlets.

Cute coconut monkey

Candid photo of me wearing longyi at Shwesandow Pagoda.

All those efforts looking for vantage points of sunset seemed to go to waste due to these clouds

We had a little incident with our scooter when it was out of battery while we were heading back to town. It was 5km away when our scooter decided to fail us. Luckily, a tourist police passed by and helped us to call our scooter provider before being joined by his friend. We waited in the drizzle for 20 minutes before our smaller scooter came for the rescue. I felt bad for my friend for having to ride in the rain as his sight was partially hindered by the droplets on his glasses. I had minor trauma myself earlier in which I twisted my right wrist. Most importantly, we made it back safe and sound. With all the ordeals, we decided to settle our dinner at the hostel.

As our bus would pick us around noon, we went to lacquerware workshop next door after having breakfast at the hostel. I booked our bus ticket online and selected the hostel as pick up point. However, you will still need to inform the receptionist to reconfirm with the bus company for the arrangement. Apparently lacquerware was Bagan's specialty which explained a number of lacquerware shops around. My friend bought one from the shop and we were brought around by the lady on the manufacturing process. I was amazed as all these products were hand-made and one needs to be very meticulous and patient to produce a fine piece of lacquerware and it involved more than one person. The effort may go as long as months or even years, depends on the material/quality. We returned to the same spot for our last lunch in Bagan.

Lacquerware on display. These were made from bamboo. Some they used horse hairs too.

Different stages of lacquerware making.

Last lunch in Bagan with noodles.

The bus brought us to the bus station together with other passengers. There weren't many passengers onboard. I remembered there was only a family of five, a solo traveller and us.  The bus departed earlier than scheduled and the 4 hours bus journey began. The online reviews mostly actually discourage to use bus. In those reviews most of them were referring to the minibus. On the contrary, we opted for bigger bus with JJ Express which was quite comfortable. I would recommend the same company for those who wish to use bus for intercity travel in Myanmar.

Our very last intercity travel in this trip. It was coming to a close.

One last pitstop to go.

Our journey:

Mingalaba: Yangon - Bagan - Mandalay

You may wonder what is it called "Three Point Bagan". My friend's post may explain.

Myanmar Trip: Golden Rangoon

Stayed up the whole night at KLIA2, we took the first AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur. We landed at Yangon International Airport after being in the air around two and a half hours. As our eVisa was granted with approval letter (you have to print it out), we headed towards the immigration counter and there was literally no queue as we were the first ones in line. There were a lot of guys wearing longyi (we didn't know what it was called then) waiting at the arrival hall and they turned out to be taxi drivers. We walked passed them as we planned to have our USD changed to kyat first. There were a number of money changers at the airport and their rate was rather competitive after checking the rate online (that time was 1 USD for 1532 kyat). The counter  lady was rather meticulous with the USD notes as two of our USD notes were rejected. One of them was just because there was presence of minor black dot at the edge. We went to the bus stop that just located right outside of the airport. It was only around 9 am but the immense heat was immediately felt as we left the building.

We saw Omni Red bus was coming and we went on it without second thought. The fare was 500 kyat flat regardless of distance. This bus ultimately became one of our major ways to commute as we we weren't familiar with the local bus network. Most of the bus numbers and locations at the stops were written in Burmese. The shuttle bus run by Omni Focus Company was sufficient for us as it covered the places in our itinerary. However, we overlooked that from the airport the bus has two different routes which would still eventually come to a loop. We should have picked the bus with Kabar Aye Pagoda Road route (we got onto the one with Pyay Road instead) for our first stop which cost us additional 40 minutes before arriving at Myanmar Plaza. Thankfully the bus was air conditioned and the extended journey time was still as pleasant as we get to have a quick glimpse of Yangon city. Coming off from the bus and with our backpack on, we tailgated the locals crossing the busy road to get to Inya Lake.

Man-made lake. You may see Suu Kyi's house in the distance.

Inya Lake is the largest lake in Yangon and it was built during British occupancy. For a place that is famous for local couples, I find the lake was rather underwhelming and there wasn't much to shout about. We proceeded to walk towards the iron gate which supposedly guard the house in which Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest. We took photo in front of the gate even without knowing who was the guy on the portrait (we soon found out that it General Aung San, Suu Kyi's father). We detoured to Myanmar Plaza and had our lunch at the food court. The mall was decent with a number of unfamiliar outlets around. Just like the one in Bangkok, we need to go through security check before entering the mall. I saw Coffee Bean but where is my Starbucks? Also, one of our intentions was the Hard Rock Cafe but unfortunately, it has closed down in which we overlooked from the site.

Our first meal in Myanmar. 5000 kyat.

We commuted to our hotel using the same bus though it didn't stop directly there. We came off at Shwedagon Pagoda stop and it was about ten minutes walk to Merchant Art Hotel. Little did we know that the street was busy with local markets. We were warmly welcomed and our room was ready to check in upon our arrival. Paying 32 USD for one night stay, we went ahead to refresh ourselves and sort our bag and a million of kyat notes. It was windowless room but the facilities were good. The hotel came with a nice roof terrance with a good view of Shwedagon Pagoda. Certain sections seemed to be under renovation during the time of our stay.

Passing by this street before reaching our hotel

Roof terrace of Merchant Art Hotel

The weather was cloudy as we walked out from the hotel. The wind was getting stronger and we were using umbrella to prevent the sands getting into our eyes. We made it in time to Myanmar Culture Valley before it started to drizzle. The place was not well maintained with little shops were open for business. We had our potato break while waiting for the sky to clear out before entering the much anticipated Shwedagon Pagoda through West Gate, which was right opposite of where we were.  Entrance fee was 10000 kyat and no footwear/shorts/sleeveless top were allowed. There wasn't much crowd and we can admire the beauty of the golden stupa slowly and steadily. We witnessed how the locals pray; we observed a group of ladies were sweeping around the pagoda; we were in awe of the shining pagoda as the sun started to set.

The magnificent golden stupa

This tree makes a good company to the shining pagoda

The sweeping ladies, with their leader, I assume

As sun started to set, the pagoda started to light up

The fires were lit up before it was getting dark

Young monks having their prayers

After strolling for at least two hours, we went off for our very first dinner in Myanmar at Jana Mon Ethnic Cuisine, few walks away from our stay. We ordered the most reviewed squid salad, reminded me of "umai" back in my hometown; home made soup which happened to be not my cup of tea; country style chicken that was savoury enough to eat with our coconut rice. Myanmar tea was free.  We have been travelling the whole day since the early morning and we decided called it a day early.

Myanmar Style Dinner

Recharged after a night sleep, we got onto Omni Bus towards the city. We finally made ourselves in the heart of Yangon. I was told that the buildings were not allowed to be higher than the tip of Shwedagon pagoda, which explained the non-existence of skyscrapers within vicinity. We had our breakfast at 999 Shan Noodle Shop which was recommended by my friend's brother. It reminded me a lot of chinese style noodle and the tofu was much tastier than it looked.

Streets of Yangon with Sule Pagoda right ahead

My very first Shan Noodle experience. This particular bowl seemed to be a one time thing for me.

With filled tummy we went on to explore the city. We noticed that there were a lot of colonial buildings around; some were preserved and used as offices while some others were abandoned. We even went into Strand Hotel (escaping the heat for a while), one of the earliest high class hotel which was built in 1901. We walked along Strand Road and managed to catch a glimpse of Botahtaung Pagoda from the other side of the road before making our way to St Mary Cathedral. The interior was colourfully decorated with paintings on the windows and featured the carvings of the Stations of the Cross.

Glimpse of local lives on the street

Mosque in the middle of the city

City council

Buildings nearby the city council and Maha Bandula Park

High Court Building

One of the historical buildings I felt abandoned

Feeling vintage with these old windows

Interior of Strand Hotel. Can consider to splurge here someday

Botahtaung Pagoda

St Mary Catheral. These kinds of cathedrals never fail to amaze me.

My friend took a photo of me while I was praying

We picked up our train ticket from Pegu Travels (we needed to walk six floors up as the elevator was on downtime) before heading back to hotel via Grab to pack for our next travel. The tickets were booked online and would only be released four days before travelling day. Alternatively, you can opt for the tickets to be sent to your hotel, in which we thought we should have done that. The hotel allowed for late check out till 2pm before we had our lunch at the same place for our dinner.

Wild mangosteen with pork (we expected purple serving) and roselle leaves prawns.

My mango juice was served with bamboo straw. Wanted to keep the straw for myself but I was told it cost 1000 kyat. 

We arrived at the railway station an hour before the scheduled departure time. The station looked a little run down. There was no LCD display to show which platform our train was going to be. We clarified with the counter and started walking into the station, with no one checking our tickets upon entry and the locals were seemed to be staring at us. As we got closer to the platform, we were approached by few kids asking for tickets. Politely excusing ourselves, we went ahead to find our coach. The same kids were still adamant in asking for our tickets as we got onto our coach. As I have nowhere to go, I reluctantly passed our tickets to them and it turned out that they wanted to sell food/beverages. I guess they are assigned to different coach and the one of the girls happened to be ours. She were rather persistent as we kept declining any order from her. She muttered "crazy" before finally leaving the train. Me and my friend, looked at each other, feeling amused at the situation. While all these were happening, there were other kids in proper uniform taking order for our upcoming dinner and for next day's breakfast. The train departed almost on time as the horn sound was heard and it started to move at 4.01 pm. The expected duration to be 17 hours was then becoming 20 hours journey began.

Yangon Railway Station. The interior didn't look as fancy.

Waiting for our train.

At first, the thought of long hours felt dreadful and I was wondering how would we kill our time though we already knew what we signed up for. We were kind of taken aback by the condition of the train the moment we boarded. We were pre-warned by the travel agent (my friend has expected it due to his train experience in Sri Lanka) that the coach wasn't going to be air-conditioned and only equipped with tiny ceiling fan. The coach which was supposedly to be shared by four persons,  however, it only has two beds and four pair of couches that can be used as pullout beds. This was completely different from the photos we saw from the booking website. We shared the coach with a pair of Barcelona couple, or so we thought. Despite this, ours seem-to-be-lack-of-comfort was compensated by the eyes-pleasing season-changing view from our windows. As the train slowly made its way and multiple stops along the journey, we observed the green sceneries to almost barren ground, from one place to another. Piles of rubbish can be seen at some of the remote locations. Both of us wondered how did those get there if there was no one living nearby. We waved at the locals as we passed by some of the villages and markets. The evening breeze managed to alleviate the tropical heat. At some points, the coach was moving from side to side and loud metal noises could be heard from the track. After our dinner on the train, the view was too dark and we decided to go to bed, or should I say couch and it was only 8pm. We pulled down the metal window and attempted to go to sleep (or lived through the night). The train would still make its usual stops and I could hear some people would knock on our coach. The stops were often brief before moving to next station. Awaken by the early sunrise, the morning heat started to be felt as the sun was already high up in the sky when it was only 9 am. Three hours passed on and finally, we reached our destination.

The train on its way. It was a common sight to see the locals walking along the railway or crossing it. It was not properly fenced. Need to watch out for trees when you look out.

One of the stops

Our dinner. It was surprisingly yum. Or may be we were just hungry. Came with generous portion too.

Green paddy field with the locals. This view reminded me of Gunung Jerai in Kedah, Malaysia

From the green watery scenery to desert, barren ground. It was actually sandy.

Morning, Myanmar!

I believed this was Mt Popa. Mean our next destination was getting close.

Our couches which were also our pull-out beds. Me and my friend were confined here for twenty hours, not the common long journey train ride experience I would say.

As the locals outside the train started to shout "Bagan! Bagan!", we knew that the current stop was ours. Sorting our bagpack and we were pumped for our next pitstop.

Complementary stories/experience on this part of our journey can be read at my friend's post here.

Our journey:
Mingalaba: Yangon - Bagan - Mandalay

Myanmar Trip: Mingalaba

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, wasn't intended to be ticked that soon in my list of countries to visit. Frankly speaking, I didn't have much awareness of Burmese history and culture before the trip.  I wasn't even familiar with their language, not to mention the food. The first thing that came to mind if to ask about Myanmar would be the widely known house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, who devoted her life to fight for democracy when the nation was under military rule which earned her Nobel Peace Prize. Now I believe I would be able to tell you more. I never knew that Myanmar is the second largest country in South East Asia after Indonesia. The lesser I expected from this country, I found myself drawn more towards it, the more I was surprised.

Started the journey with my usual red 70-L Slazenger backpack

This could be one of my almost impromptu vacations that I ever planned considering my previous trips were usually booked at least a month before. I was waiting for my friend to have his exit visa cleared from his assignment country before buying the flight tickets, which was just a week before the trip. Malaysia is the only country in South East Asia that still requires visa to enter Myanmar for the purpose of tourism. We applied eVisa via https://evisa.moip.gov.mm/ which cost 50 United States Dollars (USD). Visa fee is true as of May 2019. The approval process was quick as my application was approved within a day. Do note the applications will only be processed during working weekdays. Our visa only granted us single entry within three months and the stay cannot be more than thirty days. You will need to print the confirmation letter for immigration clearance at the border control.

Myanmar morning view at the countryside as we travelled from one city to another

With time difference of one hour and a half later than Malaysia, our trip spanned for seven days and covered three major town/cities. Started off in Yangon, or Rangoon which is the former capital of Myanmar, we travelled six hundred kilometres away to the north to arrive at Bagan before concluding our trip in Mandalay, the second largest city of the country. Most of the itinerary was carefully thought by my friend and I was responsible to book public transport tickets for the intercity travels in which I did online. It was low season as there weren't many tourists during our time there and we got to know why. The weather was scorchingly hot and the highest temperature that we experienced was 41 degree Celcius. None of us brought sunscreen. Despite so, the major cities were still busy with local traffic and need to be very cautious while crossing the road. Alternatively, you can always hop on the bus or taxi to go around. Have to say, there were a lot of taxis, especially in Yangon. Grab is available in Yangon and Mandalay.

The common food that you will find in Myanmar

The official currency is kyat (MMK) though USD is also accepted at some outlets. You won't be able to buy kyat in Malaysia. There are few options: bringing Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) or changing into USD before buying kyat upon your arrival at Myanmar. We went for the latter. The exchange rates at the airport were just as competitive when we checked the current rate online so I would advise you to do the same. Their notes come in the domination of 10000, 5000, 1000, 500, 200, 100 and 50 (we didn't come across notes with lower values. Neither we get any coin.) With currency exchange of 1 USD for 1500 kyat, I myself got a stack of 100 pieces of 5000 notes for changing 400 USD. With Burmese as their national language, communication wasn't really a huge issue as most of them can speak minimal English.

My 10-year buddy/travelling partner for this trip

Now that we are set. Are you ready to hear more of our adventure?

Yangon - Bagan - Mandalay