Together with Yangon and Mandalay, Bagan is one of the three most famous cities of Myanmar. If visitors enjoy Yangon with the schools of modern life and ancient buildings, experience Mandalay with religious beauty, you should also adventure Bagan, Myanmar. In this topic, we will give you tips to get a real convenient tour in this ancient capital.
Bagan was the ancient city of Myanmar and became the metropolis of this country for 230 years. Until now, in this ancient city, we still find many ruins of pagodas and temples. It is estimated that more than 2000 pagodas had appeared in the city. If you know about Angkor Wat of Cambodia, you will know why many called Bagan the city of Angkor Wat of Myanmar.
With our experiences, we want to bring you useful informations to help you get ready to get to Myanmar. These following tips are what you should know in order to get no trouble during the trip.
In Myanmar generally speaking and especially in Bagan, the weather is very hot, so the best time to visit this city is from October to February. Bagan attracts most visitors in January and February, but to save money, you can choose to visit this ancient city from October to December.
In the first two months of the year, the weather is really great for travelling. A little cold with less raining, Bagan really worths to visit. Travellers can enjoy many featured festivals of this country and enjoy seeing beautiful scenery.
There is one thing very appealing to visitors, it is to wake up and wait for dawn in Bagan. Many try to stay up late and get out of the hotel as early as possible to catch this beautiful moment. Choosing a great place on the roof of a pagodas and wait for romantic and peaceful moment is what many couples do.
Even late in the afternoon, customers can also get a good view and see the sunset. It is experiences that we can not express by word only. That is why many visit Burma to experience themselves.
One more thing to care about is clothes. Because most of places you go to are pagodas and temples, so dressing is important. It expresses how polite you are and how much you understand about Myanmar. If you had visit many other pagodas in Yangon, you must know that short skirts and sexy clothes are not allowed here. You can wear them if you want, but you can not walk in any pagodas. You can save money by buying a coat at the gate of pagodas you go to. One good choice is to try on Longyi and Paso, Myanmar traditional dress, cool and polite, too. You can find many places to buy this kind of dress.
In an Myanmar adventure tour, visitors should also prepare sandals. Why? In Myanmar, you are not allowed to wear shoes in pagodas. To Myanmar, walking barefoot and pray to their Buddha is what they often do, it shows their respect and good will. So what time is good for visiting pagodas and temples? Because of the hot weather, visiting these places in the early morning is great, it is still cool and quiet. If you spend time under the sunlight at noon, you feet will be a bit blishtered.
In Myanmar, to protect the skin from the hot weather when visiting Myanmar tourists sites, travellers can use Thanaka cosmetic to cover their face, it is cool and very safe because of its natural ingredients. Sometimes, using scarf, hat, handkerchief or mask is also very good ways for women to keep their skin white.
To visit Bagan, you also have to prepare kyat money, Myanmar money. In Myanmar, exchanging money is difficult. If you take many of dollars cash and exchange them to Kyat, they will say ok only to new, flat money. If your dollar is dirty or has any folds, they won’t accept them. So, to be in convenient way, exchange kyat before you move far away from the city, or use small bag to keep your money as new as possible.
Myanmar Kyat is cheap, for 1 dollar you can exchange into more than 1000 kyats (also called 1000 MMK). You only have to pay some thousands of kyats to have a full and delicious meal in many restaurants here.
In Bagan, one of Myanmar highlights, people use many kinds of vehical to move in and out. They use bus, taxi and sometimes horse. If you want to go on a long distance, you can book a flight, local flight to get to this ancient city.
There are buses from Yangon and Mandalay to Bagan. They start at night or in the early morning to save time. It takes about 6 to 8 hours to reach Bagan. Buses in Myanmar are cheaper and also have high quality, they are very clean, too. You will be served warm blanket for sleeping and can enjoy the beauty of Myanmar at night. There are two famous brands visitors should choose: JJ Express and Elite.
If you want to fly to Bagan, this list of Myanmar local flights will help you:
Air Bagan
Air Mandalay
Air KBZ
Yangon Airways and Asian wings
All of these flights are a bit small and they even… land to pick up customers. You can get a seat in one of these flights if you pay around 100 $.
On arrival to Bagan, you can choose bicycle, electric bicycle or horse to adventure Myanmar on your own. Of course, to get new and interesting experiences, tourists often choose horse for their moving. If you want to rent one, you have to pay from 25.000 kyats or a bit more, and to adventure half a day, 15.000kyats is the price. One free thing you can receive is that the coachman is a local so he will be your free guider. He can help you find restaurants and enjoy great and featured food at good price. Asking him for where to go to get great view will be a smart question in this case.
If you go in group, you can hire a taxi to pick you up at the airport. Hiring a taxi is about 40.000kyats. It is easier to move, but you can not experience wild life as a local. So many choose bicycles and electric bicycles. But, to be a Burma smart traveller, you should hire electric bicycle because pagodas are bit far from each other, so you will be tired and thirsty if you are riding a bicycle in hot weather. Nowadays, electric bikes are for rent in many shops and popular to visitors. You can stop at any places, enjoy street food and then continue your trip. It is not too tiring, it is fun, interesting and above all gives you great moments and experiences. It is cheap and safe, also very flexible.
In Bagan, there are three areas: Old Bagan, New Bagan and Nyaung-U town. In every area, there are many great restaurants and hotels to visit. You can get good place to rest and enjoy both Myanmar traditional food, Myanmar minority food and even food of other Asian countries, or European food, …
This list below is from travelling in Burma reviews
Hotel/resort/homestay:
Bagan Thiripyitsaya Sanctuary
Bagan Thande
New Thande
Zfreeti,….
Restaurants:
BBQ harmony
Weather spoon’s restaurant Bagan
Moon vegetarian
Queen restaurant….
Places to visit in Bagan: Mingalar Zedi pagodas, Sulamani Guphaya temple, Ananda Phaya, Shwegu Gyi,…
With the above useful informations, are you ready to adventure Myanmar this December? Bagan at this time is really great to experience. Take time and enjoy the last days of 2017 in this Asian country.
