Bagan

So after Rangoon I took a night bus to Bagan, it's only 320 miles away but it took an overnight bus to get there due to the condition of the roads. I arrived at 4AM and took a horse and cart to the guesthouse (winner guesthouse). They told me they were fully booked but he could set a mattress up for me and I could sleep there if I didn't mind. I didn't mind, I was just glad to get somewhere to sleep.

Yangon to Bagan

The next morning I had a nice breakfast and some instant coffee before renting bikes for the day with Mischa a dutch guy I got chatting to. The bikes were in such bad condition and the thin tyres made it really hard to cycle along the dirt track roads, I ended up walking quite a bit. We had a map and basically just went round visiting temples all morning, it was nice but really touristy,. you could see big coaches outside of the temples where busloads of people get off and mill round. So I generally preferred visiting the quieter more peaceful temples. After awhile you get templed-out, awhile can be different depending on the person and it didn't take long for me to get a bit bored. Some people spend days in Bagan exploring lot of these random temples but for me one full day was enough. Had a good buffet lunch in between a full morning and afternoon of temples was enough for me.

Bagan is nice for chilling, there are good restaurants and good coffee (compared with the rest of the country) and it's quiet too, you're not in a big city! That night was really cool, we had a few beers outside and listened to some music. Mischa played some tunes from a guy called Sixto Rodriquez, I liked it a lot so I wrote the name down and made a note to get some of his stuff when I got back to Seoul. He has a really cool story, which this documentary tells:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125608/
definitely worth checking out if you have the time.

My second day in Bagan I got up for the sunrise and then just relaxed the rest of the day. Went to the market in Nyuang Oo then got some good food and coffee at Weatherspoons. Yeh that's right Weatherspoons..lol doesn't have much in common with the chain back in the UK but the owner was really friendly and he showed us his Italian espresso maker to try and convince us he had the best coffee in Bagan. I took his word. So I didn't spend long in Bagan but it was pretty action packed. Here are some photos:

I waited for the birds to fly round before taking this one.

Pretty famous temple in Bagan, but I've no idea the name of it sorry.

Buffet lunch - this was awesome,. so good I came back the second day.

temples scattered in every direction.

This became a very familiar site in Burma but at this point of my trip it was a welcome break from all the brick style Bagan temples.

Again with the birds.

The market in Nyaung Oo.

Everything's green here except for a few tomatoes. They avocados too!

Some old boys playing draughts at an incredible speed. I had to change the shutter speed and iso just so his hand wouldn't blur!