Quantity Over Quality

Months and months ago, I received a warning as I entered South East Asia: You will get sick of temples. Somewhere along like line they all blend together and you stop caring. What a load of shit. Temples are awesome. If anything, the people who warned me hadn't seen enough temples. And there's nowhere on the planet to see more temples at once than Bagan.

01 Main Strip

The Bagan region, which is only 16 square miles and seems smaller, is home to over 4000 temple structures. The horizon is littered with stupas in all directions. What Angkor accomplished in design, style, detail, and grandeur, Bagan equalled with sheer numbers.

Jon and I rolled into the city of Nyaung U just outside of Old Bagan after a traumatizing bus ride from Mandalay. It was a nine hour drive where I had no foot room, no A/C, and a monk leaning on me, reeking of the worst BO. When I say I had no foot room, I literally mean none. I had to sit cross-legged on top of the engine cover (which is inside next to the driver). The roads in Burma are ridiculous. It felt like we were driving over a cross between the lunar surface and an exploded mine field. It was hot and dusty. The windows were down because there was no A/C, I was extra hot from sitting on the engine, and that damn monk's funk choked me half to death for hours. Never has transport been so unbearable, but somehow I made it to Nyaung U.

02 Again

Jon and I grabbed a room at the Pann Cherry Guest House for the lowest rate we'd see in all of Burma ($4) and met some other travellers. One was a British guy of Iranian descent named Adam Smith. We set up plans to check out the temples the following day.

Our day in Bagan began with a ride in a horse-drawn cart to the outskirts of Old Bagan. Adam had a detailed set of literature on the area, so we let him take the lead. For three hours we trekked from temple to temple in the dry heat. Each one was vaguely similar. Some had more windows than others. Some were whitewashed. Some had golden Buddahs, and other Buddahs were painted.

03 Bagan Bound

Then we had a late lunch.

Then back to the temples. We grew weary of the near-identical passageways inside. And most structures' upper levels were recently sealed off from visitors, so entering never led to a view. And that's what Bagan is really known for: viewing the entire collection of temples at once. We decided to make a beeline for the one temple we knew allowed people on top. The beeline turned out to be something of a miscaculation. It landed us smack dab in the middle of a sea of thorns and burrs, on top of a crumbling temple wall with no visible means of getting down other than backtracking the 45 minute hike we'd just done and going the long way around. So, were we smart? Did we backtrack? Hell no! We jumped off the wall into more thorns and burrs, like men are apt to do in such a situation. And it was by far the better decision. Sure it cost us a little blood each, but it saved over an hour of walking.

04 Temples Again

We arrived at our destination and climbed to the top, surveying the horizon all around. It was beautiful, but we really wanted to see it at sunset. We had to wait for over an hour since we were so early (thank you short cut) but our patience paid off. One of my favorite sunsets yet.

Sadly, that was all we ever saw of Adam. He was carried off by a pack of wild dogs that same night. Search and rescue only found a shin bone.

Jon and I hopped a bus to Inle Lake the next day.

05 Priority

06 Script Sample

07 Refurbished

08 Cows and Stupas

09 My Favorite

10 Perspective

11 Biding Time

12 The Sun Descended

13 Setting

14 Payoff

15 Ruins of the NLD