I may be biased. I was born in Burma. But Bagan has to be the one of the most amazing sight I have ever seen.
A vast plain, studded with ruined and half ruined temples shimmering in the baking heat of central Burma. Everywhere you look, there are temples, temples and more temples. Some no more than temple-shaped piles of brick. Some magnificent restored structures to compete with anything Cambodia has to offer. The sheer number and spread is what makes the sight so breathtaking.
We arrived by boat from Mandalay, in itself an experience. A long slow relaxing journey down the might Ayeryawaddy River. Glimpses of everday life along the riverbanks - women in dark rolled up trousers and bright blouses in an almost perfect line planting rice; hill-top pagodas, solidly elegant, surveying the river. Hot, strong, milky-sweet tea on the boat.
By late afternoon the first Bagan temples came into view on the left bank. Huge, solid, imposing. A tantalising glimpse of sights yet to come.
I would recommend two full days to do the site justice. It is vast and there are many things to see. More than two days, unless you are a real temple buff, might temple you out. If the heat doesn't get you first. Being in the central plain of Myanmar, Bagan gets hot and dusty in the dry season. Even in the relative cool of "winter" the plain bakes under the tropical sun.
The most hassle-free way of seeing as many of the temples as you can is by hiring a horse and cart. Talk to the drivers lined up in Old Bagan or Nyaung U. When you find one you like, haggle for a good deal. Then leave it up to your driver. He knows the site.
We had 2 wonderful days of traipsing gently from temple to temple - Shwesandaw, Thatbinnyu, Ananda - too many to list fully. Our driver took us on a circuit that was either one step ahead of the tour buses or went in the opposite direction to the coaches. I was surprised to see the coaches. Burma is so unvisted and undeveloped I didn't think there would be enough tourists. But there they were. Not as many as you see at most sights around the world, but enough to shatter the peace and contemplative majesty of the ruins. Lucky for us, we only saw them from a distance, from the top of temples, looking down at the coaches and their cargos like little toys.
Turn slightly though, or look the other way and you would have the feeling that you were the only people on the plain. Apart from one or two farmers with oxen. The many photographs I took (bring PLENTY of film!!) suggest a deserted and isolated site.
The big temples are fantastic. Ananda Pahto with its big corn-cob filial, Shwemawdaw shining fiercely gold in the heat. Restrained Manuha, with it's "trapped" buddha. Even the smaller temples, some even without a name (or at least a name that we could find). But it is not so much individual buildings as the overall scale and number that take your breath away.
The vistas, with temples studding the plain like great slumbering giants, are like the backdrop to some splendid hollywood film - Lara Croft scaling the sides; Indiana Jones hiding in the ruins from some villainous curr; some abandonded star trek city. It is like nothing else.
But it is not all about temples. Here and there amongst the ruins are working Kyaung - Burmese monastries. Small, and not as magnificent as the big monastries in Mandalay, but charming nonetheless. Mostly teak.
Cheroot makers too. Where would Burmese women be without their cheroots (big fat cigars)?
So taken was I with the site that not even the lack of dramatic sunsets could diminish the wonderment I felt. Unfortunately for us, on the days we were there, there were clouds over the Arakan Yoma (Arakan Mountains), so the sun sank into a dark purple bruise rather than the glowing, golden sunsets that Bagan is famous for.
If you think I've over done the praise for this place, take a chance. Go. You'll see that I haven't even captured half of it.
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