At 5.20am the alarms started ringing and Kyle and I rolled out of bed to head out on our sunrise adventure. By 5.30am we were picking up our e-bike from the hotel and gathering viewpoint insight from some fellow early risers who had been to view the sunrise the day before. Stoked that we now had a target location in mind, we hit the road.
Upon arriving at the recommended Pagoda we were stoked to find the roof was open and we made our first climb! It was only a small Pagoda but provided an ok view of the sunrise over the plains and of all the rich fullaz heading up in hot air balloons.
After soaking in the sights and hammering the camera we took off back to the hotel for brekky. Very soon after leaving the sunrise Pagoda we were sidetracked and found ourselves exploring a nearby group of Stupas. One of these had stairs up the outside, so although very small, was climbable. Yay! Another scaled.
On the menu for brekky was the usual staples, chicken fried rice and a yummy egg tomato bake dish. We chose a table at the end of the roof to overlook the construction of a house across the road. They were manually doing the concrete on the floor. It was incredible to see the number of people in such a small space helping out!
The next few hours were spent napping and booking some more of our travel. From Chiang Mai we will head to Vietnam to explore the north before we move to Ho Chi Minh City in June.
At around 3pm, once the temperature was falling to more acceptable levels, we ventured out for a drink and some snacks. After finding our first choice of cafe closed, we ended up back at Date for a coconut cream frappe, hot chocolate (was supposed to be iced, we’re not crazy), fries, spring rolls, cheesecake and of course a few games of 500. On the way, Kyle had to shoot back to the hotel to grab some pants, otherwise he wouldn’t be coming into any Pagodas.
Once satisfied, the adventure continued! After biking around aimlessly we found ourselves in some awesome new spots with lots of new, ancient Pagodas to explore. Kyle did some research and found a Pagoda that was still supposed to be able to be climbed, so we headed that way. The tracks to the Pagoda were so sandy, for most of the way the bike had to be walked as the back wheel would just sink and spin out in the sand. Eventually we gave up and left the bike, walking the rest of the way to the Pagoda. It was definitely worth it! It was our third (and would be final) climbable Pagoda. Unfortunately Kyle was stuck on the ground as was in his shorts having left his pants in the bike. A highlight of this Pagoda was the paintings still visible in the dome on the roof.
From there we took off back to the Stupas we had climbed in the morning after sunrise. Unfortunately our plan to park up there for sunset was stumped when some locals were trying to get us to pay them to take us to a sunset spot and wouldn’t allow us to climb the stupa. Instead, we biked the short distance from there to the Pagoda at which we watched the sunrise. We were surprised to find the Pagoda empty, having thought the spot would be in high demand for sunset views. Apparently the police had been past recently and kicked everyone off. If you get caught up a closed Pagoda they will take a photo and give you a warning, issuing a fine if you are caught a second time. This made us a little sceptical to head up as we didn’t have the “archealogical ticket” for the Bagan area and weren’t very keen to pay the 50,000 kyat required to get one each. However, in the end we decided “screw it” and went up anyway. A few more tourists turned up but it wasn’t too crowded which was nice. The sunset was ok, but was obscured by clouds. We decided not to stay until the end and instead headed back into town for dinner while it was still light.
For dinner we went to Weather Spoons for Myanmar pumpkin and vege curry (which included a tea leaf salad entree), a beef burger with fries, a mango lassi and a Pepsi. We were also given a bowl of peanuts to snack on when we arrived and banana and honey for dessert which was nice! All up only 13,400 kyat ($13.80).
Dinner was followed by the same routine of returning the e-bike to the hotel, picking up some water and beers, and parking up on the rooftop. Unfortunately no winners from our beers today.
Kyley on Tour 