We left Yangon and headed to Bagan. Bagan was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan which existed about 1000 years ago. What remains today is some 2300 odd Buddhist temples, however there were originally believed to be double that amount. However due to earthquakes and time many have been lost. This temples were within the midst of a large city, but the houses no longer exist leaving a large expanse of beautiful temples.

The first day of temple touring consisted of riding in a horse cart. We figured this would give us a lay of the land and then allow us to see whatever we missed the following day by biking around. So Christmas day we spent touring around temples for about 8 hours giving us a chance to take in the sites and see the bigger temples. One of the most amazing things about Bagan was the limited number of tourists that we saw throughout the day. At the larger temples there would be some tourists but for many of the temples we felt like we were the only ones at the temple. The views from on top of the temples were absolutely amazing as you saw the spires of all the other temples sticking up above the vegetation.

The second day of visiting the temples we rented bikes and biked from temple to temple with the systematic approach of climbing up one temple and choosing which one to head to next, always scoping out the easiest way to bike through the fields. We quickly learned that the ground was sandier than it looked at times making it impossible to bike through. There was multiple times that I kept pedaling harder and harder only to slow down to a stop.
One of the best moments of walking through the temples was, while walking through one of the temples Caitlin was looking up at one of the buddhas and walking at the same time. When she looked down she realized she was surrounded by a field trip of young monks with a couple of older monks chaperoning. It was cool to watch but got funnier when I saw one of the older monks smack the head of a younger monk who was not behaving, I couldn’t resist a chuckle.
I’ll let the pictures give glimpses at what our couple of days in Bagan were like.