Pagan Things to Do

Shwesandaw Paya is one of the most Popular Temples to take in the beautiful Sunsets of Bagan from. I didn't go here for sunset but I could see quite a few people up there. This is one of the rare Temples that has the outside stairs going up from to the upper levels. Most of the time there is a very narrow,dark passageway to gain access to the upper levels.

Gawdawpalin Pahto is just down the road from Antizigon Pahto. It is a very beautiful Paya! It was built in the 12th and 13th century. The upper levels to this place are also closed!! I guess they are preserving the stair ways by not letting tourists go to the top. It is sad that we can't enjoy the upper levels of these ancient Temples. But at the same time the area is so prone to earthquakes and there are big ones every once in awhile that does damage to the temples so in my opinion tourists feet and weight aren't going to do as much damage. But that's just my opinion but I'm not an engineer. I just want to go to the top!

Here at Atwinzigon Paya there isn't anything to special to see. We happened on it as there is a place to eat lunch right across the street so we wandered over and check it out. There is a main entrance hall then the Chedi is behind that. It's worth a few minutes though.

Thatbyinnyu Pahto is one of the highest Temples in Bagan. This is another of the Temples that I was disappointed to discover that tourists are not allowed to the upper levels. But the lower level is fun to explore. There is a souvenir stand and a small "restaurant" located outside the main entrance. We were cooking in the afternoon heat and our water that was in my backpack was reaching the boiling point so we took advantage of the cold water that was for sale and took a short break before heading back out into the sun on our bikes. This photo is actually taken later in day as we were in the area again. I just loved the style of the Temple. It was built in the 12th Century and is in great shape for being so old.

Dhammayangyi Patho is a pretty cool place. It was built somewhere around the 12 th century! It is built with mortarless brick which is very cool upon close inspection. The upper terraces were off limits when I was there so you can only enjoy the outer beauty of the place. You are allowed to walk around inside on the lower levels. You can reach this by riding down one of the dirt roads that cut off from Anawrahta Road. It is a great ride on a bicycle as you approach the beautiful Red brick! Also to see this as the sunrise or sunset gives the brick a more powerful color is very beautiful.

The Ananda Pahto could be photographed a hundred times and it still wouldn't be enough for me! I was quite fascinated with this Pagoda. If you can get to the second level of one of the nearby lesser know Pagodas you can get superb views of Ananda Pahto for Sunrise. As the sun sweeps right across the front of it. I had a little bad luck on this morning! We started out by oversleeping by 10 minutes which put us late at arriving for sunrise to get the first red rays of light splashing across the plains. The second bit of bad luck was my son started out with a flat tire and didn't realize it was flat. Actually it wasn't flat all the way just enough air left to keep some form to the tire. Usually I was telling him to slow down and wait for Ol' Dad but this morning he wasn't keeping up. So I knew something was wrong! But it took us 2 miles to figure out what was wrong! LOL
The 3rd stage of bad luck was my SLR camera! I must not have loaded the new roll of film from the night before properly and when I finished off the roll and rewound it something snafued and it got ruined! So I lost some of the sunset pictures from the night before and a very nice series of Sunrise photos from this morning! One of the shots was with Ananda Pahto being quite red and 2 Hot Air Balloons passing right behind it. I do have other shots but I had 2 that I think (In my Mind) were perfect! I was telling my son that I had just taken a couple of the most fantastic photos that I've ever taken but....Those are memories now!

The Sunset against the temples is really beautiful. Much more than I've captured in my pictures. It was so peaceful just sitting up on a Pagoda watching the sun go down. Then the darkness came fast! I'm glad there were street lights because we still had a 20 minute bicycle ride back to our guest house.

There are many smaller Pagodas all over the Bagan area. These can be seen in the Old Bagan area. You could easily spend days or weeks checking them out.