Bagan Myanmar, not what you think.

There are a bunch of places in Myanmar that have been long uncovered by tourists and most of these places the government has allowed access to tourists for quite a long time. The most famous of these places is certainly Bagan . I have seen the famous Bagan sunrise photos many times and had some idea about what to expect. My month in Myanmar was during rainy season and most places I visited saw a healthy amount of precipitation during my visit. However , Bagan was the exception. Bagan is in a very dry state. As a result , being as the roads are all made from dirt and it rarely rains you may begin to imaging the scale of dust you are going to be forced to breathe during your stay in Bagan. Until I arrived in Bagan I had not experienced any health or digestive issues, sticking with a vegetarian only approach to eating while in Myanmar. But after sucking in a couple of pounds of dust a cough developed which turned into a much more severe cold . I blame the dust for weakening my immune system. I had another friend visit this area a couple years ago and he visited in dry season and he is a smoker. As a result of the dust, and smoking he developed a serious lung infection and had to fly home early..

So what about the up side, the sunrise and the temples and what have you? Meh. I got a couple of decent shots , having woke up at 4am and traveled out to some pretty remote areas to get the best view of sunrise. There were some nice temples and the sunrise was fine but compared to almost everywhere else I visited in Myanmar, Bagan was the least interesting. I would really like to suggest you consider skipping Bagan. At least do some research to see if I am alone in my Bagan insights.

So where to go, I suggest the beach, and here are a few inside tips I learned along the way, best places and best people I discovered in Myanmar were in a town called Gwa, Hpa-An, Pyay, and Inle lake was OK but Mandalay was a complete waste of time. There was nothing there at all.