First Sunrise in Bagan

I woke up around 3 a.m., still on the rattling bus heading towards Bagan. Everyone around me was fast asleep, except those who were dropping off when the bus started making short stops once in a few kilometres.

After 30-40 minutes, the bus steered into a shanty little town and stopped at the local station; we were already in Bagan. We hopped off the bus with the other passengers, and we swarmed by horse cart drivers, like vultures prying on a dead carcass.

"Hello. You want horse cart?" One by one they started hovering around us, trying their luck.

Since the hotel that we booked was around 1km away from the bus stop, we decided to walk in the cool misty morning, with two 10kg backpacks on our backs. It was still dark, so I pulled out the new torchlight that I purchased in Yangon, hoping we would not get rammed by some crazy motorcyclist or a horse cart.

Eventually we reached our hotel, but unfortunately it was locked, and the hotel staff was soundly dozing inside. I was somehow annoyed since we did make a phone call the day before informing them we would be arriving in early morning. Another horse cart driver saw us standing outside the hotel, waving and shouting like mad men, and he too joined in the fun, after failing to coax us to try another hotel further down the road. Somehow we managed to wake up the hotel staff and we were let into the front gates. 

Since it was still early and the hotel was full from the previous night, we had to wait till someone checked out later in the day. After relieving ourselves in lobby's toilet, we decided to head out to have our first sunrise in Bagan, at the infamous Shwesendaw Paya, and started to walk back towards the bus station.

We found horse carriage drivers who offered us 7000 kyats to bring us to a nearby pagoda to see the sunrise, but we bargained hard; finally he agreed to take us to Shwesendaw Paya for 6000 kyats and sent us back to the hotel. It was already 5.30am then, and I was worried that we would miss the sunrise since it was a little bright then. The horse galloped ahead, tugging the carriage with me and my buddy in it as the driver steered it towards our destination. I sat beside the driver in front while my buddy lazed himself at the back, taking care not to fall off from the carriage.

After 30 minutes, we finally reached Shwesendaw Paya and there were already a number of tourists at the top. We mounted up the pagoda via the steep stony stairs until we reached the top, and tried to secure a nice spot facing the east where we should have a superb view of the sunrise.

While waiting for the sunrise, we noted there were even more and more tourists arriving the pagoda; some on bicycles, some on horsecarts. With more tourists climbing up the pagoda, it became merrier especially when a couple of aunties from Mainland China was making such a hullabaloo, complaining bout how one of them almost died when one of the horses tripped on their way to the pagoda.

We chatted with one Singaporean gentleman, who is an avid photographer; it was his second sunrise in Bagan and he planned to spend 6 days here catching all the sunrises and sunset. I admired his persistence and his passion, but my idiotic buddy, somehow senseless, gave him a cold blanket, resulting in me reprimanding him soon later.

"Why 6 days of sunrises here? You have sunrise in Singapore as well." My idiotic buddy commented.

"Just ignore him." I replied. "He doesn't have any sense in him."

"Well, every sunrise is different from one day to another." The Singaporean answered. "No sunrise is ever the same."

I could not agree more!

Slowly the sky got lit up as we could see from the distant an orange fireball climbed up form the horizon, emitting rays of light that glazed the dawn from afar. It was then that the shutters of cameras commenced as everyone frenziedly started snapping photos of the picturesque sunrise. From the distant we could spot hot air balloons, slowly hovering across the sky.

We spent around an hour on top of the pagoda, admiring the wonderous view, until everyone started to scatter as it was starting to get hot. We climbed down the pagoda cautiously and jumped onto our horse carriage, heading for the hotel and hoping to get a room so we could refresh ourselves and carry on with our itinerary in Bagan.

To our dismay, there were still no rooms available although it was already 9am! So, we decided to grab breakfast at a nearby teashop, and continue with our journey!