The earthquake damaged around 100 Buddhist pagodas in the ancient city of Bagan. The
ancient archaeological sites there are among Myanmar's most popular tourist destinations
and the...
What up, guys. Kristin here with "Be My Travel Muse," and today I'm coming
at you from gorgeous Bagan in Myanmar. I'm here to see the amazing pagodas, stupas, and
temples that made this region famous. However, when I arrived, I found out that you cannot
climb up any of them anymore. Even the ones that used to be open with stairways all are
closed. So is it even worth visiting anymore? That's what I am here to try to find out.
I'm in balloon heaven.
Okay. First day in Bagan impressions, it's unlike anything I've
ever seen. And I keep saying that for Myanmar because it's true.
A lot of tourists here,
you can't climb on the temples anymore so we have to get creative for where we're going
to go to get really epic sunrises and sunsets, but challenge accepted. And I think that there's
some options. It's gonna be fun. See you tomorrow morning, bright and early.
Scoped out this place yesterday after the sunset and it didn't look too bad but that
was because the sunset was already over. So it's very packed right now for sunrise and
I'm thinking all the "mounds" are because it's all there really is to get elevation
now. There's a lot of locals who will offer to take you to a spot where you can climb
but that I think is a scam, so don't follow them. I think we might have to get more creative.
I just dropped a pin on an open field back there that looks perfect and there's kind
of a sort of a bike trail coming here. So it's not going to be too hard to get here
tomorrow morning. And we're going to try that because I don't think we're gonna have to
share it with anyone. And when it's open like that, you get the balloons, you get the sun,
you have pagodas and you don't need to be high up. So gonna give that one a try. But
now, now it's breakfast time.
Just packing up to head out for another sunset. And I really thought that we were going to
find some mounds that weren't full of people and this morning proved that that will not
be the case. So now the pressure is on to find another solution and they have one temple
that has a sort of upper area that you're allowed to walk on that I think is going to
be okay. Hopefully, it's not mobbed. It faces west, so it should be perfect.
Very good news.
I don't see anyone here in our chosen spot. We got a little bit of a vantage point. It
doesn't seem like other people have caught on to this spot. Maybe because the sun is
not going to set directly behind the pagodas and there's power lines, but we have slim
pickings to work with here. So let's see how things shape up. Well, it's almost sunset
time and there's no one else actually up here battling us for space. So I would say overall,
this seems to be a win. Not perfect, but as we continue our quest for the perfect spots
I think this makes the list.
Morning. I think we've found a really good spot. We staked it out yesterday
and you can't get here by any mode of transport, but this is what my sunrise view is going
to be. How freakin' cool is this? That's amazing. I love it, I love it, I love it. This is the
coolest thing ever.
I'm in balloon heaven.
Okay, well, we scouted this out yesterday and we weren't sure if it would work today,
but the balloons went right overhead. I mean, we were right in it and there was nobody else
here so this place is a 100% win for the sunrise. It's just a totally random spot and that's
why no one else is here. But I will share it with you guys in the blog post.
Don't you worry, you can find it too.
Did a little bicycling around the once-famous Sunset Temple, and it looks like this big
open field could be absolutely perfect for sunrise tomorrow. There's the moon so that's
a good indication of where the sun's going to be. So I think we're going to give this
a try. Big open fields seem to be the way to go and following these little dirt paths
that cars can't go down is also key.
Second to last morning. Looks like I'm telling a ghost story. Waiting for the sun to come
up in the field that we scouted out earlier. We'll see if this one's good.
I liked this spot a lot. We didn't have the balloons going, like, straight overhead like
yesterday, but they were all in front of us today, like yesterday some were behind us,
some were over us, so that was super exciting, but today, they were all behind and that was
really cool too. So I liked both experiences a lot. And tomorrow morning I'll be seeing
it from a pool because we booked one fancy hotel for while we're here, so.
Yeah, I understand putting gates up if this is from the 11th century that's old as shit.
There's a gate right there. So there's handrails installed here and you used to be able to
climb up but not anymore. And I can imagine it getting totally trashed with all these
people climbing up.
For sunset, I wanted to go up to this viewing tower where you can
see... Where is it? Can you see it? Oh, yeah. So it is an eyesore and it's one of the only
ways that you can get Bagan from above now, though, so that's why we're going to go in.
I wasn't actually going to and a lot of people were like, "Don't support them because it's
horribly ugly." And I agree, but we're staying at a hotel that owns this. So we already are.
So I was like, "Okay, screw it." Then they gave us 50% off so we came up, and I hope
that this view is going to give us what we were missing from the temples. I mean, that
is beautiful.
I mean, I have to admit this view is pretty spectacular. And you can't really get it unless
you do the hot air balloon now. Okay, well, it was cool. I wouldn't say you're missing
out on anything big by not coming here. Probably the best view you can get is from the balloons
if you want to pay the money for it. I'm sure they're doing great now by the way. I think
they probably were before too.
Okay, the final trick up my sleeve is this fancy hotel. They've got a pool and they have
the pagodas just behind it. We had a nice sunset here last night, but actually, the
sunrise is going to be the other way, it's behind me. But the balloons I think might
float in front of us in this lotus pond they have. So then we gotta hop on a plane and
jet out of here, but fingers crossed it's a good balloon sunrise even though we don't
see the sunrise.
Well, this ended up being a really cool place to see the balloons take off because they
take off, like, right there. So they're super big in front of you and not that I want to
encourage you to pay a bunch of money to stay at a fancy hotel, but if it's in your budget,
maybe just for one night so that you can have that experience is pretty cool. The viewing
tower is packed with people. Not sure I would do that.
So this wraps up my video about where you can go see the sunrise and sunset in Bagan
now that you can't go climbing on the temples anymore, so is it still worth it to come here?
Yes, I think it is. Of course, of course it's worth it. Like, these temples are amazing.
Some of them are built in the 1100s up to the, I think, 1400s. So it's not like you're
going to find this anywhere in the world. This is such a unique thing and not being
able to climb on them is not a big deal. I understand wanting to preserve cultural heritage
and also not wanting to fall off of them. After the 2016 earthquake, a lot of them are
pretty compromised structurally. So it's in everyone's best interest just to respect the
rules and we had an amazing time observing it from the ground. So I hope this video helps
you, let me know if you enjoyed it, give it a thumbs up and share it with your friends
and I'll see you next Wednesday. We're going to Inle Lake next. Bye.