The 2000 temples of Bagan were the main reason I wanted to come to Myanmar.
And taking in the views from a temple rooftop is an unforgettable experience.
But these days.
Visiting Bagan has changed.
Just under a year ago you could pretty much explore the temples of Bagan freely.
There were no gates and you could explore all of the little caverns and chambers.
You could just turn up at any of these temples, climb to the roof and you’d get an amazing
view of sunrise or sunset.
And there’s a good chance you’ll be the only person there.
But unfortunately times have now changed.
The vast majority of the temple rooftops are now closed off to tourists.
Either completely bricked up or gated and locked.
But why is this?
And are there any rooftops that you can still climb?
We spent 3 days in Bagan to find out. Creepy.
So creepy.
We arrived in Bagan at 5am after taking a sleeper bus from Inle Lake.
We took a ride on the back of a bicycle to our hotel.
And I can’t remember how much we ate the previous day but he couldn’t get us up the
hill.
Instead of checking into our room we headed straight out to see the sunrise.
The best way to get around Bagan is by e-bike, which gives you the ultimate freedom to get
around the temples.
And I’m lucky because I’ve got a driver as well.
Yeah I should charge.
You should.
So it’s just gone 5:30 in the morning.
We’ve arrived in Bagan but we can’t check into our hotel yet so luckily Emma has actually
been here before and she thinks she remembers a where there’s very quiet temple so we’re
going to try and see if we can get there now.
This video was filmed at the end of 2018 when there were still some temples with accessible
rooftops.
But I have no idea if any of these are still open now, so I’m not going to mention any
of them by name.
We couldn’t see a way up to the roof though the main entrance, so we decided to have a
look around the back.
Pigeon!
So we found some wildlife but no way up to the roof.
So unfortunately it looks like since Emma was here two years ago a lot of the temples
have now been bricked off and you can’t actually climb them to get a view.
So it’ll be interesting to see how many you can still go up.
Maybe none.
The sun was already getting pretty high in the sky.
Luckily we were intercepted by a couple of local kids, who promised to show us a good
rooftop in exchange for a little bit of money.
And fair play to them they pulled through.
A truly mind-blowing introduction to the beauty of Bagan.
Very cool.
After the sunrise we headed off in search of some more viewpoints.
There are over 2000 temples spread across the plains of Bagan.
So we were hopeful that we could find a few with rooftop access.
At our first stop we couldn’t find any steps up to the roof so that one was write off.
The next one looked a lot more promising.
We found a stairway in one of the corners of the temple and we headed straight up.
But right at the last hurdle was a locked gate.
No!
From my research, there seems to be a couple of different reasons as to why access to the
temples has been restricted.
The first is Health and safety.
With Bagan getting more and more popular with tourists, the risk of injuries to visitors
and damage to the temples is at an all time high.
There was also a major earthquake in 2016 which caused damage to many of the structures.
But there is a belief that the local authorities are using this reasoning to control the flow
of tourists.
Feeling a bit demoralised we decided to change tact and head out to some of the more ornate
and elaborate temples which are completely open to the public.
One of the best things is that the temples are so spread out that you don’t really
get a concentration of people in one place so it’s very easy to find yourself alone
just with the temples.
But still no more views.
And as the temples passed up by one by one it got more and more frustrating.
We just got to a temple which is supposed to be one of the ones that is still open but
there was a guard standing outside that said we weren’t allowed in so even if they’re
not gated off they’re sometimes not letting people up.
So a local guy just pointed us in this direction where there’s apparently a temple that is
still open and you can climb up.
But he say that there’s a lot of bees inside.
Which is good.
Yep you heard that right.
Bees.
Killer bees.
Apparently.
Let’s have a look inside.
If I get stung to death by bees.
Thanks for watching.
Oh.
Bees nest.
Yep.
We decided that we’re not going to risk the killer bees because that nest was pretty
big.
We’ll try somewhere else.
So close!
Bye bye!
Myanmar has the cutest kids in the whole world.
Fact!
Jinx.
Okay this is our last chance before the sun goes down.
Fingers crossed we can get in here.
Spiky.
I’m going to take it slow because I’m checking for bees.
We tried a few staircases which ultimately led to nowhere.
There’s some there?
Okay.
But then alongside the temple we saw the wall which looked like it’s own kind of ruined
staircase.
So it was time to climb.
How is it?
Pretty good.
Took us a while but we made it.
Literally every direction you look.
Amazing.
Worth it?
Worth it!
Still got to get down again.
Yeah that’s not going to be fun.
This Buddha is holding it’s own Buddha.
Good morning.
It’s day two and today we’re going to try and find a viewpoint that is much closer
to the balloons.
This first temple actually had a guard on the door.
He just asked to see our archeological zone passes and then he just let us straight in
and right up to the roof.
It was pretty crowded up there but the view was very nice.
After two great views in a row we were really excited to get going and look for some more
rooftops.
But day two was just as frustrating as the first.
We found just as many gates, locks and no entry signs.
But dispite that we still had a lot of fun.
Just on an unmarked road seeing where it goes.
Exploring every temple we see.
This is what Bagan is all about.
And the beauty of our surroundings was undeniable.
By saying the Bagan temples are unsafe or damaged by tourists and earthquakes.
The local authorities can move people away from hard to find temple rooftops and towards
some easier options.
This is particularly worrying because I’m pretty sure they are trying to divert tourists
away from the free temples and towards the big government owned viewing platform.
Which if I’m honest is a big eyesore on the landscape.
If you ask me, It looks like the bloody eye of Sauron.
This all fits into a wider narrative.
There is a feeling that Bagan is becoming more and more of luxury travel destination
with expensive hot air balloon rides and paid for viewpoints.
Maybe the tourism board wants to attract more of that luxury crowd.
Once again we were running out of time.
There are a couple of viewpoint mounds around which are supposed to be an alternative to
climbing temples to see sunrise or sunset.
But neither of the ones that we’ve seen so far look that great to be honest.
The temples are just that slightly too far away.
We were determined to find something better.
There’s supposed to be a temple this way but.
It’s a little bit unclear whether they let you up there or not.
Bit creepy.
As we headed deeper into the tunnels we really thought this temple could be a winner but
unfortunately all of the stairwells were completely blocked up.
There doesn’t seem to be any way up.
Still quite cool.
So we went back to the sunset hill in the end.
Which is quite a nice view it just gets very very busy with tour groups.
Better than nothing.
This is just the new Bagan experience.
You never quite know if you’re going to find anywhere.
It’s our last night in Bagan so it’s our last chance to get a good sunset.
We’re going to check out some temples by the river and see if any of those are open.
So this is option number one and it’s gated off.
Looks like this ones open.
It wasn’t the most beautiful of the temples in Bagan, but we were just relieved that we
found one last spot.
Finding open rooftops in Bagan is not the free exploring experience that it used to
be.
And even since we were there, there has been reports of complete bans on temples, but also
reports that some are still open.
So unfortunately you really won’t know what you’re going to find until you get there
yourself.
We had an incredible time in Bagan and it really was an unforgettable experience.
But if all of the rooftops close.
It would be very very different.
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