Temple City Bagan

After spending another night in Yangon (we tried a sleeping box), on Thursday evening we take the bus to Bagan, which is about 600km north. Night bus means saving on overnight accommodation. At the bus station, we have a typical Burmese curry for dinner, including a cockroach sighting.
Unfortunately, the bus ride is pretty miserable. 9 hours, arctic conditions on the bus, which are not changed even after repeated requests, and Max gets a fever during the trip. When we arrive in Bagan, we share a taxi and go to the guest house. Unfortunately, for the first time, we can't go straight to our room and have to wait two hours. Just now, when Max is feeling so miserable :( It's really cool in Bagan and we wait on the rooftop terrace with a Japanese girl where we have breakfast. However, Max only has a cup of tea. Max sleeps the whole day through. I check out the village and get a thermometer and food suitable for illness. I stroll alone through the side streets of the village for a few hours and all the people are so friendly and smile at me.

The next day, fortunately Max is feeling better and we can do what people do in Bagan: visit temples. We rent an e-bike and cruise through the 41km² steppe landscape with about 2000 more or less ruined temples and pagodas. Really impressive, even though I am not talented enough to ride through the sand with the bike. It's really tricky. 

In the afternoon, it's nap time for Max again and I take the e-bike for another ride, exploring Old Bagan, strolling along the Irrawaddy River, and enjoying the sunset. When I visit the Bupaya Pagoda, which is located directly on the river and attracts many visitors at sunset, I am overwhelmed by the selfie frenzy. The younger Asian tourists (both male and female) seem to see me as a true attraction. After one girl dared to ask me for a photo, everyone wants one and I am surrounded by a group of small Asians who pull at me, press their phones in front of my face, and line up next to me to have their picture taken. I'm used to being photographed quite often here, but this is really too much! So I quickly make my way out and only return when the group has boarded their bus. Afterwards, more people still ask for a photo, but not in such large numbers. That's when I decide to get rid of my braids the next day in the hope of attracting less attention. In the evening, we accidentally end up in a fairly touristy restaurant, which is frequented by tour buses. During dinner, we are entertained by a puppet show. Funny and strange at the same time :-D

The next day, we are pretty lazy and spend 4 hours on the rooftop terrace unraveling my braids. The staff is very interested in the transformation process. Afterwards, I look like I've been electrocuted. Struwwelpeter says hello.

But after a shower, I look normal again! Max spends the rest of the day in bed and I go out with the Japanese girl we shared a taxi with on the first night. We have always had breakfast together and today we want to go out for food and drinks. She has been living in Chiang Mai for several years and gives me many useful tips. After all, we still want to go to Chiang Mai.

What Bagan is all about is visiting the temple complex at sunrise. Balloon rides are offered everywhere, but they cost several hundred euros. Most people ride a bike or e-bike to a temple that can be climbed and enjoy the view from there. Our sunset event goes pretty badly because Max realizes while riding the bike that he is definitely not yet fit and our navigation app sends us in circles. Of course, the bikes also don't have lights, so we wander through the steppe landscape in the dark. We may not see the postcard sunrise, but it still looks very beautiful from the ground and around half past six the sky is full of hot air balloons. When we return, it's nap time again for Max. We originally planned to spend only two nights in Bagan. It's good that we added another night! This way, he can recover better. 

But tonight we continue to Kalaw. Before we move on to our next destination overnight, we go to a restaurant recommended by the guidebook. And it looks like it. A restaurant full of backpackers, but the menu and prices look very good so we decide to stay. We share our table with a Japanese-Chinese Canadian girl who is currently traveling the world and order burgers. SO WESTERN! WOW!

PS: The burger meat is not good. From now on, we'll stick to Asian food. They do it better.