Bagan
Asia 2016
We got up early, before 7 a.m. We got ready, had breakfast, and went to rent an electric bicycle — it looks very much like a moped, only lighter and runs on batteries. It also turned out to be much slower; our one would not go faster than 20 km/h.
We had only just left the village when temples began appearing on both sides of the road. We rode up to a larger one. Before entering any temple, you must take off your shoes. You have to walk around stupas clockwise, which we did.
View from a Secret Rooftop
Some lady attached herself to us and showed us a rectangular brick structure outside the temple, saying that there was a staircase leading up and that there was a beautiful view from there. Then it turned out that she was a souvenir seller, and they have this trick here — showing tourists all sorts of secrets and then luring them into their souvenir shop. We didn’t buy anything from her, but we thanked her for the staircase — the view from there really was beautiful.
Wolf on an electric bike
We visited a dozen temples, climbed the little stairways and marveled at the extraordinary views, walked around the temples inside, drove through the fields, and even ran away from dogs.
One of the most impressive temples
Smaller temples of various shapes
View from Afar
By around 12 o’clock, the sun had started beating down hard, and we headed home. On the way, we stopped for tea and pies. We also stopped by the station to buy train tickets to Mandalay.
We waited out the heat at the hotel. I took a nap, and Volchy worked. In the evening, we went to watch the sunset. We set off rather late and didn’t have much time. We also hadn’t managed to decide where to go, so everything turned out spontaneously, but in the end it worked out well. We were racing along the road and then noticed a temple a little off to the side; on the second floor of the temple, people were sitting and clearly waiting for the sunset. It wasn’t entirely clear how to get to the temple, so we turned onto the first path we came across and sped across the field, and in the end we did make it there.
Sunset
We made it practically in the last seconds. There were quite a lot of people, but they didn’t really get in the way. It seemed like some kind of sacred rite was taking place: everyone stood still, spoke in whispers, and waited for something… It was beautiful, although there was a haze and no such bright light as you get by the sea on a clear day or even in Kyiv, when the sky turns an incredibly beautiful violet color. Here, the sun’s disk simply sank smoothly below the horizon, and twilight fell at once.
After sunset, everyone heads home
After sunset we headed home almost immediately because we were afraid our bicycle would run out of battery.
In the evening we tried to make sense of what we had seen during the day. Bagan is an unusual attraction in every respect, and first and foremost in terms of perception. The impressions of what we saw and experienced seemed blurred, not concentrated in any particular moment in time. The temples are all similar, but all very beautiful. But the beauty lies in the fact that there are so many of them. Each temple on its own is not as impressive as when you look from somewhere high above at a sea of spires and little towers….
It is akin to a large painting that needs to be viewed from afar, because up close it turns into nothing more than a collection of brushstrokes. The temples are like brushstrokes, all similar, yet each unique in its own way, because it is impossible to make two completely identical brushstrokes.
