1. Three Treasures Tourism in Bagan

The day after my accident, I planned on going on a village walking and private photography tour, with Three Treasures Tourism.

What I think makes Three Treasures special, is that Ian (the owner and my guide) goes above and beyond to teach locals how to cater to the growing “tourism industry” in Bagan.  He shared with me one of his first conversations with a local, after he started his business, and they said they knew how to cater to tourists – just charge them 3 times what we would pay ourselves!  And in many parts of Bagan, that is certainly the case!  But not with Three Treasures.

He takes the time and energy to teach the locals the little things like supply and demand, or ethical treatment of their animals.  Things that honestly, no one ever taught them in the past. 

What I really wanted from my tour was to be able to capture both sunrise and sunset and the expansive temples of Bagan. I was able to customize my full day tour to include a walk in the village, which included some time spent with locals.

2. Sunrise over Bagan

A driver picked me up from the hotel, in darkness, and drove me to a remote temple.  He said that Ian would meet me before sunrise.  So, I climbed to the top of the temple where several people were already waiting for the sunrise.  Some vendors began to show up and line up their paintings and artisanal goods along the walls of the temple.

Bagan is known for its temples.  There are estimated to be over 2,000 known temples.  I say known, because, several hundred temples were badly damaged during the 6.8 earthquake in 2016.  Several hundred were damaged, but during a post-earthquake mapping exercise, several hundred undiscovered ones were found.  So, I guess it all evens out in the end.

3. Breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa

After the sunrise, Ian took me a small temple.  “Grandma” and “Grandpa” are the caretakers of a small temple, and receive a stipend each month to maintain the temple and to farm the land around it.  They set up a small seating area and table. Grandma brought out breakfast.

The main course was cut up fried dough fritters, or 油條 for Chinese speakers, with a chickpea paste (“chunky hummus”), followed by fruit and coffee. Grandma decided to take a seat near us and watch while I ate.

4. Village walk

After breakfast, Ian took me to a village, where our first stop was a family that made bamboo lacquerware.  They made everything from serving dishes and trays, to jewelry boxes, to bowls.

The light coloring on the lady in green’s cheeks and arms is a root-based paste that local Burmese use to protect from the sun.  This is very common in Myanmar.

Regrets: I wish I took a picture of their actual lacquerware products, but I was so enthralled with the artisans themselves.  I will do better documenting my upcoming travels.

Scenes from the village:

5. Temples, temples, and more temples

Ian and I walked around and chatted through the day.  Since there are so many temples to choose from, he had taken me to ones that he thought were more interesting or had something a bit more special about it.

6. Sunset over Bagan

We ended the day with a horse cart ride to another temple, for the sunset.  The horses that are used in his tours are treated ethically and given a high level of care, including ensuring they are vaccinated as needed.  As I mentioned before, this is not the case for all horses in Bagan or Myanmar.

Conclusion

Ian was kind enough to arrange transport for me back to the bus station.  After a full day’s tour with him, I was heading back to Yangon for my flight to Hanoi the following morning.

Despite the pain from the day before, the Bagan trip turned out to be an enjoyable one, filled with great conversation with Ian, and an amazing look into village life in rural Myanmar. 

If anyone ever goes to Bagan, reach out to Three Treasures.  You won’t regret it!

Lannie

Lannie is a perpetual wanderer and loves to share her travel adventures and the food she eats along the way with everyone.  She works during the day while bouncing around the world and dreams about new places and faces at night!  She has a home on the magical Isle of Islay in Scotland, where the whisky flows freely and happily.

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1. Overnight Bus from Yangon to Bagan

When we last left off, I had just gotten back to the hotel in Yangon for a quick shower and rest, before taking a taxi to the bus station.  I remember the hotel manager asking me a ton of questions about my bus, which bus company it was, what time it was leaving, the whole nine yards.  I was confused at the time. 

But when we were pulling up towards the bus station, I could tell why.  IT. WAS. ENORMOUS.  and had food stalls and little convenient store stalls.  There must have been over 100 different buses that left from that depot.  Now it made sense when the manager told me and the taxi driver to go to a specific place in the bus depot.  (I won’t call it a bus station anymore, because really, it felt like an outdoor market that happened to have buses going to and fro from it.)

After waiting a while in your stereotypical SE Asian bus waiting area, the bus left almost right on time.  I was going through my records to see if I could remember how much the bus cost.  It was maybe $20?  It was a “luxury VIP” bus, which meant it had nice reclining, leather chairs.  There was supposed to be wifi, but, well, Myanmar..  They gave us a bottle of water and a thick blanket, which was appreciated.  You never know with buses in Asia.  Could be roasting or frigid.  The bus was scheduled to arrive in Bagan around 5 am.

2. Arrival into Bagan

{Side note: I stayed at the Bagan Umbra Hotel.  As I was researching for this blog post, I was looking for the hotel name in my files.  I typed it into Google and I began looking at the photos.  It literally did not ring a bell at all.  I think I blocked a lot of this trip from my memory.  This is the first time I’m really thinking about it, or talking about it in any detail.}

On the way to the hotel, we were stopped at a checkpoint of some kind, to see if the taxi driver was carrying tourists.  Mind you, this is around 5 am.  And I had to promptly pay for my entry ticket into the archaeological, protected zone of Bagan.  I’ll let you make your own judgments about what that fee was all about.

I arrived at the hotel and immediately showered and slept.  At this point, I had a restless night on the bus, having spent all day walking around Yangon, with an early flight in from Singapore.  We are about 30 hours after I left Singapore, and I’m finally sleeping in a bed.

3. Motorbike Rental

I woke up around 10, just early enough to catch the tail end of breakfast.  And immediately, I set out on foot to see what was near by.  Low and behold, there is a little shop that rents motorbikes.  I don’t remember how much it cost, nor do I remember how long I had rented it for.

Anyway, I rented the thing and spent the morning zooming around town, going to different places.  It was so much fun.  The views, the locals around town.  And Bagan is just so scenic with it’s thousands of temples dotting the horizon.  Including these random ones that I stopped off at.

As I was driving around, I passed a sign that pointed to the archaeological zone of Bagan, this way.  And I thought of that fee I already paid.  So I turned off the main road, onto a sandy road towards the zone.  All of Bagan is pretty remote and spread apart, so I was lucky when the motorbike slipped on sand, that people were actually in the vicinity.  The motorbike slipped, I must have hit the breaks and all I know was that I landed on my face.  In the sand.  No helmet, of course not, it’s Myanmar.

Thankful for Good Samaritans

It’s a good thing people were around.  To at least help me up, pour some water on my face and help me wipe some of the blood away.  There were sand and rocks everywhere.  I could feel it still on my face.  The motor bike fared better with a broken head light and mirror.

The thing about traveling alone is that, I had no choice but to drive myself back to the hotel.  Think about it.  Bagan is a super remote place.  This sandy path I was on, I doubt had a name, and even if it did.  Could I describe it?  I wasn’t even sure I was really going to said archaeological zone to be honest, because I know I passed by a different sign on a paved road earlier on in the morning.

So not only did i have to drive back to the hotel, Old Bagan/New Bagan are connected to the main town, Nyaung-U, by two parallel streets.  One is bigger than the other, but big is relative.  I took the wrong one.

But.  Taking the wrong road did lead me to the pharmacy, where the owner and his wife kind of looked on at me in horror and proceeded to use iodine and alcohol to help me clean my wounds.  I’m truly thankful that these people were there to help.  And that I didn’t necessarily need words to communicate, because honestly, I was probably at a loss for words.

And then, I had to continue to drive myself back to the hotel.  What a nightmare that whole ordeal was.  I’d deal with the bike shop owner later time, and eventually pay them $50 for the damage.  I later found out that technically, they owed me money for the accident.. apparently that’s how Myanmar works.

4. The rest of the day

I don’t remember if I had already scheduled a Burmese massage beforehand or if I decided that was a good idea since I needed to relax afterwards.  And that’s when I realized my legs were bruised up too.  Anyway, I spent the rest of the day by the pool, sketching and drinking fresh fruit juices.  I remember ordering room service that night and watching Guardians of the Galaxy (1) on my tablet.  The next day, I had a photography, village walking tour with Three Treasures that I was really looking forward to. And that will be my story for next time.

Mini Public Service Announcement

But before I go, one quick story.  I had lunch with one of my friends earlier this year, let’s call him J, and I was telling him this story.  J’s college roommate is from Hawaii and apparently things like this happen all the time in Hawaii or Asia in general. Tourists come in, thinking it’ll be a great idea to rent a moped or motorbike to see the place, don’t know how to ride, don’t know the rules of the road, and definitely don’t have a helmet.  And then they get hurt. Public service announcement:  It’s super dangerous without a helmet.  I could have easily suffered more damage than I did.  And with no helmet?  It was inexcusable for me to lower my own safety standards just because Myanmar’s safety standards are lower.  Never again.  Be smart people.  And since I’m sure you’re all curious what I looked like post-accident:

I’m fine now.  Was just definitely in shock and a little banged up at the time.  I’m still figuring out this blog and it’s kinks.  I wanted to show a picture of my bruised legs, but for some reason that wouldn’t take.  Oh well.  You’ve seen legs.  These ones were just bruised.

Also, I’ll post again on my tour of Bagan that I took the following day, because it is definitely worth a dedicated post.  The guide was great and let us do things at my pace.

So remember, safety first.  And try not to be a dumb tourist… in any manner.

Lannie

Lannie is a perpetual wanderer and loves to share her travel adventures and the food she eats along the way with everyone.  She works during the day while bouncing around the world and dreams about new places and faces at night!  She has a home on the magical Isle of Islay in Scotland, where the whisky flows freely and happily.

Click on the blue icons below to follow her on social media!

lanniesfoodandtravel.com/index.php/about-me/