Have you heard about Bagan?

Even though travelers from all over the world have been coming to Myanmar for generations, the really commercial tourism has started in the country around 6-7 years ago. There are many fascinating places to visit here, but today let me take you to my favorite one, namely Bagan.

You might have heard before about a heritage town of Luang Prabang in Laos and I'm pretty much sure you know the temples of Angkor in Siem Reap, Cambodia. All three are entirely different and worth visiting for different reasons, but Bagan remains my favorite mostly because it's still relatively unknown to the world and not overcrowded with tourists. To give you a perspective, last year Bagan was visited by only about 200,000 people, while Angkor by almost 5 million. That's 25 times more!

While Angkor complex consists maybe of a few dozens of mostly really big and impressive temples, in Bagan there are around 2,500 of them on plain of 42 square kilometers! Sure, most of them are much smaller than Angkor, but the whole really has to be seen to be believed.

There used to be almost twice as many of them, but time is not a friend of monuments like these and roughly half of them is gone by now. The others are in various stages of disrepair, while many important ones are being carefully renovated. A typical tour will take you to at least 4 temples, which are considered to be the most important and beautiful, but what I like doing is just to jump on a bike and cycle around taking in the sights.

While temples are of course the main attraction of the area, Bagan is a place rich in culture. You can find everything here from traditional umbrellas from Pathein in the south of the country to help you escape the burning sun through traditional puppets & marionettes to temporary henna tattoos with classic local designs. Take a look yourself below: