Sunlit nights: Waking up amongst pagodas in Bagan

Bagan, in northern Myanmar, looks like a place that has survived through centuries of change. From the moment I stepped into Bagan, I felt like I had gone back to the 12th century, with pagodas hidden among the wild forest land. They are everywhere and there are thousands of them, big and small. Bagan can be seen by car, horse-cart and cycle. I chose the horse (considering the heat!).

First trip to Bagan (May 2013)

Horse-carts and pagodas are a common sight everywhere

Ananda Phaya

Puppets

Mysterious temple!

Beautiful paintings!

View from the breakfast table (pagodas are indeed everywhere!)

A village kitchen

Lacquer ware artists

My favourite pagodas were two offbeat ones that the horse-cart driver took me to - a quiet, almost haunted one and a smaller, deserted one. He was a local, who said he had grown up playing in the pagodas, and he really seemed to know every inch of the land! While getting back in the afternoon, we got caught in a storm. Bagan has loose, red soil, which gets blown about easily by the wind. That and the twigs, insects and leaves attacking the horse, driver and me, forced us to wait out the storm in the sparse forest nearby. It was quite an experience, but we got out of it unharmed, though very wet!