We woke up around 5:30am and headed down to breakfast for 6:00am. It was still chilly out, and breakfast was down by the river under the trees (where the birds try to steal your toast). Breakfast was the usual spread, a mix of traditional English breakfast foods and fruits with some Burmese dishes.

After breakfast was rented two bicycles from our hotel. They tried to rent us scooters, but Jives doesn’t drive, so I was worried about doing that.

We biked all over the area between New Bagan and Old Bagan (you really should watch the video to see that adventure in detail). It felt like we were Indiana Jones, or a tomb raider, exploring all these temples with no one around. I found one pagoda that was still open to climb to the roof of. More and more temples have been closed off to the public, but there are still a few open to climb up if you look hard enough.

We stopped at many points along the way to take photos and explore. In total we biked over 20km. Many people tried to sell us paintings, everyone in Bagan is a painter!

We stopped at a temple with an ancient reclining Buddha, and two seated Buddhas, called Manuha. This temple was built by a captive monk almost 1000 years ago (1067AD).

We stopped for lunch at a little place in New Bagan called Elodie. I had a potato curry and Jives had a spicy Japanese style tofu dish with a beer and rice. This was a wonderful stop.

We then biked back to our hotel. Along the way we visited an old ruined monastery.

In total it cost us about $6 to rent the bikes for the day, and we would totally recommend a day of biking for your trip to Bagan Myanmar. It’s tough terrain to bike on, but it’s a much more peaceful way to explore than by scooter or car.