The first time I brought a bicycle on a trip was to Kanazawa, sometime or another.
(And I first encountered the Nagoya crowd after I headed over to an event called "Bankin" that happened to be going on nearby.)
Compared to my previous travel style of walking around like a madman, it was such an incredibly fulfilling trip that I've been bringing my bike along—or riding it there—ever since, even if it’s a bit of a hassle.
The wonderful thing about riding a bike is that you instantly grasp the skeletal structure of a city.
The direction of the mountains, rivers, and sea; what the city center is, how the shopping district connects to it, and how the neighborhoods are divided.
Map information comes to life, accompanied by scents, atmosphere, and the very air itself.
You can breeze through your list of places to visit, and you gain an understanding of how those places relate to the city.
The Town of Nyaung-U
I arrived in the morning in Nyaung-U, a town with a cute name that serves as the base for sightseeing in Bagan. Myanmar actually has quite a few place names that sound like "Nyan-Nyan."
Since it's a small town that you can ride across in about 10 minutes, I decided to do a lap for starters.
The first thing to do when arriving in a town is to find a place to stay.
Buildings marked "Guest House" are clustered in several areas.
I checked out a few and chose one near the market. 12,000 kyat (1,200 yen) per night for a single room. It’s a bit pricey, but oh well. They’ll store my bike in the lobby.
And the next thing to do is arrange the return trip.
I have to get to Yangon to catch my flight.
It's about 700-800km away, and while I’d love to ride there, I don’t have the time, so I booked a night bus in the hotel lobby, which doubles as a travel agency.
Once those two errands were finished, I felt at ease.
I fell asleep on the bed for a bit, and when I realized it, it was past noon.
I headed out into town to grab some lunch before touring the ruins.
This was probably a funeral. They were blasting Buddhist chants at high volume.
Bagan Archaeological Zone
The atmosphere shifts slightly once you pass through the Tharaba Gate, built in 849 AD, and enter Old Bagan, which is surrounded by city walls and the Irrawaddy River. From the 11th to the 13th century, this was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, the first to unify Burma, and it continued to thrive as a center for Theravada Buddhist study even after the dynasty was destroyed by the Mongols.
I rode my bike around an area dotted with temples and pagodas of all sizes, ranging from ones over 60m tall to tiny ones barely big enough for a single person. There are scattered villages, but much of it is farmland or pasture, with single tracks and jeep trails weaving through them like a maze.
Unfortunately, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred 20km south of here a week before I arrived in Bagan. Many ruins were damaged. This plate boundary area, where the Indian subcontinent collides with the Eurasian continent, is prone to earthquakes by nature; there was a large-scale quake in 1975 too, and locals were saying it was better than that one.
Many pagodas, including the Ananda Temple, which is considered the most beautiful, were under repair, but there were others with less damage that I could enter or climb up to watch the sunset.
As you get closer to the Irrawaddy River, you start to see the daily lives of the locals.
Beyond the boat landing for people crossing to the Mandalay side or the other bank, there is an active temple where monks, students on school trips, and Burmese domestic tourists constantly visit to offer prayers.
Bagan is, first and foremost, a site of ruins; the faith and practice of many monks and locals take place in "active" pagodas and monasteries. This beautiful temple along the Irrawaddy River was built during the Bagan Dynasty and still serves as a center for worship today.
There was a shockingly cute Burmese girl at this pagoda, but I couldn't take a picture... Burmese people are basically shy and rarely let you point a camera at them.
In exchange, here is this cute child from the Dhammayangyi Temple.
What is painted on her cheeks is Thanaka, a natural cosmetic and ornament from Myanmar. Both men and women wear it on their faces.
The Peculiar Mt. Popa
I headed 60km southeast from Bagan to a sacred site of folk religion at the foot of Mt. Popa.
Temperatures exceeded 35 degrees Celsius, and there was no shade to be expected. I was worried about hydration, but in the end, it was an unnecessary concern thanks to the many roadside shops.
The road to Mt. Popa felt fantastic, regardless.
Especially after entering the Byat Ta Pan Sat road, the path went through local villages and continued along a gentle ridge, and the tree-lined route planted with useful local trees like teak, neem, and tamarind was truly beautiful.
The person under the tree is a beggar. It was a mystery why a pair of them would pop up under a tree every 50 meters.
Taung Kalat, the sacred site at the foot of the solitary volcanic peak of Mt. Popa, draws near.
Myanmar’s animistic spirits, known as Nats, are intense beings—much like a Shinto myth from Japan given human form.
While absorbed into Buddhism, the state religion, they seem to be worshipped in various forms, manifesting as guardians or spirits one can be possessed by.
I had thought about hitching a ride on a pickup truck on the way back, but the road was so good that I decided to ride back myself. Riding through the evening sun, I passed many migrant workers heading back to their villages from Nyaung-U.
Roadside shop. It's rare to find one without a cell phone advertisement.
Myanmar Cuisine
There was still some time until sunset, so I climbed up a different pagoda than yesterday and waited. Peddlers always come up to me asking if I want to buy postcards or cloth, but the lackluster guy who came today, after I refused the usual items, suggested I buy a woman instead. I asked him if such a place even existed in Bagan, and apparently, it's a village that takes two hours by car. Only "Mutsu-goro" would go to a place like that.
Myanmar food is not very good.
Perhaps it's because it was a British colony for so long. The food in neighboring Laos, a former French colony I visited a long time ago, was quite delicious.
Since I was leaving tomorrow night, I figured I'd have a "last supper" in Bagan and went into a place that looked a bit more expensive than the usual spot where locals gather.
It cost about double (9,000 kyat), but it was exceptionally good. I shouldn't have been so stingy...
Beer is cheap and delicious (large bottle 1600 kyat / 160 yen). I like Mandalay Beer more than Myanmar Beer.
Once a trip hits its halfway point, you suddenly get that "homeward bound" feeling and it gets a little lonely.
I hopped on a JJ Express bus—which is more comfortable than Japanese night buses—and headed toward the metropolis of Yangon, and then on to Bangkok.
To be continued.
– Bike to Mt.Popa –
TODAY’S RIDER
Monjya【SimWorks】
| Frame | Rew10Works | Breakaway CX |
| Wheel | CHRIS KING & Velocity | ISO SS Hub & Aileron |
| Tire | SimWorks by Panaracer | The Homage |
| Cockpit | SimWorks by NITTO | Wild Honey Bar & Rhonda Stem |
| Rack | Tubes | Duo |
| Touring Bag | Porcelain Rocket | Micro Panniers,Mini Slinger,Mr.Fusion V2 |
TEXT & PHOTO by Monjya