* Vary your ride. On day one you’ll likely want an overview of the entire plain. Choose either horse cart or air-conditioned taxi, depending on the heat. (Come to think of it, you will be lucky to find an air-conditioned taxi here.) For your remaining days, your best mode will be bicycle—preferably equipped with fat, knobby tires for traction on the sandy roads. (Come to think of it, you will be lucky to find fat, knobby tires here.) Wheels of some kind will be better than trying to see Bagan on foot—distances are too long for comfortable walking, and you’re an easy target for postcard/painting sellers if you don’t have a getaway vehicle.
* Keep your distance. Going inside the temples needn’t always be your goal. Few of the interiors are as rewarding as the outsides.
* Take extra-long siestas. The ideal schedule has you up and out before sunrise. Delight in the dark silhouettes against the changing colors of the morning sky and the mists among the desert plants. If you’re a breakfast person, grab some food about the time when you no longer need your windbreaker. Between roughly 11 and 4 you’ll want to seek shade. Late afternoon / early evening is another magical time to be out on your bicycle taking in the floodlit spires of the most-favored chedis (though you’ll need a flashlight—darkness descends quickly!).
* Remember the river. A sunset cruise on the Irrawaddy finishes your day in Bagan just as nicely as a climb up an elevated perch. Pushing off around 4:30 gives you time to motor upriver from the jetty past Bupaya, briefly pull alongside the massive steamer Road to Mandalay, and then pass Shwezigon just as its shiny gold top appears to age slightly, changing from dazzling new to lustrous antique with the changing angle of the sun’s rays. Eventually the boatman will cut the engine and let the craft float back down. If you’re close to the right, temple-less bank, you’ll see farmers hand-watering the lettuces, onions, and tomatoes that will appear at the morning’s markets in Nyaung Oo. At this hour the star attraction is Tan Kyi Taung, the gold
stupa-ed paya atop the ridge on the sunset side. All day long this temple’s many cousins across the river have held the spotlight. Now, as the sun descends behind it, Tan Kyi Taung appears to be the last man standing. (People from Myanmar who visit Bagan often do so partly to make merit at four sites in particular, representing the cardinal directions. This temple stands at the western extreme, and is generally saved for last during a morning-long dash to get to all four.)* Lose your socks. Or else you’ll get awfully tired of putting them on and taking them off all day.
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