Bagan is about 180km from Mandalay and we all got a bus down there around lunchtime, arriving there about 4 hours later. It dates back to the 9th century but was raided by those bloody Mongols in the 13th century. Since then the population decreased until it was just basically a village living amongst all the temples. That was up until the 90's when all locals were forced to move to "New Bagan" to ensure that it remained a magnet for tourists and thus a money maker for those pesky Generals. We had recommendations of a hostel from a few people who were staying at Mommas and when we arrived we were pretty happy with it. Ostello Bello was quite a new place with apparently the fastest wifi in the whole of Myanmar (still slow though) and also free spaghetti served daily at 1300 and 2000 which was a bonus. Bagan is all about the sunrise and sunset with the some 2200 temples/pagoda's making it incredibly scenic. We got there in time for the first sunset and took a little bimble to watch it at a temple by the river. At this point the British and Danish contingency were all pretty sick of fried rice so decided to find something a bit more European. We found an Italian which was overpriced, bland and the staff were all pretty rude. We chose well. An early night then followed as we were up early the next day to grab our "ebikes" and get to a temple to watch sunrise.

We were all up by 0400 and picked up the bikes which were pretty nifty to be fair. An ideal way to get around as the weather was stupidly hot in Bagan. Most people head to a few specific temples that you can climb and have incredible views of the place but we found one that was just as big as the more popular ones but we were literally the only ones there which was good. The view was unique and magnificent, one that I'll remember for a long time. The sheer density of temples is just unbelievable and I can see why Bagan is a must for people travelling around Myanmar. We spent the day taking a closer look at some of these temples, had a cheeky nap and eventually went out for dinner. At one of the temples I got sucked in by a local lady who was selling "genuine picture" that was drawn by her...Apparently. I bought a picture for about £3 and was actually quite happy with my purchase until I went down a level at the temple and saw a toothless chap selling the same picture...I had done well, again. By dinner time we had picked up an American, Australian and a Canadian so quite a few of us went out for dinner. A few beers followed and then Alex managed to get his hands on a guitar back at the hostel. Unfortunately the only song he knew was "Wonderwall" which he played majestically, but after that we were stumped a little so just continued to play and sing that same song. It was getting on a bit and we were making quite a bit of noise so Maggie, a lady who works at the hostel invited us over to a pagoda across the road to carry on the party there. We thought why not and went over. She was with 3 locals who were sipping rum, smoking Myanmar cigars and playing local music. Obviously we embraced the situation. It wasn't long before we were leading the songs with "Stand by me" and "Let it be" getting banged out. I had quite a few Myanmar cigars which actually didn't taste too bad at the time but I could feel them the next day. We danced, drank rum and basically just had a great time over there and I think the locals appreciated us getting involved. All in all it was a quality day/night. Bagan is a stunning place and I would highly recommend it. Just perhaps stay off the rum if you're up early the next day for a long old bus journey to Kalaw.