See the ancient temples of Bagan at sunrise

“The next morning we awoke at 5am and rented bicycles to get around the large complex faster. With map in hand, we peddled in the night towards a pagoda in Old Bagan that a friend had recommended to us for sunrise. We made it with time to spare and were pleased to discover no one else had ventured to this particular place for the morning. With the pagoda to ourselves (which would become a common theme) we watched the beginning of a new day with the mist drifting in amongst the trees and the sun’s rays piercing through the clouds to the tops of the temples. An amazing moment.”

“During our visit, the popular sunrise pagoda “Shwesandaw” was recently closed off to visitors, so we, along with the majority moved to the nearby Bulethi Pagoda. The view from Bulethi Pagoda is really stunning and from a distance, you can even spot the hot air balloons floating in the air. [...] For this sunrise, we used the free shuttle from our hotel so we were there just after 5am and had to wait almost an hour in the cold for the sunrise itself.”