Hi there! Today I wanted to feature the video I’ve made of the temples at Bagan, however I thought I’d let you know about the four temples that I remember most vividly from Myanmar’s amazing Bagan first. These are the temples that feature primarily in the video.

Bupaya

Bupaya is a temple on the banks of the Irrawaddy. It has this amazing sort of ‘bulb’ which seems to be the main feature of the temple, and its location makes it well worth visiting. It’s dated somewhere between the second and third centuries AD, and was destroyed by an earthquake in 1975 and has been completely rebuilt. Nevertheless, it’s quite special.

Ananda

Ananda seems to be pretty much the most popular and one of the bigger temples in Bagan. It’s fully functioning as are many of the bigger temples, and has four large Buddhas inside. One is said to be smiling if you look at him from a distance, but frowning when up close, although I’m not sure it quite worked for me! It was built in 1105 AD.

Tha Kya Hi Hpaya

This is a small temple that I found on my first day. It doesn’t see a lot of tourists, nevertheless there are people selling stuff inside! You can climb up stairs to an open area, and for a small temple it’s really fun to explore.

Dhammayangi Pahto

This temple has an unnecessarily long name, and is another very popular temple. Outwardly it’s very beautiful. Inside is interesting but many of the passageways appeared to have been bricked up. I found in pretty much every temple I visited that there were colonies of bats living there, but this one took the cake. As a visitor you are required to take your shoes off, however here you have a hard time not to step on bat… excrement shall we say? This temple dates back to the 12^th century.

Thanks for journeying to Bagan with me. Thursday sees another ‘City Rumble’ and this time it’s Singapore versus Kuala Lumpur!