Bagan is hot most of the year. The best time to visit is between November and
February, when temperatures hit 30C (86F). Avoid March to May, when
temperatures can reach 43C (110F). Rainfall is highest in June and October.
If you can, visit during a full moon, a popular time for local festivals.
How to travel
Burma is a difficult place in which to travel, especially independently. Now
that Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD party have sanctioned responsible tourism,
the recent surge of visitors has created its own problems, notably the
inability of the nascent tourist industry to cope. Even reputable outside
tour companies with many years' experience in the country are struggling to
guarantee rooms and services.
Old problems remain, namely the poor infrastructure; sudden travel
restrictions; the almost total lack of ATMs and mobile phone and internet
coverage; and the inability, in all but a handful of hotels and other
businesses, to make payments by credit card.
Bagan is one of the areas in the country that has known visitors for some
time, and in appreciable numbers, so the problems here are slightly less
acute. At the same time, it's the obvious target for the majority of new
visitors.
All this means you should think carefully about travelling independently and
that if you take a package (the recommended course), you book early with a
company that has long experience of working in Burma.
Packages
Most tour operators offer Bagan as part of a longer Burmese itinerary, usually
approaching Bagan by air, by river from Mandalay (recommended), or overland
from Inle Lake. A minimum of one full day (two nights) is required.
Alternatively, combine tours elsewhere with a shorter, self-contained river
cruise between Bagan and Mandalay (or vice versa).
Check to see if your package includes a balloon flight over the temple site, a
superb, if expensive way to see the temples.
On a budget
Explore (0845 291 4541; explore.co.uk),
offers 12 Burma options, including a nine-day "Essential Burma" trip,
including Bagan, from £1,115 per person b b, excluding
international flights.
In style
Abercrombie Kent (0845 485 1142; abercrombiekent.co.uk)
has a long association with Burma, an office in Yangon and excellent guides
and on-the-ground services. It can tailor-make car-and-driver itineraries
that include Bagan, as well as packaging river-cruise and other options. A
nine-day tour, including Bagan (with Yangon, Mandalay and Inle Lake) costs
from £2,440 per person, including b b, guides, flights and
transfers.
Audley Travel (01993 838105; audleytravel.com)
is another long-established operator that has been organising trips to Burma
since 1995. It too can tailor-make a variety of itineraries that take in
Bagan.
Another company with a long presence in the country is Orient-Express (020
3117 1300; orient-express.com),
which offers three, four or seven-day "The Road to Mandalay" cruises on its
own 80-berth boat between Bagan and Mandalay, or vice versa, with
accommodation overnight on the boat for sightseeing in Bagan and Mandalay
(plus nights in its own Governor's Residence hotel in Yangon, as required).
Three-day cruises start at £1,640 per person, including full board, internal
flights and guided sightseeing.
For longer, more far-reaching river cruises with a Bagan component, contact
Pandaw (020 3287 6113; pandaw.com).
Cruising down the Irrawaddy
Going independently
You can reach Bagan (Nyaung-U) by air with Asian Wings (asianwingsair.com),
Air Mandalay (air-mandalay.com),
Air Bagan (airbagan.com)
and Yangon Airways (yangonair.com).
Tickets from Yangon cost around £50 one-way and journey time is 1 hour 20
minutes, though many flights have stopovers en route.
Book online, but always email or ask your hotel to call a couple of days
before flying to reconfirm. Payment in the past had to be made directly to
an airline's office in Yangon, but this may change as credit card usage
becomes more widespread.
You can travel from Yangon or Mandalay by ferry on the state Inland Water
Transport (iwt.gov.mm),
but restrictions on foreigners can apply, schedules can be haphazard and a
change of boat is usually required in Pyay from Yangon.
Train travel can be fascinating, but slow and hard work, though the main
Yangon-Mandalay line is better than most, currently with one overnight
direct train daily from Yangon to Bagan. Tickets cost $35 (£23) for an
upper-class seat, $40 (£26) for a sleeper, around four times the price of a
coach ticket. Visit maninseat61.com/Burma for detailed information on train
travel in Burma.
Viewing tactics
The main centre for the site, with the most hotel, eating and transport
options, is Nyaung-U. Just over two miles west is tiny Old Bagan, a sleepy
village whose inhabitants were forcibly moved in 1990 to the workaday New
Bagan, about two miles to its south. Old Bagan is closest to the temples,
and contains sights of its own, but if you are on a package the chances are
that transfers will be provided wherever you stay.
A handful of the more popular temples see some coach tours and can become
relatively busy, and will have vendors and children trying to sell you their
drawings: this is especially true of Ananda Pahto, the single biggest draw,
and Shwesandaw, the "sunset" pagoda, so-called because it is the one (with
Buledi) most visitors climb to watch the sunset.
However, it is easy to take a bike, taxi or horse and cart to quiet areas of
the site, especially the central plain, where you won't see another soul and
where there are dozens of other temples, such as Pyathada Paya, full of
murals and statues of Buddha, or which you can climb undisturbed to watch
the sunrise or sunset.
By balloon
The best initial way to see the temples is from a hot-air balloon. The roughly
45-minute flights leave at dawn and drift over much of the site, with
glorious views of the river and distant mountains, hazed by mist, as well as
a bird's-eye view of the temples and rural village life. Sunset flights are
also available.
Balloons Over Bagan (00951 652809; easternsafaris.com)
is a privately owned Burmese (but British-run) company, and its balloons are
state-of-the art and operated by highly experienced UK crew, along with
ground and other staff recruited from the area.
Prices are $330 (£217) per person and flights can sell out many months in
advance. Flights run roughly mid-October to mid-March, not year-round, and
are weather dependent and cannot be guaranteed to operate. Bookings will be
refunded. Visitors taking package or tailor-made tours should ensure
bookings are made for them. Stand-by tickets are available if you arrive
without a booking.
Exploring the region by horse cart
By bike or cart
The temple site is too big to explore on foot, but is well suited to being
seen by bike, being criss-crossed by gravel roads and paths. Most hotels in
all three centres rent out bicycles. Hire a guide if you are worried about
becoming lost, or want to see some of the best out-of-the-way temples.
Guides will know where to find the key-holders for locked temples, though
many temples are always open and access to most, for the time being at
least, is simple.
You can explore at a more sedate pace from one of the area's 250-odd horse
carts that congregate at the larger or more central temples. Most drivers
speak a little English and, again, can act as guides to less-visited parts
of the site. Ask at your hotel for the latest going rate and fix the price
and duration of the trip beforehand.
Before you go
A visa (£14) is required for Burma. There is talk of a visa-on-arrival scheme,
and the embassy website (myanmarembassy.com/english/visa.htm)
alludes to this possibility, but in practice you should apply for a visa
before travelling in consultation with your tour operator or a visa agent
such as Travcour (020 8543 1846; travcour.com),
which can arrange visas, usually in five working days, for £40 plus the £14
visa charge. Contact it before downloading or submitting any forms.
Visit the embassy website for requirements and to download the application
form. Postal processing can take up to four weeks; or you can apply in
person in the UK at the country's Mayfair embassy. Beware the plethora of
websites, some purporting to be official "embassy" sites, offering visa
services.
Heed the latest Foreign and Commonwealth Office travel advice (gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/burma).
At the time of writing, it advises against all but essential travel, among
other places, to the towns of Meiktila, Tharzi, Wundin and Mahlaing, which
are all in the vicinity of Mandalay and Bagan.
Burma has specific health concerns: polio, typhoid, diphtheria, hepatitis A
and B, Japanese encephalitis (mosquito-borne), dengue fever (ditto), among
others, are all present. Malaria is a risk outside main cities and below
around 900m (3,000ft) so antimalarial tablets are essential. Visit
nathnac.org for a detailed assessment of health risks and how to reduce
them.
Background reading
The best general guidebook is Lonely Planet's Myanmar (Burma), with online
updates at lonelyplanet.com. Reuters' Andrew Marshall blogs regularly on
Burma at blogs.reuter.com/Andrew-rc-marshall and is the author of an account
of the country, The Trouser People (Counterpoint), updated in 2012. Thant
Myint-U's The River of Lost Footsteps (Faber) is a personal historical
account and Aung San Suu Kyi's Letters from Burma (Penguin) provides
insights from Burma's most celebrated politician and activist.
For earlier travel writing, see George Orwell's Burmese Days (Penguin Modern
Classics) and Golden Earth (Eland) by Norman Lewis.
Read Burma's leading daily newspaper online at mmtimes.com.
Tips
Take plenty of cash. US dollars can always be used and exchanged but as the
local currency (kyat) has appreciated so it has become more attractive to
local businesses.
Dollar notes should be as near pristine as possible, larger denomination notes
are preferred, and you should exchange money in shops and hotels only.
Tipping is not widespread, but keep small denomination (K50, K100 or K200)
notes for donations in larger temples.
Dress conservatively. You may see a few locals wearing shorts in cities, but
generally T-shirts and shorts are considered underwear and wearing them is
seen as disrespectful.
Shoes and socks must be removed before entering temples and Burmese homes. You
will not be admitted to temples with bare shoulders or knees.
Women are not admitted to some temples.
Steps to the upper terraces of most temples are incredibly steep, with no
handrails, and can be a challenge for even the fittest and most agile
visitors.
There are only a handful of tiny (but charming) ramshackle cafés among the
temples for refreshment, so take food and water.
Do not shake hands with, or touch monks and nuns. A small bow is the most
appropriate greeting.
Tap water is not safe to drink.
Beyond Bagan
Local trips if you are spending longer in Bagan include Mount Popa, a sacred
mountain; Salay, 22 miles from Bagan, an active religious centre from the
12th century that also has numerous colonial-era buildings; and — unless you
are already on a river cruise — one of the sunset or other short boat trips
offered from the jetty at Nyaung-U.
- Have you been to Burma? Send your comments to yoursay@telegraph.co.uk
or post them on our website at telegraph.co.uk/travel
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