The plan was to fly to Mandalay, take the train to Bagan, and then fly back to Yangon. So we booked our tickets on the overnight train from Mandalay to Bagan, caught a taxi to the train station, and... the train was broken. We stood around the office trying to figure out what we were going to do; the train was under repair hours away and the earliest it would make it to Mandalay was the next morning. While we were standing around pondering our options, of course, the power failed and there was a black-out. All we could do was stand in the pitch black of the station until one of the station managers lit a candle. At that time, laughing about the fact that we should have expected a problem like this, we decided to go back to the hotel we had just checked out of and see if we could arrange alternative means to reach Bagan. Luckily, we were able to book on to an early morning flight for only $35.

Like Angkor in Cambodia, Bagan is an ancient medieval city and important religious site. There are over 2000 pagodas that remain here, mostly in ruins but some very well-preserved, and sprawl over a vast plain. When gazing toward the horizon, it appears as if these temples go on forever. Bagan dates back to the 2nd century A.D., and the thousands of temples were built over a short 200 year period. At one time, there were more than 13,000 temples and other religious structures.

To see the temples, we rented bicycles for two days and biked all day (through the scalding heat and over dirt trails that were better suited to mountain bikes). Here are some highlights from Bagan: