Temples of Bagan

Upon arrival, pick up and transfer to the hotel for check in. Your exploration of Yangon will begin in the afternoon with a look at the local life of this colonial style city centre with the glittering 2000-year-old Sule Pagoda and tranquil Mahabandoola Park with Independence Monument. Free time shopping Bogoyke Aung San market, best known for its colonial architecture, inner cobblestone streets and wide selection of souvenirs. After lunch, you will visit the Chaukhtatgyi Pagoda which houses a 72-meter reclining Buddha statue and from here, continue to the famed 2500-year-old Shwedagone Pagoda before your Yangon experience ends. Watch the sun cast its rays over the temple at sunset. Overnight in Yangon.

Transfer to the airport for a flight to Bagan. On arrival, visit the colorful Nyaung Oo Market where every day the locals come to buy and sell fresh produce and other goods. Continuing to Shwezigon Pagoda, its graceful bell shape became a prototype of later Myanmar stupa and Wetkyi-in Gubyaukgyi, a cave temple with exquisite Jatakas mural paintings. Then get to learn more about the local culture with a visit to a workshop producing Bagan’s most famous products: lacquer ware and wood crafts. Your final visit this morning is at the elegant Htilominlo Temple noted for its fine plaster carvings and glazed sandstone decorations. Check in at the hotel at noon and have lunch at a local restaurant. In the afternoon, you will explore Ananda, an architectural masterpiece reflecting the early-style of Bagan temple construction and containing four 9.5m standing images. From Ananda, embark on a horse cart ride amongst the ancient stupa ruins giving you a chance to take in more of Bagan’s surroundings. Ride through heading to see the Thatbyinnyu pagoda, named for “omniscience”, Bagan’s highest temple, the massive walled, 12^th-century Dhammayangyi Pagoda and finish the day’s sightseeing tour by a sunset shoot from Bagan’s most famous ‘Shwesandaw Pagoda’ and follow the steps up to one of the high terraces for a great view out over the plains. Overnight in Bagan.

Transfer to Mt. Popa which is the core of an extinct volcano that may have erupted some 250,000 years ago. Along the way, you will pass through the peanut farms and Toddy Palm fields where men climb up the palm trees to collect the juice to make Jaggery or liquor. Upon arrival at a small village at the base of Mount. You will climb more than 700 steps to the top for sweeping views of the surrounding plains, but it gets cooler as you get higher. On the way back to Bagan in the afternoon, you will take a visit to the Myinkaba village which is famous for the traditional Mon-style lacquerware. Visit Manula Temple with gigantic Buddha images, named after the Mon King from Thanton and Nanpaya, an early-style temple with the Bagan’s finest stone carvings – sandstone block and Gubyaukgyi (Myingaba) under the protection of UNESCO because of its ancient mural paintings. Late this afternoon, take a dusk boat trip on the Ayeyarwaddy. The view of the temples of Bagan from a distance with the light of the setting sun is stunning. Overnight in Bagan.

After breakfast, transfer to the airport for the flight back to Yangon. From here, you continue to take another flight back home.