A Bicycle Ride Around Bagan, Burma

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  08.13.07 | 3:45 PM ET

bagantemples
Photo by worak via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

We noted a story in the Los Angeles Times news section last year examining the Myanmar government’s ill-conceived, theme park-like development among the historic temples in the ancient city of Bagan. On Sunday, the Times covered the story from a traveler’s standpoint. Joe Robinson visited Bagan, exploring the temples on a rented girl’s bicycle with a leopard-print seat.

As he writes, he happened upon some memorable views:

The backdraft stirred up a storm of dry-season dust, and as it settled, I could make out a surreal spectacle from the top of the rise: a sea of otherworldly steeples dancing in the heat waves—some conical, others topped with doughnut-shaped rings, some with glinting golden umbrellas, some sculpted into immense bells. Despite the heat, it was not a mirage. The sci-fi skyline is the legacy of a mysterious building boom that turned this central Burmese savanna astride the Irrawaddy River into one of Asia’s most sprawling but least-known extravaganzas of religious architecture.

Robinson witnessed some of the new construction underway, and plenty of neglect, too.

“Without proper preservation, thousands of works of art are threatened, one Burmese expert who asked not to be identified told me,” he writes. “I saw priceless murals of life in the 12th century under attack by termites, which target the sugar used in the ancient plaster.”

Of course, there’s an ongoing debate about the ethics of visiting Myanmar—or Burma.



6 Comments for A Bicycle Ride Around Bagan, Burma

Marilyn Terrell 08.13.07 | 7:12 PM ET

Rolf Potts saw lots more from the seat of a bicycle in Burma, and wrote a story about it for NatGeo Traveler’s “Sudden Journeys” issue: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/features/suddenjourneys0705/journeys.html#rolf

S 08.14.07 | 8:49 AM ET

I think that travel can be one of the best educators out there and recall the first time I went to Burma with a tour group.  I knew of some of the situation going on, however it wasn’t until I was actually there and learning on the ground on both the Thai-Burma border and internally what was going on.  I still have plenty more to learn and continue to say that my heart is in Burma.  I have since made several trips to Burma and I think that while the idea that as soon as my plane wheels hit the ground, I am providing money in the form of taxes and visa fees, however I am responsibile enough to limit those fees to the government and stay in local places, eat in local shops and travel by private transportation as much as possible.  Sure you’re going to have little bits going in the government’s pockets here and there, however the information I walk out with and the stories I inform people of balance those few dollars. 

The money that goes into the pockets of the local people helps those people expand their own opportunities and by continuing to travel in Burma, it is known that the areas where the foreigners are, there is less likely to be human rights abuses going on.  I’m not ignorant, I have seen the work camps, I have seen the oppression and I have been kept from going to specific areas, however I can walk away with those stories of what I have seen, the images I have photographed and am able to educate others that don’t even know where Burma is in the world. 

In a time where much of the global media walks on egg shells with coverage in Burma, it is necessary for people to share their travels and what they learned in this country first-hand.

victor 08.16.07 | 1:26 PM ET

Hi.. friends

Helping you is helping me..and us..

Victor

Cycle Clothing 07.17.08 | 12:10 AM ET

There definitely needs to be more care in the preservation of such artefacts but what more can be done. I wonder how the Burmese feel about this and how high of a priority it seems to them.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Sarah.

BMW Bike Parts 07.21.08 | 12:57 PM ET

Could you shed more light on the ethicality of visiting Burma?

Michael Yessis 07.21.08 | 1:09 PM ET

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