Bagan Temples at Sunset
Bagan was once the capital of Myanmar and a center of Buddhism. Most of its more than 5000 temples were built between the 11th and 13th centuries. Nowadays there are only roughly 2000 temples as many were destroyed in an earthquake in the 1970’s.
There is a balloon ride over the temple filled plain, but we chose to simply climb up some pyramid shaped temples and shoot from there. We shot the temples on two occasions, one at sunset and one at dawn.
I’ll show you the dawn one on another day. It is more spectacular, but let me tell you it was hard to get the exposure right. It was much easier to shoot at sunset but I think best of all, if it is within your budget, take the balloon ride and lots of memory cards.
Just look at those gorgeous clouds. We had clouds like that everyday except when it rained. The towering clouds and the luxurient green of palms, tamarinds, mango orchards, and rice paddies… the humid air and heat…we were suffused with the atmosphere of southeast Asia.
Hello rosemary! Congratulations for this awesome picture! Can you tell me from wich temple did you take it ?
Hi, Nicolas. Thanks for checking my blog. I am sorry but I don’t know the name of the temple we stood on that morning. I had a guide. We left our hotel early, long before dawn to walk to the area. To get to the spot where we stood with our tripods, we entered a temple and had to climb up the interior to get to the ledge I shot from. We stood so that the biggest temple, that is lit with electric lights, was on our left, sort of northwest. We waited quite a while for the sun to come up and other tourists arrived as we waited, so get there early on the day you shoot. We did not budge from our vantage point until the sun was fully risen.
What I would do, if you do not want to hire a guide, is to download a copy of my pic. Go for a walk in the temples the day before using the pic as a “map”. Get the temples situated as they are in my photo and look for an entrance on the western side of a large, brick temple with ledges about a meter wide. The entrance is just an opening in the temple. Not a grand doorway and vines and bushes might keep you from noticing it. There are no stairs but it is easy to climb.
That is the best I can do. Good luck.