On arriving in Bagan after 10 hours on a terribly squashed bus we were completely knackered.  We found a guesthouse and a cafe and chilled out for a couple of hours.
We hired an ebike for the day which was completely hilarious! I think they are put there to amuse the locals when they see tourists on these crazy things.

We saw a few of the large and less popular pagodas our first day, before renting a boat to go out on the river for sunset.

For some reason sunsets and sunrises in Bagan are the most incredible things to see! We woke early the next day to catch sunrise from one of the smaller pagodas about 6km from where we were staying. And it was absolutely breathtaking. It has to be the highlight of my trip. It was amazing just seeing the sun come up over a plain of ancient pagodas with the mist all around. But then, like mushrooms growing up out of the ground we saw hot air balloons slowly rising out of the mist to take flight. It was spectacular and I encourage anyone who travels to Burma, this is a must see.

We spent our second day visiting some of the more popular temples and pagodas which was nice. The architecture of each one was different so there was always something new to see. We ate breakfast lunch and dinner at the same place that day. Spice restaurant in old Bagan. She served muesli with yogurt and fruit in the morning which was Divine.  It is nice to have some western food every now and then. Breaks up the monotony of rice and veggies 3 times a day. We headed on a very classy bus from Bagan to Yangon that night. Elite express had the most amazing service and extremely nice buses which made the trip much more pleasant. Still not much sleep. We arrived in Yangon early morning and caught up with our Australian friends Bernard and Alyssa before they caught their flight out of Burma.  Was really good to see them once again. Then we hopped on yet another bus to Mawlamyine 6 hours east of Yangon.

We had lunch at a place with this on the door… how many people get refused entry for bringing their rat to a restaurant??

It was a small town, super humid, you seemed to sweat from just breathing. We felt very organized because we pre booked accommodation for the town and headed straight there on arrival. We were thoroughly disappointed how ever, to find that for $14 we were given, basically a cleaning cupboard with 2 small single beds and just enough room to push the door open between them. We quickly checked out of there and found the next cheapest place not far from there $35 and a super sized room for 4 people. Sandalwood hotel was amazing, with good service and really nice rooms.

We stayed 2 nights there checking the place out. We saw the largest reclining Buddha in the world there,  some more pagodas and did some well needed relaxing.