Travel from Inle Lake to Bagan

By bus it takes 9 hours to 9 hours 30 minutes to travel 328 km from the bus station in Nyaung Shwe town, near Inle Lake, to Bagan. The train journey is slow and involves a number of changes and is an option that few people would pursue. The first of the journey by train is from the nearest train station to Inle Lake (Shwenyaung) to Thazi which take 11 hours, from Thazi you would then need to take a train to Myingyan and then change train again to travel to Bagan.

Bus Times to Bagan

There are two direct bus services a day from Nyaung Shwe town to Bagan which you can book online.

• Bagan Min Tha bus ticket: $ 18.00 for the 19:00 departure and $22.80 for the 19:30 departure, which is a VIP service upon which passengers have more leg room and a seat that reclines further back and meal is provided during the evening rest stop.

Buy Tickets to Bagan

Use the Search Box below to buy your bus tickets from Inle Lake to Bagan.

Inle Lake Bus Stop

Bus services to Bagan depart from Yone Gyi Street in Nyaung Shwe town near Inle Lake.

Bagan Bus Station

The final stop for bus services from Inle Lake is the Bagan Shwe Pyi Highway Bus Terminal near Bagan Railway Station.

About Bagan

Bagan Archaeological Zone contain over 2,200 temple and religious monuments, some dating back to the 9th Century. The Arhaeological Zone covers an area of over 100 square kilometres and is arguably one of most important religious sites in the world and comparable in magnitude to the more famous Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Great Pyramids in Egypt.

The Ancient town of Bagan is believed to have been founded in the 2nd Century, and grew in importance over the next 800 years eventually becoming the capital city of the Pagan Kingdon, which cam to occupy much of what is modern day Myanmar in the mid 11th Century. At this point in time archaeological evidence suggests that Bagan was a lot larger than it is now with over 10,000 temples and 3,000 monasteries on the site. The city was believed to be a mega-city by standards of the time with 150,000 to 200,000 inhabitants and visitors from all over the world who came to trade and study at Bagan which had become an important centre for religious and language studies. The ancient city of Bagan went into a steady decline from 1287 onward when the Kingdom of Pagan under pressure from invasion by the ascendant Mongol Empire. Attempts to repair and restore the ancient city of Bagan have started only recently and centuries of neglect, along with a series of major earthquakes, have a taken a heavy toll the ancient buildings and monuments. UNESCO has refused to grant Bagan World Heritage status over poor management and restoration efforts by the Myanmar authorities.