Published Feb. 18, 2016

Mount Popa is a volcano about 50 KM from Bagan. It’s most well known for the volcanic plug formation (sitting next to the inactive volcano) which has a modern pagoda sitting at the summit and is a pilgrimage site for many practicing Buddhists.

While it was a fun day trip from Bagan, I would only encourage you to do it if you have already experienced Bagan for a few days and have extra time on your hands.

Getting there

My best friend Gwenn and I arranged a car and driver through our hotel in Bagan. It was 45,000 Kyat for the driver ($34) and $35 for our English speaking guide. They seem to have a system in place that supports one or both – but not a combined English speaking driver J While we were reasonably happy with our guide, he didn’t have the strongest English speaking skills and we didn’t learn that much outside of the basic facts that could be found in any guidebook. So, I would say that if you’re on a budget, you can probably skip the English speaking guide.

Farming Life

On the way to Mount. Popa, you will drive through local peanut and surager cane fields as well as a bunch of small farming villages. Your driver or guide will most likely stop at the tourist stops along the way that highlight the farming culture of this region. You’ll see the process of peanut farming, collecting sugar cane juice and creating the popular turmeric candies.

It was an interesting stop to be able to learn more about farming in this region – although without an English speaking guide to explain things to you – you might be a bit bored.

Taung Kalat

Taung Kalat is the actual name for the volcanic plug that houses the modern pagoda that most visitors come to see. But it is also commonly referred to as Mount Popa as well.

You can get a great view of Taung Kalat if you stop on the road just just before you get to the entrance.

Once you arrive at Taung Kalat, you will start to see some of the many shops that make up the entire base of the pagoda, selling everything from fruit to t-shirts to elephant pants.

Not everyone is going to love the next part of the experience but I think it made the trip more fun. There are monkeys climbing ALL OVER Taung Kalat! There are a ton of them and they are pretty wild. There are 777 steps to the top of the volcanic plug where the pagoda sits and you can see monkeys throughout the climb.

They are largely kept from climbing on your or making trouble by Burmese people who stand every few feed and sometimes carry sling shots – yikes! These people also help to clean the staircase of monkey waste which is important as you have to do the entire climb up barefoot as it is a monastery. I found that they kept the stairs very clean and didn’t see any monkey shit the entire trip. They usually ask you for donations throughout your climb up and down. We just left a donation at the end in a donation bucket they leave out.

I did at one point stand near the monkeys a little bit too long trying to take a picture and got a huge scare when they tried to come at me! It can also be scary when they start running like crazy along tin roofs making a ton of noise.

Those monkeys are so mischievous. We even saw one steal a huge bunch of bananas from one of the vendors 

Climbing the steps can be a somewhat slow process as some of the staircases are quite narrow and many older travelers make the climb and take their time doing so. But we made it up in about 20 minutes and I thought it was a pretty easy climb.

Once you make it to the top, you will see the modern pagoda. After seeing the beautiful pagodas in Bagan, this pagoda can be a little underwhelming. It’s a modern pagoda built in the last 100 years, is largely painted gold vs made with real gold leaf, and it just lacks any kind of real grandness to it. It’s a basic modern pagoda with really flashy Buddha shrines.

The views are beautiful (albeit a bit hazy from fires set by the farmers) and you can see a scattering of other pagodas in the countryside.

For lunch, I highly recommend going to the Mount Popa Resort. There aren’t many restaurants around Mount Popa and one that we tried to go to was so crowded that we would have had to wait an hour for food. Mount Popa resort was beautiful and has a gorgeous view of the pagoda from the pool and lunch deck.

They served a lunch buffet for $35 which was outrageously overpriced for the food. We ordered a la carte and the chicken salad, spring rolls, and Myanmar Beer were great.

Visiting Mount Popa was a beautiful way to see the countryside during an extra day that we had in Bagan and worth the trip if you have extra time in this area.