For an unparalleled view of the Bagan plain, you can take a hot air balloon ride at sunrise through a company called Balloons Over Bagan, for US$ 295 per person. These balloons are British made and have a perfect safety record. They do not operate during the summer.
You can rent a horse cart with a driver for around 12000 - 15000 Kyats for a full day.
Travelling around on a rented bicycle is quite easy although you have to compete with much vehicular traffic on the almost one-lane roads and economical as little as US$1.5 per day. In the morning, before it gets hot, is a particularly pleasant time at 7:00 am to 9:00 am to do this. People tend to rise late around Bagan, so touring early really emphasizes the sense of Bagan as "abandoned". Later in the day, particularly during the warm season, it may be uncomfortable beyond sanity to do this. In the dry season, bicycling through the sandy paths connecting the more remote temples can be a harrowing exercise in self-inflicting torture, but this is still the best way to get to where you want to go cheaply and freely.
Shared pickup leaves from the market in Nyaung Oo to Old Bagan 200Kand New Bagan 400K. They sometimes attempt to charge 1000k for tourists but it can be fought.
