Balloons over Bagan

The plains of Bagan are most famous for the hundreds, if not thousands of pagodas and temples spread across a vast area.  Even our hotel on the banks of the Irrawaddy has its own ruin in the grounds.  They have to be seen in all their splendour, and from dawn to dusk on New Year’s Eve this is exactly what we do.

Robin and I are up before dawn to see this extraordinary site from the skies. Robin has described this so well, I’m just going to link to his blog at this point!  Click here to read all about it.

It was a truly wonderful start to the day.  I have never flown in a balloon before and I’m sure the smoothness of this flight can never be beaten, I would only repeat the experience to see another wonder of the world.  Though it has to be said that seeing all the other balloons in the air at the same time made the experience even better – an added photo-opportunity.

This must be one of the world’s greatest archeological sites, ancient temples large and small rising out of the plain studded with stands of palm trees and greenery alongside the Irrawaddy.  Over 4000 pagodas were built over several hundred years when Bagan was the royal city, starting around the time that the Normans sailed into Hastings and took over the English crown. And built for the same reason that images of Buddha are placed in caves – as a meritorious act.  Amazingly many are fairly well preserved and still contain carvings and statues of Buddha – as we found out when we followed up our balloon ride with a bike tour of a few of the temples.  There is even one with its internal frescoes still intact – though no photographs were allowed in here.

Our morning’s biking finishes with a boat trip back to Bagan town.  But there isn’t too long to relax before we are heading back to the plains for sunset.  Sunset is around 5.30pm, but our guide says we must leave at 4.15pm – we soon see why.  While we have avoided the crowds touring the pagodas earlier in the day, we are heading to Shwesandaw, known as the “sunset” pagoda, and the destination for virtually every other tourist in the area!

There are no restrictions on people climbing on the pagodas here, and hundreds of tourists haul themselves up the steep steps, hanging onto the handrail provided.  We are not early enough to get in the front line of the top tier, so we grab the best spots on the second (there are five in total) and get our cameras ready.  Even my new camera is no match for the enormous zoom lenses set on tripods behind me.  But having seen a perfect sunrise, we are treated to a perfect sunset.  

Then its back to the hotel to see the New Year in in style – I am even wearing my smart new (female) longhi.  The calendar new year isn’t traditionally celebrated in Burma – the Buddhist new year is in April – but our hotel hosts a western and local food feast for its guests, complete with local entertainment followed by a DJ, fireworks and much dancing.  It is our last night with the tour group and our lovely tour guide, Chan, joins in the fun – to such an extent that we are up and waiting for him to take us to the airport for our early flight to following morning