Well, it only took me almost two years before I finally got into editing my photos from this AMAZING trip. It was November 2015 and I was currently based in Yangon, Myanmar for work and I remembered I was having a stressful quarter that I ended up booking this whole trip out of a whim.
I knew I had to go to Bagan when I found out I'll be based in Myanmar, as it's always been the cover of all Myanmar travel books I've ever seen, so I knew I couldn't miss the chance to see this natural wonder while I was in the country.
Traveling to Bagan in November ended up being a happy coincidence as weather was perfect, with the right amount of sun without it being too hot and right amount of wind to cool off.
At this point, I've been in and out of Myanmar for more than 3 months and I'm already in love with the culture, it's people and their rich history and Bagan is THE epicenter of anything Burmese.
When you get to the summit of a very high Stupa, the view of the thousands of temples and pagodas is always a breathtaking sight.
Day 1 was purely temple running for me, trying to explore as many temples and pagodas there are and learning the history as why it was built and the story behind each of them, some of them are easily accessible to tourists while some, you have to go through a rainforest to get to them. But each are very unique and magnificent in their own rights.
But the highlight of Day 1 has to be my first sunset in Bagan. My driver knows very little english, so when he drove me to this temple and left me with no instruction, I was a little concerned on what I should be doing there in the first place. So, I did what all lost people do and just follow where the crowd is going. After a couple of minutes of walking, I ended up in the foot of one of the tallest stupas I've seen that day and there was a long queue of people climbing a very steep staircase.
After I reached the top, I noticed that people are sitting and facing a specific direction and looking over the horizon, it was beautiful don't get me wrong, but I was still a little bit confused as to what is it exactly I was looking at, so I looked for my spot, sat down and started to really appreciate everything I'm seeing and then this happened.
For a moment all we had was the sun trying to escape the day and as if running to get behind the mountains
It casted its light across the temples giving them the last warmth for the day
And in the very end it gave us a spectacular array of colors.
I remembered everyone roaring in applause when the sun finished with its show and it was truly a magnificent one to see. As people started to descend from the stupa, I decided to stay a little longer to enjoy what remains of my first day.
Day 2. Was my personal favourite. It was the main attraction - I'm riding a hot-air balloon to witness the sunrise.
Woke up around 4 am to be picked up from my hotel and drove to the landing for my orientation and to get to know my basket crew (I was the only one traveling alone, so I was assigned to an odd numbered group). The whole thing was an experience. From seeing how the balloons were prepped down to the team that was needed to get it off the ground and up in the air.
After a couple of minutes, the sun decided to join us and delighted us with another show.
If you zoomed in this photo, you'll see birds flying together with the balloons.
I just love the shadows that the sunrise creates.
It's magical how the colors of the temples changes, the moment the sunlight hits them. Their vibrant terracotta color pops even more and gold shimmers extra bright with the sunlight
The photos below are my absolute faves. Some of them I almost fell out of the basket to take, but all are worth it.
These were the captain's shot of the group using his GoPro:
At around 7-8 in the morning the balloons started their descend to the ground as commercial flights are starting to arrive and after a couple glasses of champagne, I'm off to my second round of temple running.
Day 3 was a little bit of an excursion as we had to drive for a good 3 hours going to our next destination and another 3 hours to get back to the airport. We headed to what I call the olympus/hogwarts of temples -- Mount Popa. We went to a stupa situated on top of an inactive volcano.
Though it took me a good hour to hike up the mountain. It was all worth it when I reached the summit and the way down it was also interesting.
My Bagan trip is on the top of my most memorable trips I've done on my own so far. I highly recommend it to anyone who has an appetite for culture and adventure.
**All photos were shot using an Sony RX M3 point & shoot camera
