Outside of my one-way ticket to Siem Reap and the first four nights of accommodation, I had no set plans for my trip. This take it as it comes attitude proved to be quite helpful. On the flight, I met an expat who had been living and working in Singapore for the last 8 years. I visited with him and asked if there was any one thing that he had experienced while in Asia that he would like to do again. He said he would return to Myanmar and take another hot air balloon ride over the temples of Bagan.
Before my trip, Myanmar was not even on my radar. The plans I had formulated were loosely organized, and I was really up for anything. Peter had not yet been to Myanmar and was keen on the opportunity. We applied for a visa at the hotel business center and once approved booked our flights to Mandalay. Upon arrival, we took a private car from Mandalay to Bagan that was coordinated by our hotel.
Myanmar has only very recently opened its borders to western tourism. My time there provided great insight into the look and feel of a country without outside western intervention. I was thankful to have a local driver. The lack of basic modern infrastructure like streetlights would have made the trip quite treacherous for someone not used to the drive. Outside of each small city were checkpoints and pay-off stations. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before and made me thankful for the ease of travel I had always experienced back home.
I was very thankful to have Peter during this adventure. No matter what we encountered during my visit I always felt safe, but this ride from Mandalay to Bagan was the most out of my comfort zone I was the entire trip. It was on this ride that I learned a valuable travel lesson. If you download the area map on Google Maps using the airport Wi-Fi then you can view the map along your journey even without a Wi-Fi connection. Peter had done this before leaving the airport and we were able to see where we were along our way. The trip was long (about 4 hours), slow and completely in the dark. His forethought to do this prevented any anxiety or confusion.
On our journey from Mandalay to Bagan, we stopped at a local coffee shop along the road. We sat on tiny stools at shin-high tables and had the most amazing coffee. The taste and texture take a bit of getting used to. It could best be described as the first coffee I could chew. It was served with lemons and sugar which greatly helped to cut the taste. I can only compare the effects to human rocket fuel. The coffee shop was only one of three buildings that could be seen from the main road. No one in the cafe spoke English and seemed enamored by Peter and me. The driver told us that it is not common for western travelers to be seen in such places. Most buses and groups stop in larger towns along the way. He said taking care of our table was an out of the ordinary experience for the children serving our coffee.
Finally, we arrived at our hotel in Bagan. We stayed in the heart of the temple valley. We arrived so late the kitchen at the hotel was closed. The streets were too dark to venture into town and we did not stop for snacks along the way. We went to bed a bit hungry but quickly fell asleep after our tiring journey.
The next morning, we ventured into the town of Bagan. We rented a scooter from the hotel and Peter took us along roads both paved and unpaved to explore the town. We parked the bike in the center of the small town and set out on foot to see what we could see and hunt for some new flip-flops for him along the way. It was here I learned that American size feet have a hard time finding flip-flops in Asia and experienced the best and most remote sights of my short Asian exploration. I saw the magnificence of undiscovered lands, the insight of extreme poverty and the overflow of unmanaged trash that comes before the influx of tourism. It was here I saw locals in conical hats escorting cows down the side of the road with hay switches to the hind end to keep them moving and learned that no matter how badly you butcher the language the locals appreciate your attempt at assimilation with a smile.
As we walked through town on our way to lunch, we passed by a local lady sweeping the dirt porch outside of her home. She was wearing a traditional longyi in muted colors, had kind eyes and exuded an energy that reminded me of my mother. She invited us into her home for tea and coffee. Back in the US I have never once walked by someone’s house and had them randomly invite me in for tea and coffee. If it did happen it would remind me of the intro to an episode of Dateline or an Investigation Discovery special. Trepidation aside, we were off to see the Irrawaddy River and politely declined.
I asked Peter, far more versed in the experience of Southeast Asia, but new to Myanmar, why the woman would do that. His response was because I looked like a celebrity. He said, "Don't you see the way the women here look at you? They stare at you and when you realize they are looking you smile back at them with your huge smile and they just beam back in return. You are tall, white, beautiful and wearing huge Gucci sunglasses. They think you are a celebrity." I found his assessment of the situation comical until I looked around and as we spent the day exploring the city, I couldn't help but think he might be right.
That evening we returned back to the hotel before sunset and the pitch-black settled into the valley. This time we made it back for dinner and spent the evening sitting by the pool eating, smoking and writing postcards. The infinity pool disappeared into the on-property lake and the Valley of Temples making for a breathtaking view right from our dinner table.
The next day we took the motorbike back out and explored the valley. Bagan is home to the largest and most dense concentration of temples, pagodas, stupas and ruins in the world. It was officially inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. It was here that I experienced for the first time the change in vibration inside of a holy site. This feeling is difficult to convey with words. You remove your shoes and enter the temples in bare feet. The ancient reverence changes the energy as you walk into the archway and the power radiates upward through the soles of your feet as you walk across the floor. The normalcy then returns the moment you leave. There are over 2,200 temples, stupas and pagodas in the valley. We considered ourselves accomplished after visiting about 10.
Peter and I returned back to the hotel and finished our night the same way as the one before. We headed to bed a little earlier because we were expected to be downstairs the next morning at 5 o'clock for transport to the departure site for a sunrise balloon ride over the Valley of Temples. I had never ridden in a hot air balloon and based on the advice of the man I met on the plane this seemed to be just the place to do it. We ate breakfast and had coffee at the departure site while final checks were made on the balloon. We lifted off just as the sun began to rise. The temples which had struck such awe from the ground could only be described as nothing short of magnificent from the air.
We sailed on the winds with amazing views of both the valley below. Bagan is home to the largest and most dense concentration of temples, pagodas, stupas, and ruins in the world. It was officially inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. It was here that I experienced for the first time the change in vibration inside of a holy site. This feeling is difficult to convey with words. You remove your shoes and enter the temples in bare feet. The ancient reverence changes the energy as you walk into the archway and the power radiates upward through the soles of your feet as you walk across the floor. The normalcy then returns the moment you leave. There are over 2,200 temples, stupas and pagodas in the valley. We considered ourselves accomplished after visiting about 10.
