Bagan

We were early for our flight but the flight was delayed because of this...

Yes Obama arrived in Yangon on the day I was flying out to Bagan. Our flight was delayed for 2 hrs. Thus we were stuck in the airport for about 4 hrs.... note to myself again.. always bring some snacks to entertain myself on trips!

We flew on a tiny propellor plane with Golden Myanmar Airlines to Bagan. It took us about 1.5hrs to reach.

It was a no frills flight. Even the baggage collection was a manual process. A staff would carry the luggage one by one down the plane and bring them into the arrival hall. The passengers would have to recognize their bags and go forth to collect them.

Upon arrival, everyone had to purchase a 5-days pass for USD15 as we are all in the Bagan Archaeological Zone. This ticket allowed us to roam freely without paying for any more entrance fees. Bagan is just a place filled with pagodas. There is no high rise modern buildings like those found in Yangon. If you were to stand on a higher ground (on a pagoda), you'll see more pagodas and trees.

We booked a taxi for half day (USD25) and the driver brought us to a few more well known pagodas.

All pagodas will have a statue of a Buddha inside. A bigger pagoda will have more statues.

The highlight in Bagan is the sunrise and sunset. We caught the sunset on the first day, from the top of a pagoda. The key is to reach early to grab a good spot! The place will be filled with tourist. We managed to squeeze in a seat.. This is me waiting for the sun to set and looking at all the tourist streaming in.

Sunset. The sun sets about 5.45pm when we were there.

The next morning, we got up at 5am to catch the sunrise. We had to be at location at about 545am.
The first glimpse of sunlight...

And here comes the beautiful part... The hot air balloons start to rise.

I would love to take the hot air balloons when I have a chance the next time. Not sure if the view will be as beautiful up there.

We love the view so much, we decided to catch it again the next day. We rented a bike and rode around in search of a pagoda where we could climb up to catch this view. Riding in the wee hours at 5am is a very relaxing and enjoyable thing to do. The weather was cool, there was no traffic... perfect! The only problem was, everywhere looked the same. It was not easy finding our way around trees. But we managed well :)

After watching the sunrise again, we rode our bikes to explore the place.

We cycled all the way to catch the balloons landing.

And we saw locals herding their goats.

Another place that we managed to visit at Bagan was Mt Popa. It is a volcano 1518 metres above sea level. This place reminded me of Keloksi at Penang. We walked up a flight of steps that sold souvenirs. Only difference was there were a lot of monkeys roaming Mt. Popa and they were all very bold. We were warned not to hold any food in our hands as the monkeys will come about to snatch them.

Right on top of Mt. Popa

We had lunch at a roadside stall. The ingredients resembles a thai papaya salad but the taste was not as flavourful.

Our last activity was a boat ride during sunset. It cost 15,000 kyats (USD15) for a boat. Thus it'll cost less per head if there are more people. I was a little taken aback at the end of the boat ride when I said Thank You to the boatman after alighting. He said "Got money, no problem". I bet we paid so much more than the actual cost. I felt stupid.. but what can we do.