Ballooning over Bagan

Ever since we decided to come to Myanmar, the temples of Bagan have been a major `must see’ that we have been waiting for.

In order to make the most of our visit we’ve agonised on whether to take an early morning balloon ride over the temples,  I am not going to say much more, rather I think that the photos speak for themselves  and that clearly this was the right choice.

The landing on the edge of a field caused quite a stir with the whole village coming out to watch

We land in a remote village

and we draw a large crowd of onlookers

Superman dreams of flying

Lucy and Captain Nick - the balloon pilot

After all that flying around we head out to Mount Popa to visit a temple built on top of a hill.  On the road to Popa we passed a procession of people celebrating the induction of young boys into the temple as novice monks

The boys seem very young to be leaving their families to become monks

This is Roger's 50th attempt to join the monastery - he can't figure out why they won't have him

Our driver Nyi Nyi neglected to tell us that the temple could only be reached via 777 steps.  Nor was mention made of being hounded by monkeys and hawkers wanting money for cleaning the steps that the monkeys happily defecated on!!  Tip to the hawkers – agree which one is going to push for donations – having blanked the first, we told subsequent ‘cleaners’ that we had already paid.

The steps are steep

and we run the gauntlet of hawkers

and monkeys

This was not an easy trek for me as I am frightened of heights and don’t particularly like monkeys (or hawkers come to think of it) but we made it to the top and were rewarded by stunning views.  After the wander around and John stroking the giant gong for making wishes come true we headed back down (worse than going up).

John draws a crowd with his frantic gong rubbing

A monkey guards the way down - more work for the cleaners

Having seen the temples from the air we followed up with a day going around the temples – they are dotted everywhere, big and small, neglected and cared for.  There’s more than 2,500 and we only saw a small proportion of them. Many are undergoing restoration after the earthquake earlier this year which caused a lot of damage. Even the bamboo scaffolding can not detract from the amazing structures. We could mention them all by name but we struggle to spell them and thought that you would prefer the pictures.

The stupas of countless temples poke out of the evening mist

Next stop Mandalay - where the flying fishes play.