Bagan: Days 2-5

So we left off with my bus ride from Mandalay to Bagan.  After about 5 hours I arrived in Bagan.  It was pitch black out with barely any street lights.  I had been told this before, but I never expected it to be that dark! The roads were mostly dirt and there was barely anyone out.  I want to say it was around 9 pm when I arrived.  Honestly it was a little scary with how empty, dark and quiet it was.  Luckily I had a songtow set up to take me to my hostel before I arrived.

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The bus driver made sure myself and a couple got in the correct songtow and sent us off into the night!  I arrived at my hostel, Ostello Bello Bagan without any real issues.  Unfortunately the wifi wasn't working (what is a backpacker to do?  How do I liveeeee?) so I couldn't update my family, but they would survive... hopefully.

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The hostel had trivia going, but I got there just a little too late to join in.  I found the outside seating area completely packed and found out this was because of the curfew that was set in place.  Myanmar is still a newly opened country to tourists and they enforce certain laws for control and for culture. This includes a curfew where you don't go out on the street past 10 pm, and complete silence, everything shuts down 100% at midnight.

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This for the most part isn't a huge deal to many people because Bagan is most known for their amazing sunrises and sunsets seen from temples and pagodas.  Getting up in time to catch sunrise and drive out to a find a good spot it makes sense to go to bed early, so the curfew might even help get tourists up in time for the desired pictures.

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I headed to bed not long after meeting Tita, a lovely woman from Argentina.  We shared a table and a good conversation before heading to bed.  I was exhausted and also excited because I was going to be seeing the sunrise not from a pagoda, but instead a hot air balloon!

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Day 3
I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:30 to make sure I would be ready and moving in time for my hot air balloon ride over the magical and beautiful pagodas of Bagan.  I went with the company Ballons Over Bagan.  It was a truly wonderful experience!  In the bus that would take us there I found out that the tours the day before had been canceled because of the wind.  Today was the last day in the season so it was the last chance to get to experience this!  I scheduled it purposely to catch this since I was in the country.

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While we watched them set up the balloons we had tea and biscuits.  Our captain was a lovely English gentleman who was funny, but also very serious when need be.  Once the balloon was good to go we got in our assigned areas and took off!  We were the last balloon to take flight, so running a little behind but had a great view including the balloons in front of us.  The sky might not have been as beautiful as it could be, but lets be honest... I'm in a hot air balloon in Bagan, Myanmar looking at the sunrise over thousands of years old pagodas.  Can I really complain?

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Now while trying to prepare to land on the beach our captain was desperately trying to get a hold of his main man on the ground. When we finally landed the guy showed up and we all felt the need to give him a round of applause for making an appearance.  After landing we had champagne, fruit and pastries.  Then caught a ride back to the hostel.

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So keep in mind this whole time I am sick and fighting a terrible sinus infection.  Obviously the best thing to do after getting up that early and being sick is take an amazing nap.  Now the best part about this, half of my room was back too. After getting up that early and how hot it is out napping is an ideal mid morning adventure.

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I finally crawled out of bed and went out to lunch at a little restaurant around the bend because the wifi in hostel still wasn't working.  Unfortunately not long after, everyone else from my hostel drifted over.

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That afternoon I went on a tour to Mount Popa which has a temple a lot of monkeys on the top of it.  You have to climb 777 steps to get to the top.  Which sounds like a lot, but we were done before we realized it.  Just be prepared for monkeys everywhere!  And they aren't the friendliest.  Also, your barefoot and there is a lot of monkey bodily fluids everywhere.  The temple really was not that amazing, but the view was pretty darn good.  I will say that Myanmar does have its fair share of views, but also smog.

 

Headed back to the hostel and had dinner with the group and then called it a night. The goal for the next day was to get up early and see sunrise....

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Day 4

While I did manage to wake up early, but I felt so terrible I went back to bed. There are certain times when you realize you favor your health over the sites.  And while it is easy to feel like your suffering from an extra case FOMO (fear of missing out), remember it is your VACATION!  This means relaxing if you want, going non-stop, whatever works for you!  And every day can be different.

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I say this because after grabbing some food, I learned about a pool nearby...  I'm in Myanmar, I'm surrounded by temples, and history, but I'm totally going to this pool today.  Because its my vacation.  Lucy, I met her at the temple the day before, was also feeling the same as me.  We rented ebikes (which pretty much equal death and are extra dangerous in sand) and headed to this fancy hotel that had a nice pool.

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When we got there we totally took advantage of the free drink, and spoiled ourselves with slightly more expensive snacks than most backpackers allow for.  I got overpriced spring rolls, while she got a lovely cheese plate.  Now this pool was beautiful, and it also had volleyballs!  We hit the ball back and forth for a bit, swam, lounged, and enjoyed the older crowd that slowly trickled into the pool.

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Probably one of the best memories I have from that city is two older Japanese men in the pool throwing these volleyballs at each other as hard as they possible could!  It was so ridiculous and they were having so much fun.  It was one of those extra chill days that you need to recover and bounce back.  I hadn't been traveling long, but it was also a pretty emotional time for me.  I was moving home, I was sick, I wasn't going to see my students and teachers after 6 months with them!

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After getting our full relax on we headed back to hostel for a sunset booze cruise in a local small boat.  This was wonderful because it was just a small group of us, that we had met the day before.  We ate some local snacks, drank and enjoyed the sunset on the slowly leaking boat as our captain and first mate dumped buckets of water over the side.  The splash was soothing and really made it that much better.

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Our new little group decided to hang out together and eat and drink that night.  The hostel had a dancer to teach us classic Burmese dances.  It was hilarious watching him teach the male and female parts of a dance. He asked for volunteers after giving examples of both and I raised my hand.  Let's be honest, I totally killed it.  

 

I have now come to find out that Lucy has an embarrassing video that will probably make it's way on here....

 

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Day 5

On my last morning in Bagan I woke up early to go with the group from last night to check out a few temples and a sunrise but I missed them all by about 10 mins.  Being slightly hungover and still feeling crappy I was ok with this and got another 20 minutes of sleep.

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After my mini nap I packed my bags and headed to the airport.  So I don't know if you have ever been to Bagan, but let me tell you a secret... you do not have to be there early, ever.  I forgot it wasn't that far away and that it was a small airport.  I essentially hung out for 2 and a half hours because the plane was a little late too.  Totally could have checked out a temple and had more than enough time to relax and eat a calm breakfast.

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Regardless I was ready to go!  Until I realized that I needed to exchange my Thai baht to Burmese kyat.  And no one would exchange it!!  They would only take US dollars.  Now being an American you would think this wasn't a big deal.  Not a big deal if you American debit card wasn't hacked the first week you got to Thailand over 6 months ago and never received the replacement!

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So I left Bagan on my way to Inle Lake with about 50,000 kyat to my name, and wasn't prepared for the future costs ahead! Backpacking adventures at their finest.

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