Tag Archives: Bagan

A lot of hot air

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Well, it was quite dark this morning at 4am in Göreme when I woke up.  I was picked up at 4:15 for a sunrise hot air balloon flight.  It’s quite a popular activity in Cappadocia so a lot of the town was awake at that time as well.

They provided a small breakfast before we were driven to the launching area.  They were still inflating the balloons when we arrived.
These balloons are huge, much bigger than I was expecting.  You can somewhat compare to the size of the jeep in the foreground of the picture.
Once the balloon was inflated, we all boarded the basket.  They can fit 20 in each basket, but we had about 18 people.  They are large baskets so everyone gets a good view.  We then waited a short while for takeoff clearance and then we were off.

As the sun rose, all you could see were balloons over the hillside.  Once you are up in the air, it’s quite quiet and peaceful.  You can see the balloon at the bottom right firing the engine to gain height.
Apparently they have very little control of the balloon.  They can go up or down and they can rotate the balloon, but they can’t really turn to go in a different direction, you just go where the wind takes you.
Landing was interesting.  We landed on a bit of a hill, so we touched down and then took off again, before finally coming to a rest.  The ground crew were quick to secure the balloon and provide us with sparkling fruit juice which they called “champagne”.
A lot of people question if it is worth the cost, as it is one of the more expensive things to do in Turkey. I think if you are going to do it, here is a good place since the views are spectacular.  If you get a good pilot, he can get very close to some of the sandstone towers so you can get a great view of them.
Another place for ballooning is Bagan in Myanmar.  It’s much more expensive than here though, and they don’t fly in the wet season.

E-bikes in Bagan

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My second day in Bagan I decided I wanted to explore a little further out, so I rented an e-bike.

I’m not sure I got the manliest looking bike though.
Me: it’s yellow.
Owner: Yeah, yellow. Good colour, you like?
The customer service is pretty good.  If you have a low battery or a flat tire they can come and give you a new bike on the side of the road and take this one back to be repaired.  Right now the rental is $8 per day, which seems resonable.
They are made in China and all the gauges are in Chinese.  They travel about 40 km/h and you get about a 30 km range on them.  After that you have to peddle until you find a phone to call for assistance!
I found a few unique temples.  Kyansittha Umin is very close to the famous golden stupa, Shwezigon.  What is unique about Kyansittha though, is that it’s built into a cliff face.  Tunnels are dug through the rock.  I think many people skip it because I was the only one there.  It’s locked and no pictures are allowed.  However, a nice woman living next door had the key and she walked me through it in broken English.  She had a flashlight too, which was handy. There are many murals inside of when Mongolians where in Burma.  The Burmese say it was an invasion, but there seems to be a difference of oppinion from scholars.  The images seem to show Mongols shooting pigeons along side the Burmese, not shooting at each other.
The other one was supposed to have a great view from the top.  Dhammayazika is about 3km outside of New Bagan and you could climb to the top.  Unfortunately, they are doing renovations and it’s closed.  It was still interesting to see how they use bamboo scaffolding and no safety gear!
I ended with sunset at the top of one of the taller ones with many other tourists and many touts selling paintings and T-shirts.  They kind of mob you on the way down.  Even still, most vendors seem friendly, if a little pushy.

Bagan

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The flight made it safely from Inle lake to Bagan.  Flying time was 45 minutes and they served a drink.  It was a pretty uneventful flight with a little turbulence on the decent due to heavy rains in the area.

Once we landed, my baggage was hand delivered to me and then passed off to a taxi driver that took me into town to find a hotel.
This image took 30 minutes to transfer, it’s actually worse than dial up speed!
There are more than 2000 temples, pagodas, and monuments in Bagan so there is no hope of seeing everything in 3 days.  That said, most of the major sights can be seen in 2 full days.
Getting around
The temples are very spread out in Bagan so walking is not an option.  You can hire a taxi for around $30 per day and ride in A/C comfort.  If you would like to do things your own way, you can hire a bike or an e-bike.  The latter bring battery powered so less energy from you is required!
I figured I would try the first day with a regular bike.  It worked out fairly well and I did about a 20km round trip.  The downside is that it is very very hot.  It hit 40 degrees so a lot of water was required.
I think tomorrow an e-bike is in order!
Fees and touts
There is a mandatory fee of $15 to enter.  They will take it at the airport or the bus station.  After that entrance to all the temples is at no additional charge.  There are, however, a lot of people trying to sell all kinds of paintings, ceramics, etc and they get very pushy.  If you see something you like, negotiate hard; otherwise ignoring them works well.
Food
There is a large amount of good and cheap food here.  You can get Myanmar food, but also Chinese, Thai, Western, etc.  They are mostly free standing places that seem to have good hygiene standards, which can be hard to find in some places here!