Sunrise with balloons at Bule thi

The alarm is set for just before 6am.  Andy hasn’t slept well so is unsure whether he wants to go and see sunrise but, once awoken, we groggily get dressed, grab the bikes and cycle into the darkness.

We are a bit late leaving after being indecisive so don’t make it to the place we had originally planned but see a beautiful sunrise at Bule thi.  There are other people there (maybe 30-40) but not as many as at some of the others.  One of the big attractions here is a balloon ride at sunrise and there are quite a few taking off this morning.  Its expensive though at over 350 USD so not for us!  We’re happy watching it from our spot on Bule thi.  We cycle back to the guest house for breakfast and Andy discovers a puncture … he’s not having much luck with his bikes!  We stop by another bike place and they pump it up and he manages to get back to our place where they exchange it.  Third time lucky.

We have breakfast and chat a bit about whether to take the bus or boat to Mandalay tomorrow.  There is a tourist ferry that leaves at 6am and we decide to take that to avoid another long bus journey.  Its not quite the ferry ride we had imagined but it sounds ok and isn’t too expensive.  Having looked a bit more into the government boat, it looks as though it is absolutely packed with bodies sleeping everywhere and as we don’t have sleeping bags it wouldn’t have been practical and we don’t want to hang around in Bagan until Monday anyway.  While we’re chatting on the guest house terrace a procession of brightly dressed locals goes by, including some boys very glammed up as girls.  The hotel owner describes them to us as “not really boys, you know they are hairdressers and make-up artists and things like that”!

Off on the bikes again to some more temples:

Bule thi
Shwe-zi-gon
Lowka chanta phaua
Tha kyabon
Dhamma-han-gyi-patho
Ananda Temple
South Guni


We watch the sunset at South Guni.  North Guni is just next to it and is packed.  There are only five of us on South Guni and its amazing.  You can’t climb quite as high as the north one which is why there are less people, but you get the same view.  After a dusty cycle back, we drop the bikes off and get packed up for our boat trip tomorrow … another early start.  

We’ve really enjoyed Bagan.  Its touristy but you can see why.  The landscape is just crazy and beautiful.  Its hard to imagine how it was before 1975 when there was an earthquake which damaged many of the buildings.  Restoration is taking place but apparently UNESCO aren’t happy with some of the processes and haven’t granted it world heritage status … much to the Governments dismay.  Before the country was opened up, many people also lived amongst all the temples in Old Bagan.  Apparently the Government forced them all out into New Bagan when the country opened up for tourism.