Travel Diary: Myanmar Part II

I know I said I was done, but I was done with all, but this one.

I’ve been waiting to post this for MONTHS. Why, you ask?

Well, first we rode motorbikes which ya know, we technically weren’t supposed to…oops?

And second, we climbed pagodas, which we weren’t supposed to do either. To be completely honest, I didn’t even know we were climbing a pagoda initially because our local guide/driver told us to do it. It wasn’t until later that I really realized that we weren’t supposed to do it (there weren’t signs and a guy came and checked out ‘tickets’ but said we were fine).

That being said, I don’t want to sound like I’m promoting breaking the rules because that’s the furthest thing from the truth. I just want to be real about what we did so that other people can learn from it and maybe enjoy the pictures along the way (some of my favorite from the trip!!!!).

I’m posting it now because SAS isn’t going to Myanmar any longer and I can no longer get dock time for it (hehe).

Day 3: Bagan

We left in the middle of the night from Yangon to get to the airport to catch our teeny tiny plane to Bagan. So small that the people on the tarmac were wearing flip-flops.

Once we got there, we took a tuk-tuk to our hostel, which was SO fun. You can really zip in those things all while attempting to hold onto your stuff and not fall out. The guy who took us ended up with us all day, it was fantastic.

Our hostel, Ostello Bello Bagan, was one of my favorites on the trip. It was SO colorful, always had events, and SO many opportunities to meet people. Not to mention a lot of SAS people stayed there.

We stayed in New Bagan and the hotels in the area were all in a sort of spread out culdesac. Once we rented those motorbikes, it felt like we were 8-year-olds riding our bikes to go visit our friends, but the grown-up version.

Later that day, we went exploring and went to a lacquerware shop to explore, the Bagan House. While we were there, they drew on our phone cases, showed us how to create different bowls, and a guy made me a bamboo bangle!

Then, on the way back, there was a man who was painting in the street. I stopped to watch him and he asked if I liked it, of course, I said yes. Within minutes he had expanded this tiny shed to show us all of his work. It was INCREDIBLE and I ended up buying this beautiful watercolor from him.

Day 4: New Bagan

This is it, this was the morning we were waiting for: Ballooning. We had scheduled to go ballooning over Bagan at sunrise, but at the last minute, they canceled because of technical difficulties. Better safe than sorry… BUT I ended up being SO glad that we stayed because the pictures and experience was unlike any other.

The whole time it felt like we were in the middle of a Dr. Suess book. It was a beautiful morning, quiet and peaceful, AND we got one of the coolest views in the world… the balloons at sunrise.

This was so incredible, just look.

Once they had all landed, we headed back to change and go out exploring for the rest of the day. Now this is where we got those bikes!!!

We spent the day going between New and Old Bagan, getting food, walking around Pagodas, shopping, and just letting those little bikes take us around.

It was one of the most fun days to date on the trip I’m pretty sure.

Later that night, Rose and I ended up going on a boat cruise through the hostel. It was a BLAST (like I said, somehow even though we live on a boat, we always end up back on water) and met some great people.