Ballooning over Bagan

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Mike

balloon-3  A few years ago I saw a segment on an Australian TV travel show featuring a balloon flight over the temples of Bagan, and knew that I had to add this to my bucket list. Well, it’s ticked off now !

When I started planning this trip to Myanmar the first thing that I did was book with Balloons over Bagan and then plan the rest of the trip around this flight.

The day started with an early pickup in one of the companies vintage buses, although once it became light enough to see I realised that the launching spot was only 100 metres from my hotel. There were in fact 2 companies launching from the same site, so there were about 12 balloons flying from here. There were 16 passengers in our balloon, so it’s quite a big business, with lots of ground grew running around. While the ground crew and pilots prepared the balloons we tucked into the tea, coffee and snacks, waiting for the burners to fire up and inflate the balloons.

balloon-4 After a safety briefing ( Don’t touch any of the lines or ropes) and being allocated our positions in the basket we climbed aboard, some more elegantly than others, another burst of the burners, let go of the anchor rope holding us to the bus, and we were off.

Although it had seemed dead calm on the ground, once we were above tree top level we began to move quite quickly. The breeze was heading in the right direction to take us over most of the main temples so the cameras were clicking away merrily.

BOB-2 Being just after dawn, with quite a bit of haze around, the light was rather flat so I had to do a bit of work in Lightroom to get some contrast into the earliest photos, in some of them the histogram was just in the centre third of the graph (for non-photographers, that’s just a technical way of saying dull, boring, flat photos with no contrast).

 

balloon-14 After passing over the temple area we flew over a rural area, low enough to scare the cattle sometimes when our pilot fired up the burners. After about 40 minutes our pilot pointed out our landing zone, then told us to take our last photos and videos and to put our cameras on the floor of the basket, and then take our landing positions. The landing was quite gentle, helped no doubt by all the ground crew hanging on to the “brake rope” and then grabbing the basket to bring us to a stop.

balloon-17 Once the crew had laid out a tarpaulin on the ground (to protect the balloon fabric) our pilot started pulling on ropes to deflate the balloon and then we could get out and partake in the traditional champagne Smile and croissants.

 

 

 

 

 

balloon-18 By that time the local vendors had arrived at the landing zone, and each balloon had it’s share of people selling postcards, paintings, lacquerware, etc. I weakened and bought a set of watercolour paintings of the balloons from this young lad, well they were only two dollars. The other vendors must have thought I was an easy mark and closed in on me, but no, I don’t want any lacquerware, or marionettes, or t-shirts, or postcards ……

After finishing off the champagne and croissants we climbed onto the bus for the return trip, which took as long as the flight thanks to getting stuck behind a wedding procession for about 15 minutes, the bus being too big to turn around on the narrow village street and take a different route.

UPDATE: I now have a video of the flight on YouTube.

Letting the hot air out for deflation
Coming in to land
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The temples of Bagan

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Mike
Shwezigon at sunset

Shwezigon at sunset

After the kings of ancient Bagan converted to Buddhism they began a frenzy of temple building from the 11th to 13th century, constructing over 3000 stupas, chedis, and temples in that time before the city was apparently abandoned because of the threat of a Mongol invasion, leaving the temples to face centuries of neglect, looting and earthquakes.

Despite this there are still thousands of monuments of all sizes scattered over the plains of Bagan as can be seen from this panorama of just a small part of the area.

(Click to see a larger version, or here to see a much larger one at my pbase gallery)

Baganpano-2

The chopping block

The chopping block

The big one on the right is Dhammayangyi, built by one of the kings to atone for his sins ..he killed his father and brother for the throne and executed one of his wives.

It is built of brick without mortar, but he insisted that all the bricks must fit so perfectly that a pin could not be passed between any of the bricks. Any builders that failed this test had their arm chopped off !

No wonder it is the biggest temple, he had a lot of sins to atone for.

Karma caught up with him, for he was assassinated too.

 

Bagan-20 The big white one on the left of the panorama is Ananda Pahto is one of the biggest and best preserved of all Bagan’s temples, and my favourite. This photo on the left is a close up of the upper area. Many of the temples have stairs leading to upper terraces, but most are closed off nowadays to protect them from visitors. Some still have accessible exterior steps, such as Shwesandaw, and get rather crowded at sunset !

Bagan-1 Despite the tourists it is still a rural area, and you are likely to see goatherders and ox carts while cycling around the area, life goes on at the same pace as it has for hundreds of years. For how much longer though, who knows ? If you want to see Myanmar, see it soon is my advice.

 

Bagan-9

Back in town, the main temple is Shwezigon Paya (left and top) which has been an active temple for hundreds of years, and still gets bus loads of pilgrims/tourists visiting it, partly because as well as being an important Buddhist temple it also has a shrine to the 37 nat, or animist spirits that people worshipped before officially converting to Buddhism.

Bagan-11 Two of the nat also live in the old town walls, at the entrance to Old Bagan, where “Lady Golden Face” and her brother “Lord Handsome” guard the entrance of Tharabar Gate. Before driving or riding through the gate for the first time many locals make an offering of bananas or coconuts as insurance against motor accidents Smile I did n’t and survived, so I guess tourists and bicycles are exempt ?

I spent 4 days/5 nights in Bagan, which was probably one day too many as you get “templed-out’ after a while, and then it was on to Yangon, which will be my next post. Stay tuned ….

 

Baganpano-3

Myanmar scaffolding
Sunset silhouettes

Baganpano-1

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Ole Man River, Myanmar style

Posted on January 24, 2015 by Mike
Pre-dawn, Mandalay

Pre-dawn, Mandalay

To get from Mandalay to my next destination, Bagan, I took the ferry along the Ayarawady (Irrawaddy) River rather than an expensive flight or a long and uncomfortable bus ride. For only US$40 they promised comfortable aircon seating, free breakfast and lunch on board. The reality was that the aircon was not switched on nor needed anyway, everybody sat outside, and the free food was barely edible. But it was still better than a long bus ride !
We had to check in by 6.30 for a 7am departure, before the sun had risen so it was a bit chilly at first, but the day soon warmed up.

Sunrise, just after leaving Mandalay

Sunrise, just after leaving Mandalay

For the first 40 minutes or so the scenery kept the camera shutters clicking, as we went past Sagaing with it’s hillside covered in temples, and then Inwa(Ava) but then it all became a bit monotonous. The Ayarawady River is quite wide, so often we were a long way from the riverbank and anything that might be interesting.
There were a couple of unscheduled stops to let people off ( ie crew and friends visiting family) where the boat just nosed into the river bank, a plank was propped up against the bank, and the people got off.

Anybody for bananas ?

Anybody for bananas ?

At one of these stops a group of woman waded into the river up to their shoulders trying to sell bananas, at 2000 kyat a bunch (about US$2). If I had known how bad lunch was going to be I would have bought some …
Lunch was just some fried noodles with a few vegetables thrown in, completely tasteless and cold.
Moral of the story, BYO food !
There was a lot of other river traffic, from local ferries crossing the river, fishermen, lots of tugs pushing barges upstream loaded with all sorts of goods and a couple of luxury cruise boats that take a week or more to go from Yangon to Mandalay.

A welcome sight, only an hour or so to go.

A welcome sight, only an hour or so to go.

Enough was enough by now, and I had seen more than enough of the river but I knew we would not get to Bagan until around 6.30pm. Heading upriver takes up to 3 hours longer apparently 😦
Late in the afternoon we passed under a big road bridge, which I knew from the guidebook was 16 miles by road from Bagan, but that was still just over an hour later until we actually got there, just after sunset.
We pulled into the jetty at Nyaung-U around 6.45, so that was about 12 hours onboard. If anybody is going to do this trip remember to bring your own food, and a good book ! And before you even get off the boat there are touts trying to get you into taxis and sign up for tours, so have a plan of attack for your arrival. I had a hotel already booked, so I just had to get a taxi there and keep saying no to offers of tour guides.

UPDATE: I now have a video on youtube, see bottom of this page.
Next episode, “temples and balloons”, coming soon but for now some more pics :

Cruise ferry at Sagaing
Riverside life
Inside the cabin, which nobody used.
Bagan is thataway …
River fishermen
Free lunch ?
Sunset before we arrived at Bagan

(mouseover to see captions, or click for larger version)

 

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Mandalay, the photos

Posted on January 24, 2015 by Mike

Well here are the promised/threatened photos ! I have already written about Mandalay, so I’ll just let the pictures tell the story. These are from around the old “Royal Mandalay” area, where the palace, most of the important temples, and Mandalay Hill is located. Click on any image to see a larger version.

Panorama of the Royal Palace. It's actually a reconstruction, only about 20 years old, as the original was destroyed during WW2

Panorama of the Royal Palace. It’s actually a reconstruction, only about 20 years old, as the original was destroyed during WW2


Inside the Royal Palace grounds
Royal Palace.
The only surving building from the palace, one of the knigs jad this moved outside the palace grounds because it was haunted by his father’s ghost.
Locals like to say this is part of the world’s largest book, as each of 1000+ shrines contains part of Buddha’s teachings on a marble slab.
More of those chedis
Shoes off here, and climb 650 steps to the top of Mandalay hill.
And at the top, you will find this Buddha pointing the way back down (or is he saying get out of here?)
Mandalay Hill
Part of the Palace walls, now used as a Myanmar Army base.

There are several other small towns outside Mandalay which also were the capital for a while, such as Ava(Inwa) and Sagaing. These photos are from day trips to them:
U-Bein bridge is a popular place for sunset.
Traffic jam on the water for the U-bein sunset
U-bein sunset
There was a whole tour group of Japanese photographers, all with a LOT of gear.
But not everybody was photographing the sunset, there was a fashion shoot going on too.
Inwa temple
Inwa temple
Chedi in the rice paddies, Inwa
Horse carts are the mode of transport in Inwa
According to local legend, the King could not decide on the design of this chedi, so his Queen ripped open her clothes, pointed to her breast, and said “build it this shape!”
Lunch time, Sagaing nunnery
At lunch time, around 100 girls line up silently for lunch, leaving their shoes in perfect rows.
Most temples have murals illustrating the teachings of Buddha. This modern mural shows the evils of sex,drugs and karaoke !

Mandalay is on the Ayarawady (Irrawaddy) river, and is quite a busy port. Apart from the ferry to Bagan which most tourists take, there were lots of local ferries, cargo boats, and large rafts of bamboo logs.
Panorama of the river at Mandalay. Click for a larger version.

Panorama of the river at Mandalay. Click for a larger version.


Up next, the ferry journey to Bagan.

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A quick update – dateline Yangon

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Mike

To repeat a Kipling quote from my last post, This is Burma, and it is quite unlike any place you know about

I am in Yangon now, where the Internet is slightly above snail pace, so time for an update and a few iPad photos. My “real” photos will have to wait until I get home and onto my laptop, so that I can download over 40 GB of photos and videos! I brought 2 16 GB cards with me, had to buy another 8 GB card in Bagan which I soon filled up, so first task when I got here to Yangon was to find a camera shop that sold class 10 SD cards of a decent size. Plenty of 4GB class 4 micro SD cards for phones, but nobody stocked faster or larger SD cards….so if anybody is coming to Myanmar bring plenty of memory cards if you shoot RAW files !

Some of the temples of Sagaing

Some of the temples of Sagaing


From Mandalay I took a ferry downriver to Bagan, along the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) river. The first hour or so was interesting, cruising past the old city of Sagaing with it’s multitude of temples but then the scenery became monotonous. Because of the sandbars and low water levels at this time of the year the ferry zigzags from one side of the river to the other, and as Murphy’s law would have it, we were always on the wrong side when something interesting came into view! We left Mandalay at 7am, before sunrise, and reached Bagan around 6pm just after sunset. Apparently the upstream trip takes about three hours longer, so it is certainly best to come downstream.
Panorama of just some of the temples of Bagan.

Panorama of just some of the temples of Bagan.


For anybody who has never heard of Bagan, it is yet another ancient capital of Myanmar, from around the 11th to 13th century AD. During this period the people converted from Hinduism to Buddhism, and built temple after temple, thousands in all. There are some 3000 monuments still standing, so places like Ayyuttaya and Sukhothai in Thailand pale in comparison. The temples here might be slightly smaller than Angkor Wat in Cambodia but not the other temples of the Angkor area, and for sheer numbers Bagan wins easily. Apparently at the peak of the temple building boom they were starting a new monument of some kind every two weeks !
One of the best ways to comprehend the size of Bagan is to take a balloon ride over it, something which has been on my bucket list since I first saw it on television.
Another tick on my bucket list!
Bagan Buddha

Bagan Buddha

I spent a few days there getting around by bicycle and e-bike, it was good to see how environmentally conscious they were trying to be for a third world country. Many of the best temples are close enough to cycle around, but an electric bike is needed to explore some of the less visited places where you would often be the only person there.
From Bagan I flew here to Yangon, which used to be the capital until the junta built a new city and moved all the government there. Apparently Yangon went backwards drastically when that happened, especially as the country was under sanctions at the time. The sanctions have been at least partly lifted, and with an increase in business and tourism to the country Yangon is booming. I saw lots of new buildings going up on my trip in from the airport, but unfortunately nobody seems interested in saving some of the old colonial buildings from the days of British Burma, I’ve seen quite a few decaying old buildings around town already.
My hotel is downtown, close to the river, close enough to hear the hooters on the ferries and cargo ships. I have to lean out of my window to see the river, but there is a good view from the top floor restaurant.
The highlight of Yangon, or even Myanmar, has to be Shwedagon Pagoda. I’ve seen my share of amazing temples in the 20 or so years that I have been visiting SEA and now living in Bangkok, but Shwedagon out-glitters tham all. The main Chedi is covered with bamboo scaffolding at the moment for cleaning or maintenance, which kind of spoilt the photos, but under the scaffolding is 27,000kgs of gold, layer after layer after layer of gold leaf. Plus thousands of diamonds, rubies and other precious stones decorating the top part. To say nothing of a couple of solid gold Buddhas and several antique bronze ones which are literally priceless around the rest of the complex.
Another Kipling quote: “A beautiful winking wonder that blazed in the sun”
Sorry Thailand, but Wat Pho, the Emerald Buddha, etc do not come close to the treasures of Shwedagon.
That’s all for now, expect lots of “real” photos after I get back to Bangkok in a few days…you have been warned !

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Burmese Days – Mandalay

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Mike

It is a rather disagreeable town-it is dusty and intolerably hot,and is said to have five main products beginning with P,namely, pagodas, pariahs, pigs, priests and prostitutes.
So said George Orwell of Mandalay (in his early novel Burmese Days) ,when he was here in his real life of Eric Blair, a colonial policeman in British Burma. The pagodas and priests are actually Buddhist temples and monks, and there are still plenty of both here, even more than in Thailand. I have not seen any of the others, but it is dusty. I thought it would be cooler here, as Mandalay is quite a bit further north than Chiang Mai, which itself is noticeably cooler than Bangkok, but no, it is quite warm here even in “winter” so it would be hot for the pukka sahibs of Orwell’s time. I flew here direct with AirAsia, about 90 minute flight from Bangkok. AirAsia have a free shuttle bus into town but they do not publicise that on their website when booking nor on board the plane so I only found out after paying for a share-taxi ride. But at only 4000 kyat, around 4$US, for a half hour trip direct to my hotel it is probably the best option anyway. Driving into town you pass many of these “pagodas” in the fields and on the hillsides. They are not pagodas such as the towers in China or Japan, but bell shaped like Nepalese stupas or Thai Chedi. The British name has stuck though, and pagoda is used on the tourist signs. Pagoda, temple, Chedi, stupa or whatever, there are plenty of them, covered in blinding white plaster or gold paint. And walking around town I have spotted a couple of Hindu temples, a Sikh one, a mosque, a Catholic Church, and even a Seven Day Adventists one too !
(Edit, after going to dinner tonight I’ve found another Hindu temple and an Anglican church)
The town itself is dirty and noisy, with vehicles of all sorts from cycle rickshaws and motorcycles to rickety old trucks and buses all honking horns and ringing bells. The footpaths are just about unusable, either full of potholes, covered with parked motorcycles, or are partly covered open drains…definitely third world. There is virtually no street lighting so you have to walk on the road at night or risk falling into one of the drains 😦 The outskirts of town, around Mandalay Hill where many of the oldest temples are is better, at least you can walk on the grass verge. Some tourists hire bikes to get around, but with this traffic I am not that brave, I will either walk or get a motorcycle taxi.
It does n’t sound very attractive, but the place has it’s charms. Just do not come here expecting western infrastructure and comforts !
As Rudyard Kipling said, “This is Burma and it is unlike any land you know about (Letters from the East,1898)

View from my hotel window....walls of hitherto old Royal Palace

View from my hotel window….walls of the old Royal Palace

In olden times, Burma had seven capitals around here, all only a few miles apart. Apparently the new kings always wanted to start afresh ? After all, they did have plenty of slave labour to use. I’ve been here 3 days now and seen all I want to visit here. I’ve made merit by climbing Mandalay Hill to see the pagoda on top, all 650 odd steps barefoot 😦 Not something that I will want to do again soon ! I hope that I did get some merit out of it, because it is not worth doing for the view …. too smoggy. Tomorrow I am off to Bagan, yet another of the ancient capitals of Burma. That is a day’s ferry ride downriver. The Internet here is painfully slow, it took several attempts just to upload one picture for this post so other pics will have to wait. Until then …….

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