Our departure day from Bagan was a 0445hr alarm ready for the 0525 pickup for our Balloons over Bagan flight. We arrived at the launch field to a hive of activity with 20 balloons being readied for flight. We here treated to tea and coffee while the final preparation where being made. After a safety briefing and boarding our balloon and it was time to rise silently into the still morning air. The burner only punctuated the silent from time to time while we drifted over the fields below with the many Temples and Pagodas spread throughout them.

Our rally friends from Bhutan had been here the previous year recommended the balloon flight to us, and what a recommendation it was. It put a whole temple thing of Bagan into perspective and the magnitude of what it would have been like with 10,000 temples 800 years ago.

After returning to the Hotel for a late breakfast we headed off on the 380k drive to Inle Lake our next 2 night stop.

Our original plan for the trip didn’t include Inle Lake in the trip, but Frank suggested we should visit, as he been here about 10 years ago. We changed our plans and extended our stay in Myanmar to fit this in.

The drive over was through some of the driest parts of Myanmar we have driven. This region bought back memories of home with the smell of Eucalyptus trees everywhere.

We left the flat dry plain to climb the hills up to the Lake area and it was so visible what an effect terrain has on rainfall. As soon as we reached the range the vegetation turned greener and by the time we had gone a couple of miles we were back in rainforest.

Climbing the range we new we would be entering a market garden area as we meet so many trucks loaded with Cabbages and Cauliflowers. We levelled out on the rolling Plateau at 1300 metres elevation and it was miles and miles of the nicest farming soil on this trip so far. There was so many different and varied crops grow up there the farmer in me just couldn’t take it all in.

We left the rich plateau to look down into the valley with Inle Lake spread across the valley floor. We arrived in town for our 2-night stop just on dark.

This morning Tin arranged for us to take a day boat ride on the lake.

The day on the boat was so fantastic I don’t know how to start. We head south across the lake past fisherman with the most incredible balance as they stand on the bow of the boat on one leg while paddling an oar tucked under the arm with the other leg and pulling in and cleaning the net with both hands. Just standing on the bow of the boat would be enough trouble for me with out doing it on one leg and all the other jobs. The photos say it all.

As we headed down the lake we meet boats loaded with local produce heading up to town. We soon found that this produce was being grown on floating farms. The weed platforms are literally pushed together then stacked to the bottom then Tomatoes and Cucumbers and all sorts of things are grown on the floating bed with all the work being done from the small boats.

It was then on to visit a weaving place, which showed us how to die the weft thread so that the colours work into a pattern. The rest of the morning before lunch was visiting the blacksmith, a cigar making shop and a Temple that was built on some of the only solid ground in the lake. Everyone living on the lake lives in houses on stilts with a platform at the water level for entry, bathing and washing the clothes and dishes.

After another local lunch it was a visit to the silversmith before one last Temple and the trip back up the lake to our Hotel.

With a couple spare hours in the afternoon I decided to get a haircut, which I was badly in need of. After the haircut I realised I should have waited a bit longer as Julie now has a job turning it into something respectable that wont take 3 weeks to grow out.

It was so nice to wake yesterday and not have to worry about getting in the car and drive to a new town.

After a leisurely breakfast and start to the day Mr Tin our guide picked Julie and I up for a tour around the Bagan area. We started with a Stupa, while visiting all these temples and stupas I’ve learnt so much about the Buddhist religion and how it is so varied from country to country.

From this stupa we visit the town market, which is the hub of fruit, veg, meat, fish and all sorts of other stuff. The fruit and veg was probably the best quality we have seen in any market this trip. However I struggle with the concept of all the flies on the chicken and fish, I guess you just need to hope it is cooked well enough before we eat it.

The next stop was a temple before going to a local rural village to see how life worked in it. At one house we watched as peanuts are ground for the oil using a wood grinding press with an ox walking in a circle for 1.5 hours to make 2.5 litres of oil.

The visit to the workshop making Bamboo boxes and artefacts from split bamboo before being lacquered with natural lacquer was most interesting. This was very hard to explain in words sorry.

Lunch was at a restaurant overlooking the Irrawaddy too the flood plain with the mountains in the distance. Sort of like the Bagan version of lunch overlooking the ocean.

After a couple more temples we returned to the hotel for a break from the heat and a rest ready for the afternoon trip to sunset over the temples.

The afternoon sunset trip included a even more temples on the way, which I must say has been very interesting in the way that the construction and style varies so much in a 200-year period all worshiping the same thing.

The sunset over the temples is some thing that I think every tourist to Bagan does because every temple with a view had people on it for the sunset which was most enjoyable before returning to the hotel for dinner accompanied by dance and a puppet show.

Just noticed that on my last post Apple auto correct change the name of Bagan to begin sorry.

We have arrived in the city of temples Bagan. It is said that there was 10,000 Temples and Pagodas on this plain but only 2200 still exist. I will be able to tell you more about this next post.

2 days ago we left Kale for what was reported to be a 10 to 12 hour drive to Monyma. The main road was in very poor condition and using local knowledge we went the longer way around by continuing down the same valley we had follow the afternoon before.

There was evidence of the massive flood that had come down the river early in the year with bridges washed out and debris in trees indicating that a lot of people had been displaced and had there homes inundated.

All down the valley the rice harvest was well underway, with this process still being a total hand harvesting operation with most of the rice then hand threshed before being dried fully on woven mates on the side of the road or anywhere flat and clean with a lot of sun. A few lucky people got the threshing done by small engine driven Threshers.

After following this river for about 3.5 hour we headed east to our destination over I think 3 sets off mountains before crossing one of the big tributary’s of the Irrawaddy River into Monyma. Luckily the drive was only 8.5hs so we while Julie ducked down the street for the local Myanmar dress to wear for the time here.

Yesterday’s travels took us firstly to the temple with 500,000 images of Buddha then on to the largest standing Budda in Myanmar. We had seen this Buddha 40k across the plains yesterday before we got to town. This site is a collection of several large Budda statues in different poses, lying on the side and on the back plus the construction site for a second large standing Buddha even taller.

At the standing Buddha we were able to climb the 20 odd storeys to the top level. A view didn’t exist due to the window needing a clean, But I guess that the Buddhist visitors don’t do the climb for the view but for spiritual reasons. The climb was great as it’s the first real exercise Julie and I have done on the trip due to time constraints and weariness.

Leaving the temple site we pulled up down the road in a very small village for a cuppa and a visit to the village. This had a outside school for extra studies on the public holiday. The way village life worked was most interesting with both communal and individual farming.

All through Myanmar people have a cream of some sort on their face, yesterday lunch Julie found out more about it and tried some. The cream is a natural produce made from grinding up the bark of a special tree on a stone plate with a little water before appalling to the face to be used for both sun protection and a skin cream.

Most of our travel yesterday was in farming land that is above the monsoon flood level. It is really evident what the floods have on the soil nutrients levels and the crops. Down on the flood plains the crops looks very lush from the regular fertilising received with the flood slit. Most of the crops above the flood levels are looking very poorly and hungry. In these areas we saw a lot of ads nailed to trees for Fertilizer and Chemicals and we saw no ads on the flood plains.

We crossed the Irrawaddy River yesterday, which is one of the big rivers of Asia that’s stars up in Tibet along side the Mekong and the Yangtze.

We arrived in Begin mid afternoon ready for our rest day and temple visiting today.

Our departure from Imphal was early so as to get out of town before the traffic and travel the 130ks to the border. This was a 4-hour trip, as we need to stop at 3 army checkpoints on the way, checking that we belonged there and had all the correct paper work for the trip. The Indian army has a huge presents along the Myanmar border and in Manipur state.

Once we reached the border it was only about an hour and all the carnets were sorted and we where in Myanmar with our guide for the trip Mr Tin Tun.

After a great lunch was sourced at a local bar we headed off on the journey to the hotel in Kale.

It hard to describe how much things can change by just crossing a bridge over a river with a gate either side. The housing, farming, people, and the crops are so different you’d think that the bridge was a couple hundred miles long.

Regularly along the side of the road are make shift camps full of people plus a couple of towns had large tent villages like refugee camps. Tin told us that the tent people are all the people that lost there home during the last monsoon with a big flood. There is evidence in the power lines on how high the flood went. Makes the Brisbane floods look like a spilled bath.

Tomorrow is reportedly a 12 hour drive for the 400ks so most likely no post.