Thursday 16 March 2017

Up, up and away...

My alarm went off just before 5am, yes you did read the correctly. 5 am.  Because I needed to be somewhere BEFORE the sun was due to rise.


Three of us were collected from the hotel in a very old charrabang bus and off we went in the dark collecting others in the way.


Where were we going?  The moon is still up, so we are all waiting with nervous anticipation because we are off for another adventure.  The ground staff were all very busy and we had strict instructions to stay behind the barriers and drink coffee until we were called forward.


The wind machines were working full blast

 

the fuel ignited

 
and like magic balloons starts to inflate and rise from the ground.  One by one we were called to climb into our designated baskets and then up we rose, higher and higher.


The take off zone faded away


A little bit left, a little bit right, over the ancient wonders of Bagan we floated.


There are over 4000 temples and pagodas in many shapes and sizes over 25 square miles.


This is where Buddhism, Hinduism and Nat worship come one there in an array of different shrines.


Th sun steadily rose high te and higher.


Many of the tall spires are covered in bamboo scaffolding as thE damage caused by the 2016 earth quake is slowly repaired.


We also flew over local townships,


Fields of corps


These are rice paddies waiting for the rains to come.


I don't think the goats even knew we were above them?


Before too long we floats over to the landing zone and make out decent.


We lowered to the ground with the smallest of jolts and the staff were there o catch and secure the balloon.


The centre was opened to allow the hot air to dissipate 


and the fabric was folded up ready for another morning.


We meanwhile saunters our to the breakfast table for a glass of champagne and a croissant.


Cheers!


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