So just over 6 weeks into our adventure and we caught a flight into Yangon where we decided on making our way straight up to Bagan further North to go and explore some more temples before we embark on our 10 day silent retreat…And its here were we fell completely and utterly in love with a country so rich in culture and some of the most welcoming and honest people we’ve met so far…
The over night; bumpy train ride from Yangon up to Bagan, gave us our first taste of the beautiful landscapes and breath taking scenery. Living up to and exceeding every single expectation 🙂
With temples strewn across a valley the size of Johannesburg; literally around every corner, it called for a different mode of transport and was best explored on one of their local electric scooters 😉 Racing from one temple to the next and trying to soak it all in…
From hot air balloons at sunrise to the most beautiful settings for sunset every day leaving us more excited for the next. Bagan is definitely a bucket list kinda destination and one to surely warrant a visit by all in future 😉
The fact that tourism to this part of the world has also only recently opened to the world also of course has its pros and cons…For one the people are still very welcoming and haven’t been tainted by greed as of yet and in majority of the cases are more than happy to assist with any request without trying to wrestle you out of extra money…The flip side however is that the infrastructure geared towards tourism is still relatively limited and especially budget accommodation is still quite hard to find and the gap between budget and luxury is still vast….
But let me not harp on these matters for too long as the photos can speak for themselves as to why this place not only stole my heart but will have me returning for future exploration and to continue my spiritual journey I embarked on during the most interesting “not-so silent”10 retreat and how I found my 81 year old Buddhist yogi in the blog post to follow for Yangon 😉
