Balloon Over Bagan

Our last full day on the cruise was truly a full day.  We headed off the boat at 5:15am, taking the van through the dark quiet bumpy roads to the fields where they were readying the balloons.  After sitting around having a snack in the cold, we got assigned to our pilot and followed him to our balloon.

Our intrepid group of eleven, plus Ye Ye’s brother-in-law makes twelve, waited patiently for the balloon to fill, before clambering in.  After more filling of the balloon, and then waiting for the other balloons to clear, we finally took off in the cool early morning air.  When we left the ground, the Falcons led 21-0 in the Super Bowl.  (Spoiler alert – if you haven’t heard that the Falcons choked like dogs and the hated Patriots won the greatest comeback ever, don’t read the next few posts!)

We were afforded beautiful, misty views of Bagan, the mountains, new Bagan, the Irrawaddy River, and many of the pagodas.  My only disappointment is that the wind shifted from the time where the balloonists decided to take off to when we actually took off, so instead of flying dramatically over the pagoda patch (3,000!), we actually flew away from the pagodas, so dramatic shots were few and far between.

Still, it was a great experience.  The last time we rode in a hot air balloon (besides the election campaigns) was pre-blog in Arizona.  We took my dad for a ride, and Torie fell asleep.  We had done it once prior as well, so that was our third time ballooning.  Our pilot, Rick, was a cheery chap from Canberra, Australia.  He had 25 years of experience as a balloonist.

When I asked him why he was ballooning in Myanmar, he noted that they had been able to fly for 90 straight days – which has never happened elsewhere, and the money is good (he personally did not balloon 90 straight days – rest days are required).  He was working six months in Myanmar, and then going back to Canberra for six months to balloon there.

Rick stuck the landing, and the crew was great both on take off and on landing.  We scrambled out and were immediately set upon by kids and women selling bric-a-brac.  As Garth Brooks would sing, it’s a hard way to make an easy living.  Rick pointed them out as we were coming in for landing, and then noted sardonically that somehow they seem to know where the balloons are landing even before the balloonist and crew!  We then had celebratory champagne, and passed on the fruit (Carol’s plan to not get sick on the trip – no fresh vegetables or fruit that might have been washed in dirty water).

Ballooning is a great time, but not something I need to do frequently.