The highlight of our time in Bagan was seeing the temples from a hot air balloon.  It’s an expensive trip, but utterly worth it. It was my first time in a hot air balloon and I loved it! It’s a stunning way to start the day (it’s a dawn flight) and a fantastic opportunity to see the temples from a different view entirely.  Truly a wonderful experience – if you are planning to go, don’t hesitate, cough up the money and get up there!

Here are some of the shots we took on our flights (Andrew and I went on separate days as Tali was not old enough to go).

Getting the balloons ready for flight

Balloons at sunrise

From the air you can truly appreciate the ‘Plains of Temples’

Getting a birds eye view of temples and balloons

Temple in the dawn light complete with visitors catching the sunrise

with a fisheye lens on my camera

another fisheye shot

I got a few shots of balloons from the ground too on the morning that I went for the sunrise from the temple, whilst Andrew went up in the balloon.

A few practical notes. We went with the company called Oriental Ballooning. There are two companies that run balloon rides, the other one is Balloons over Bagan.  Oriental Ballooning has been in operation for less than a year, but has only 8 people in their balloons, (as opposed to 12 or even 16 with the other company) which seems to be more comfortable.  They were very professional, informative and friendly. I felt totally safe the whole time.

Note: Children under the age of 8 cannot go up in the balloons.

Warning: it’s expensive – US$350, but I felt it was worth it – absolutely the trip and views of a lifetime.

It’s a very early start, you get picked up from your hotel before sunrise, they take you to the take off location and you get some breakfast and a safety briefing. The flight lasts about an hour, but of course they cannot predict the path of the flight. Andrew went up the morning after I went up and got much closer to the temples, but which ever direction the wind blows you in – you are sure to have a wonderful time and get fantastic views. At the end of the flight, you get a glass of champagne, not a bad start to a day!