After failing to get VISAs in Hanoi for Myanmar, we almost canceled the Myanmar leg of our trip. But Etienne urged us to go and said “you gotta go now! It is changing fast.” Thank you Etienne for the push!!
With only a week in Myanmar, we leave feeling it is a MUST to come back!!! So much yet to see and explore. A week is a mere appetizer! As we exit Myanmar, headed back to Thailand, we assemble these observations:
1) AMAZING!!! our Hotel in Bagan was called “Amazing Bagan Hotel” which we thought was quite funny. But we realize that “amazing” is the right word to describe most everything in Bagan. The entire week we felt as if we were floating around a magical, make-believe land that doesn’t have anything to do with real life. The whole place is quite surreal from the temples to the sunsets and sunrises, to the people who are so gracious. It is AMAZING!
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2) WHEN PEOPLE TELL YOU GO TO VISIT SOMETHING NOW, THEY ARE RIGHT! How right was Etienne to urge us to go now. We could see that things are changing fast with tourism ramping up quickly. This destination may have to go on our “5 year travel plan” because 2025 is too far away 
Major road to our hotel that was spectacular and never had anyone on it!
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3) PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER. Why didn’t we learn this trick sooner? Cliff wrote about our new strategy of touring each destination with a professional photographer. It added such a cool element to our experience. I recommend that whether you are interested in taking pictures or not, taking a tour with a local photographer is a really cool way to explore a destination! You can be sure that we will continue this strategy for the remainder of our ATW itinerary
I took this with my iPhone under the tutelage of Maung Maung!
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4) IF YOU BECOME A BILLIONAIRE, BUY A HOT AIR BALLOON! Ballooning over the temples at sunrise was EPIC and will certainly be remembered as a highlight for us all…even Otto who was barfing for most of the time over the side of the balloon Wescott got so into it that he chatted with an Amazon Sales Rep online about buying one! Amazon doesn’t sell hot air balloons but the agent was so nice, she sourced it for him and sent him directly to someone who he could buy one from
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5) AMAZING! …See #1 …. Muang Muang, the professional photographer who we had the pleasure of hanging out with for the day in Bagan, also takes people on tours around the entire country!!! I can’t imagine how much fun that would be!! Sign me up in 2016 for my 50th bday!
It is like a fairytale! I was there and still can’t believe this photo is real!
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