Rising Above Bagan
Almost as soon as our balloon left the ground, the enormity of Bagan came into view. Temples rose across the plain, their spires drawing the eye toward an unending array of temples in the distance. Smaller stupas clustered between the larger monuments. From above, we tried to grasp how much history occupied this stretch of earth and the magnitude of the vista in front of us.
My husband and I were taking our first hot air balloon ride. We had chosen Balloons Over Bagan for the experience, and within moments of lifting off, the landscape beneath us had claimed our attention. I still find it difficult to describe the otherworldly nature and scale of what we saw. Photographs only do so much justice to it.
Until I was 23, I had never set foot outside India. Throughout my childhood, I dreamed of faraway places and considered two careers that might get me there: management consultant and air hostess.
Seventeen years later, I was celebrating a milestone birthday with my husband on a journey through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. We spent four days in Myanmar, dividing our time between Yangon and Bagan. Myanmar shares a border with the country where I had grown up, yet so much about it felt unfamiliar, the proximity making the discovery especially compelling.
Bagan gave that sense of discovery an almost overwhelming scale. Beside a bend in the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River, thousands of Buddhist monuments survive from a civilization whose greatest building period stretched from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. The former royal capital occupies a landscape where religious devotion took architectural form over generations.
From our balloon, individual buildings became part of a much larger composition. A substantial temple would catch my attention, then I would notice the smaller structures surrounding it, followed by another cluster farther away. It was difficult to settle on any one part of the view for long. Even the champagne reception that followed our landing could not overshadow the views we had just experienced.
For Myanmar’s Buddhist communities, Bagan remains a place of worship and pilgrimage. Much like in India, building and supporting temples belongs to the tradition of gaining favors with higher powers through generosity and devotion. This helps explain the remarkable concentration of monuments on the plain and the reverence in which they are still held. The connection between the buildings and the people who care for them is part of Bagan’s enduring significance. UNESCO added Bagan to its World Heritage List in 2019, five years after our visit.
We stayed at the Aureum Palace Hotel & Resort, set among gardens within Bagan’s archaeological area. Its architecture pays homage to the temples around it. For a milestone birthday journey, it was a beautiful place to stay, with Bagan itself lending the setting much of its character.
In Yangon, men and women went about their day in longyi, the traditional wrapped garment, with pale thanaka paste on many cheeks. Sweet tea came with condensed milk, served at sidewalk tables with tiny plastic stools; a samosa offered a familiar taste. At Shwedagon Pagoda, monks and families gathered beneath the gold spire, their chanting filling a place that belonged to the daily practice of faith. We carried crisp and new U.S. dollar bills in small currency, and money changers scrutinized their condition, promptly returning those that failed their exacting standards.
Then there was laphet thoke, the Burmese tea leaf salad that is one of the most unique things I have ever eaten – after 85 countries and territories under my belt, that is saying something! Growing up in India had made tea familiar; encountering it this way was an exploration of an inexplicable kind. The fermented green tea leaves had a tartness edged with earthy bitterness. Mixed with oil, garlic and chili, then tossed with cabbage and tomatoes, they met the sharpness of lime and the emphatic crunch of fried beans and nuts. Each mouthful moved between soft leaves and crisp ingredients, with a depth of flavor that made the next bite irresistible.
We learned that fermented tea has long held a place in Burmese hospitality. It also has a history as a symbolic peace offering exchanged after disputes between kingdoms. I liked knowing that something so distinctive on the plate carried a such a meaningful tradition of welcome and reconciliation. Laphet thoke is a dish that needs to be on the list of every traveler to this fascinating country.
In 2014, Myanmar’s political opening still held promise. Aung San Suu Kyi was serving in parliament, and President Obama had visited two weeks before we arrived. The apparent calm of our brief stay coexisted with conflict and the persecution of minority communities. Remembering that matters, especially after the military coup of 2021 and the suffering that followed.
When I think of that birthday journey, I return to Bagan and the moment we rose above the temples, the sun starting its journey over the horizon and the realization that even though Myanmar shared a thousand-mile border with my own, it felt like a world apart.
Travel note: This journey took place in 2014. As of October 2026, the U.S. Department of State maintains a
Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory for Myanmar (Burma). I hope that peace will bring greater safety to the people who call this country home, and that future visitors will have the chance to experience Bagan with the wonder we did.
-Radhika K.
Founder, RNK Coaching & Advisory
Balloons Over Bagan your gateway to flights over 8,000 pagodas
The Best Luxury Hotel & Resort in Bagan | Aureum Palace hotel
Bagan - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
*All photographs are copyrighted and provided courtesy of Radhika Khandelwal. Reproduction or reuse requires prior written permission from the copyright holder.
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