We left for Myanmar on Friday, February 5 but were delayed at the Kaohsiung airport because our plane was late in arriving. We did make our connecting flight but our luggage did not. We've gotten a bit complacent with our packing because we've rarely had any problems with lost luggage. This trip reminded me to be more careful with my carry-on packing choices. 

On Saturday morning we left (after about 4 hours sleep) for Bagan and checked into this fabulous hotel, the Floral Breeze.

After dropping off our few belongings (after all, our luggage had not yet arrived), we hopped onto our caravan of electric bikes. Note: there were 10 of us in this group, seven teachers from KAS, two teachers from another school in Kaohsiung, and my lovely sister, Jenner.

As we biked from New Bagan, the modern town with hotels, restaurants, shops and residential neighborhoods, to the plains with the ancient pagodas and temples, we passed a herd of cows and goats.

The region is dotted all over with pagodas, some dating from as far back as the 12th century.

We climbed up one and were rewarded with a spectacular view.

Here is an excerpt from the journal I kept on the trip:
I had one of those purely-in-the-moment moments of pure bliss when I looked around me, speeding along a dusty road on my electric bike in the countryside of Myanmar, surrounded by ancient pagodas with the wind in my face and I laughed out loud. Look at me, doing this, being here. Could I have imagined ten years ago, even five years ago, that I'd be here with dust in my eyes, the smell of smoke and jasmine in my nose? It's like being transported onto the pages of a National Geographic magazine with all five senses on overload. I can imagine being old and feeble, losing my here-and-now and I'll still be able to transport myself back to that one moment in time, riding an electric bike through the dusty countryside of Myanmar. That is bliss.