Hot Air Balloon Over Burma
Unless you’re the Wizard of Oz, it’s not every day that you get to travel by hot air balloon. These buoyant balloons’ whimsical, feel-good vibe put them high on most bucket lists.
Kate Springer chats with the founders of Balloons Over Bagan—Brett Meltzer and Omar Win—who pioneered commercial ballooning in Myanmar back in 1999.
Why Bagan
“Bagan is the crown jewel of Myanmar,” says Omar. “There are between 3,000 and 4,000 temples spread across a flat plain as far as you can see—so that’s pretty hard to beat. But the great thing about ballooning is that it’s not just the temples that you see: you also see village life. You’ll go over the thatched roofs and the oxen parked in the driveway and you see people getting up and cooking rice. To float 200 feet high over the mist in the morning, the monks walking about and the town waking up, is just straight out of a fairytale.”
We all float on
When to Go
“The best time to go is in the morning and it’s all over by 10:30am,” says Brett. “If there are any gusty conditions—we don’t fly. The best months are November-December and January-February, because they’re the coolest and most stable months.”
Up, up and away