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Bagan

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Hot Air Balloons flying over pagodas in Bagan
Experiences

Bagan And The Days That Were Like Two

From my personal journal. “Our days are split in two. We go to sleep twice and we wake up twice. This morning, I’m up about an hour before dawn just as Evie is also waking.

Kien Lam
1 year ago

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  • It took me nearly a decade to finally get to Pamukkale. The first time I was in Turkey, I was “stuck” in Cappadocia for much longer than my trip allowed because all the buses out were already booked because of all the locals traveling during a particularly busy holiday week. When I arrived, I worried that I’d be disappointed. Reality isn’t always as nice as photos in this new Instagram world. As luck would have it, Pamukkale exceeded my expectations. It some ways, it didn’t look like the photos I had seen, but in many other ways, it was better. It was such a beautiful day, but when the sun began to set, it was just magic. Don’t be fooled. There were a lot of tourists around, but when we found a spot to watch the sunset, everything just fell into place and the world around us just faded. #pamukkale #turkey
  • I came to Cappadocia because I believe it’s perhaps the single most beautiful place to fly a hot air balloon on par with Bagan in Myanmar. And it was. I mean look at this view. But really the best part about this wasn’t the balloon rise, it was the appreciation that I get to see a new day start. I also got to share the moment with someone special whose face lit up brighter than the sun during the entire flight. It will always be the small moments that I will remember long after this is all over.
  • Contemplating the next meal requires focus and extreme concentration.
  • Taking a break after a few months of traveling and hanging out in Gran Canaria. Who knew there would be a desert in the middle of nowhere to get to the beach. The Canary Islands is part of Spain but it’s situated just off the coast of Morocco, so I guess that makes a little more sense.
  • I love exploring modern spaces where the aesthetics just lend themselves to being photographed. With curves and lines, moving a few feet left or right can change the entire composition. So there’s the tip of the day. Don’t stop moving.
  • A few days ago, I climbed out of an 1940s era biplane mid-flight and gave the pilot the signal to do a series of acrobatic moves while I hung on. It was a surreal experience. They call this "wing-walking" and it's pretty self-explanatory. While in the air, you climb out of the cockpit of an airplane and walk along its wings. And because that apparently doesn't sound exciting enough, you also hold on while the pilot does loops, barrel rolls and something called a "hammerhead." @cnntravel is producing a little documentary about my experience, so I'll hold off on sharing the video footage, but I wanted to share a few thoughts and photos ahead of time. First, this was, by a clear margin, one of the most exhilarating things I've ever done. Second, while in the air, I felt an incredible sense of gratitude for my life, and just life in general. Every breath up there felt precious, and I nearly wanted to cry trying to comprehend how I got to this point in my life where I'm lucky enough to be able to do some of the things I've done. Lastly, the reason I wanted to do this has nothing to do with thrill-seeking or risk. I really believe that you should try to the best of your abilities to go after the things you want to do. For me, I'm just a hyper curious person and knowing the sacrifices my parents made and continue to make to give me and my siblings the life we have, I don't want to waste any part of it not satisfying some of these curiosities and missing out on so many of the experiences that the world has to offer. So what was wing-walking like? Making that deliberate decision to unbuckle my seatbelt and begin the climb out of the cockpit was by far and away the most worthwhile part of the whole thing. As soon as I put my left hand up to reach for the first hold, I felt the force of the 60 mph+ winds that I would be fighting against. I was so focused that I honestly had no time to be nervous or afraid. I never felt for a second that I would slip or fall off, so the real climb felt very similar to all my practice climbs while the plane was on the ground. A full write up will be on my site soon. #wingwalking

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