Bagan Sunrise

Cycling in pitch black, just before dawn, from our hostel, on bikes taken from our hostel, to the stupas of Bagan. To climb one and view the sunrise over thousands of them. Only we don't know the way and buses and trucks shudder past us, we cycle past clusters of locals doing exercises in the darkness, and we are exhausted because we caught the overnight bus from Mandalay and we dumped our possessions and took off. Music starts, from where I cannot tell but it is happy and bubbly and I feel like I am floating on my bike rather than peddling. This can't be real. This small town, this music, this road, our destination. Where is our destination. The music stops and I feel wobbly. My daughter asks a guy for directions, she produces her map. It's dark I want to scream and he doesn't understand you. And we are two women alone. She lights the map with her phone. He nods and points in the direction we are travelling. I want to cry. My daughter veers off the road onto a sandy track that is completely isolated. I do cry. I call her name for I cannot see her. Let's turn back, this is crazy,. I preferred walking down the concrete stairs of Mandalay Hill in the shadows of early evening when all the stall holders had long ago packed up and we only had the dogs for company to this. I preferred walking the lonely streets of Mandalay at night, looking for the restaurant our hostel recommended and finally asking the firemen for directions, to this. I preferred sitting in a boat and watching the sun set over UBeins bridge, it's reflection like fire in the water, to this. Then the sun rises and I see stupas beside me as I wheel my bike - I have long ago dismounted, my tyres were stuck in the soft, dry sand. There are people everywhere and the stupa we are allowed to climb is already covered in tourists. We climb to the top and we watch red hot air balloons sail across the sky past the stupas of Bagan that stretch out into the distance. It is the most surreal place I have ever visited. We know they have been 'restored', possibly not authentically. Yet we stare into the silent landscape, it looks alien and beautiful and I didn't know it existed until a few days ago but it has been here for centuries, waiting for me. I didn't know what else waited for me on this adventure but it was as if the sun had imbued me with energy. I was unaware that my next night time activity would involve the Taunggye Festival and firecrackers shooting downward into the gasping crowd and us.