With all the flying I do for my photography and videography, it was a bucket list item to finally fly in a hot air balloon. My friend Michael and I went ballooning in Bagan, Myanmar, and it was an exhilarating way to travel. Companies used to be allowed to fly closer to the pagodas, but tensions with the government prompted restrictions. Even from a distance, we were treated to incredible views of sacred pagodas surrounded by forests and farms. Bagan, is an ancient city in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma). Sitting next to the Ayeyarwady River, it’s home to more than 2,000 Buddhist monuments. This beautiful place Also happens to be located in an active earthquake zone, and has suffered damage from many earthquakes over the ages. Many of these underwent restorations in the 1990s by the military government, which sought to make Bagan an international tourist destination. However, the restoration efforts instead drew widespread condemnation from art historians and preservationists worldwide. Critics are aghast that the restorations paid little attention to original architectural styles, and used modern materials, the government has also established a golf course, a paved highway, and built a 61-meter (200-foot) watchtower. Although the government believed that the ancient capital's hundreds of (unrestored) temples and large corpus of stone inscriptions were more than sufficient to win the designation of UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city has not been so designated, allegedly mainly on account of the restorations. Beyond the controversial reconstruction, the area has become filled with military run hotels that site midst important archaeological zones. Myanmar attempts to relocate these controversial hotels in the archaeological sites as it prepares the ancient city’s final nomination dossier to become a Unesco World Heritage Site. On 24 August 2016, a major earthquake hit central Myanmar and again did major damage in Bagan; this time almost 400 temples were destroyed. The Sulamani and Myauk Guni (North Guni) were severely damaged. The Bagan Archaeological Department has started a survey and reconstruction effort with the help of UNESCO experts. Visitors are now prohibited from entering 33 damaged temples and only a few are left to explore.

Toby Harriman