After a long day travelling on DAY 1 and another long day on DAY 2, the new day doesn’t disapoint.

We are up at 4:30am and leaving the hotel at 5am to catch another flight. This time we are taking a short flight from Yangon to Bagan, where we will check into the Bagan Hotel River View, get our bike fitting sorted, get changed into the cycling gear and actually start to d some cycling.

It was tough going getting up early again. I did stay up late last night to try and get a grip of the jet lag early on. Lets hope that pays off in the coming days.

It was just a quick grab and go breakfast from the hotel then off to the airport. Not the best breakfast to fuel a day out on the bike.

It was just a 90 minute flight from Yangon to Bagan, then another 40 mins on the bus to our hotel.

This weekend (Fri – Mon) is a big festival in Myanmar called the Lighting Festival which is made more prominent this year as today coinsides with the full moon. It is like a big holiday weekend and everyone is off work and visiting the Pagodas, lighting candles to celebrate buddha’s return from heaven. This has meant the roads were busier than normal today.

After changing into a cycle kit and getting our gear put on the bikes, we were ready to head out. Today was a later start than the rest of the week, it was really hot and the humidity was insane as we got going. Just standing around with the bikes at the start was making me sweat buckets.

The bike is a Trek mountain bike. I was prety impressed with it. Not too heavy, good brakes and decent fat tyres with good suspenion on the front for the rough off roading ahead.

The first 6-miles were riding around the towns windy roads, it was tricky to stick together as a group of 20 in amongst the heavy traffic, many turns and differing riding speeds. There were a few instances where we got split up but pretty much all got around to the first rest stop.

There was a streatch from 6-miles to 12-miles where we were riding along a busy paved road. This was in the full sun witht he heat radiating back off the road surface and from the passing vehicles. It took its toll on all of us, difficult to catch your breath when you put in a burst, the sweat was pouring off me even riding at 14mph.

The rest stop was well needed. A few cars of cold coke and some buscuits got my energy levels back up again, ready for the next push on to lunch.

From the rest stop to lunch, it was about 10-miles, didn’t sound like much at the time but when we got going, we turned off the paved road onto a dirt track which turned into a sandy road for large parts of the afternoon.

I did love riding in the sand, it was great fun riding with a smile on my face and laughing throwing the bike around and feeling the wheels washing out when you get into the deeper sand. Always good fun when you see your back wheel siding out past you.

Lunch was at a nice rural restaurant, after yesterday’s food, the rice and chicken. I wasn’t too hopefull of anything better today, I was expecting to be living on rice all week, but I was pleasently surprised, lunch was the best food we have had since we got here. Rice again but with chicken curry and loads of veg.

A few more sandy trips after lunch but not as many as this morning. Riding around Bagan is stunning. The area is only square 14-miles but with over 3,000 temples and padoga’s. You don’t ride more than a quarter mile without passing one and each different than the last.

We finished up with a stop at a raised bank where we were going to watch the sunset over the temples but by that time it had clouded up, despite not seeing the sunset, the view overlooking the trees with temples dotting around the horizon.

We finished up riding back to the hotel in the dark. A total over 30 miles today, to losen the legs before some bigger days on the saddle.

We ate at another local restaurant tonight and again, the food was great. More curry, veg and rice but good fueling for tomorrow.

After dinner the local had a surprise for us. They had setup candles at a nearby padoga so that we could join them in celebrating the lighting festival. It was a pretty special moment and a great way to end our first day of riding.

Tomorrow we have a little lie in, up at 5:45am to grab a proper breakfast at the hotel and set off at 7am on the ride to Popa. This is the day I have been looking forward to most, Popa looks amazing and the hotel we are staying at has an amazing infinity pool overlooking the valley and nearby monastery. I hope tomorrow’s photos can do it justice.