My first thought this morning was that I’d had one more drink than was sensible last night. Thankfully, the coffee at the Italian-run Ostello Bello is brilliant, and they even have real milk, which is rare here in Myanmar.
After waiting what felt like an eternity for Thijs to finish his breakfast (after I got up especially early to give myself time) the 5 of us hopped into our booked private minicab to Mt Popa.
The scenery around Bagan is a real contrast to everything else I’ve seen so far – sparse jungle and palm plantations.

This area of Myanmar is famous for their palm products. We stopped briefly at a palm plantation “outlet”, where the plantation manager graciously provided us with free tea and tea-leaf salad (one of Myanmar’s national dishes):

The tea leaf salad is extremely bitter but relatively enjoyable thanks mainly to the super fresh crunchy roasted peanuts. On that note, if you have a peanut allergy, don’t come here – EVERYTHING is fried in peanut oil. We also had a sip of palm liquor, known locally as “Jungle Juice”. It’s also pretty bitter, and is either an acquired taste or just plain terrible, I’m honestly not sure which.

Getting back on the road, we turned the corner to the mountain road. A lot of locals appear to want to hitchhike along this road, but we didn’t have space for all 400 people we saw on the way, and what with the Myanmar hitchhiking gesture being a slowly-extending hand and a lean, it sort of felt like a zombie apocalypse, so we were happy to stay in our private air-conditioned cab.

Shortly, we arrived at the mountain and were encouraged to step out and profit from the specially built Popa viewpoint. The temple looked great from here:

It was only a few more minutes in the cab before we found ourselves at the base of the 777 steps we were to climb. It’s a mission and a half:

The covered climb is interesting; spotted with shops, people collecting donations, monkeys demanding food – and holding your sunglasses to ransom if you don’t give it to them:

In the background you’re treated to an ever growing view of the Popa volcano:

But you really have to fight to get there, it’s rammed with locals!

Finally reaching the top, we enjoyed the cool breeze and the incredible view over a Myanmar I didn’t recognise from the trek to Inle Lake:

We enjoyed a few minutes tranquillity and descended to the bus. A quick stop for lunch and we were soon back in Bagan for dinner, another attempt at watching the sunset (far better today – I’mma plug that gallery again!) and a general farewell to the group, as we all headed separate ways. While Akira and Sabrina headed for home, Clara, Thijs and I made plans to meet in Mandalay, but I’m fast learning how quickly plans change when travelling – it’s all too easy to break your heart chasing friends, in the end, you just have to follow your feet.