Myanmar
Bagan Hot Air Balloon
I'm ranking Bagan the second best balloon ride I've on, behind the ABQ Balloon Fiesta. Getting a bird's-eye view of the temples is pretty cool. Plus my balloon was one of the first to launch and quickly became the lead balloon, so I could look back and see the entire fleet of balloons instead of being in the middle of the pack.
Bagan Sunrise & Sunset
Sunrises and sunsets are pretty awesome in Bagan. They were consistently very orange, and every morning 10+ hot air balloons launch and will fly over the temple complex. If you sleep in at Bagan, you are missing out on the best part.
Bagan
Bagan was the ancient capital of present-day Myanmar from the 9th to 13th centuries, located on the banks of the Irrawaddy River. At it's peak it had over 10,000 pagodas, with approximately 2,200 still remaining today. I took this trip in January 2016. Later that year in August, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit and severely damaged or destroyed approximately 400 of the temples.
Yangon
Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon, is the largest city in Myanmar and was the capital city up until 2006. It's home to a lot of British colonial-era buildings, and the Shwedagon Pagoda, a 99 meter tall pagoda on top of Singuttara Hill.
Taung Kalat (Mount Popa)
Taung Kalat is a small steep hill at the base of Mount Popa, although a lot of people just call it Mount Popa. There's a covered stairway with 777 steps up to the Buddhist monastery at the top, which you have to walk up barefoot while not pissing off the resident horde of macaque monkeys.
Bago
Bago was a day trip from Yangon, about 60 miles away. First stop en route was at the Taukkyan War Cemetery, home to the graves of 6,400 British Commonwealth soldiers who died in the WWII Burma Campaign as well as a memorial with the names of 27,000 Commonwealth soliders who died with no known grave. Then on to Bago itself to see the Shwemawdaw Pagoda (Golden God Temple), Shwethalyaung Buddha, Kyaikpun Pagoda with the Four Seated Buddha shrine, Mya Tha Lyaung Reclining Buddha, and Kanbawzathadi Palace.