Hot Air Ballooning over Bagan, Myanmar (Burma)

[@jerryrutledge8681]

Sean, watching this with my morning coffee. I think my day will be more relaxed. The the view is just beautiful and the music is perfect.

[@Aaron-P]

I don't think I've ever seen golden hour from the air before! What beautiful colors! The look of awe on everyone's faces matched the musical choice. Loved how you mixed the score with the environmental sounds, a real treat for headphones. Gorgeous! 😎👍

[@TheSeanMichael]

Thanks Aaron! This is one of my favorite John Barry songs (a great movie score composer).... from the Out of Africa soundtrack.

[@AjaySingh-228]

wow nice air balloons..i love it..wow nice view..I would like to try it

[@yolacintia]

What an amazing experience! Such a beautiful place.

[@TheSeanMichael]

Thanks Cintia, yes it really is!

[@anchorsawy]

Sean, we've been watching your LOLOHO channel for awhile and came across this video last night. When it started I commented to my wife about the music. I was pretty sure it was from a movie score but couldn't quite place it. She quickly said she thought it was from Out of Africa. What a great choice of music for this lovely video. Excellent job and one of your best. On a side note, after watching we found "Out of Africa" on HBO, made some popcorn, and settled in. Been 35 years since we'd seen it and it was just as great as we remembered.

[@TheSeanMichael]

Hi George, John Barry was a great musical composer and I have loved several of his cinema scores. I was looking over some of my video footage from Myanmar and this theme from Out of Africa kept playing in my head. Normally I do not use "copyrighted" music in my videos (it can result in KZbin flags) but since this is kind of an experimental channel I thought it would be interesting to use this score. Honestly I just wanted to see how it would turn out! Thankfully KZbin seems to have approved its usage and I am pleased with the result. I'm especially pleased that others are finding this video enjoyable -- thanks for your kind comments! --Sean

[@petehatzakos]

Stunning!

[@kristymichael]

It was so gorgeous! Bucket List item, for sure!

[@olefella7561]

These balloons with tourists should not be allowed to fly over sacred sites like pagodas.

[@mrsalwaysright6478]

You said, these balloons with tourists should not be allowed to fly over sacred sites like pagodas. I'm quite certain that the vast majority of Buddhist Myanmar people are against this type of activity.

[@nomastersnogods9303]

I agree, these balloons carrying mostly foreigners should fly around; instead of flying right on top.

[@TheSeanMichael]

That is an interesting comment. For one thing, the ballooning takes place so early in the morning I doubt the pagodas were even in use. (Ballooning is all finished by 7AM or so.) The balloons are mostly silent and never come into any contact with any pagoda. There's certainly nothing disrespectful about admiring a pagoda from the air (if anything, it's the exact opposite -- an admiration of their beauty). And most of those Old Bagan pagodas are ruins. Until a few years ago people were climbing all over the temple ruins; that was rightly halted after a recent earthquake made them unstable. Why should the nationality of the people inside the balloon matter? My impression from traveling throughout Myanmar is that (1) the Burmese welcome tourists and appreciate benefit tourism brings to their economy, and (2) Burmese are actually more likely to encourage free enjoyment of tourist activities than Westerners! (We have sadly developed a "rules & regulations culture" in the West.) Should airplanes and helicopters be allowed to fly over Burmese pagodas? How about low orbit satellites? Should we also ban Burmese tourists from flying in airspace above Christian cathedrals? It's kind of a silly line of reasoning.

[@unclechinsyou8555]

Burma still has a lingering memories of Colonial master British and Westerners refused to take off their shoes while entering Buddhist temples in century-long Colonial era, I supposed.

[@TheSeanMichael]

Here's an article published today... Burma is facing economic devastation without tourism. I have Burmese friends in Bagan,, Mandalay, and Yangon. The balloons are not a burden. They have been a blessing. www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activity-and-adventure/without-tourists-myanmar-has-travelled-back-time-people-face/

[@johnnylightning1491]

Very nice Sean. I know this is an experimental channel but I would have liked some narration. Maybe not a whole lot, but some. BTW I just bought my first "real" camera, a Nikon P1000. Any suggestions on how to learn it quickly? I guess the good thing about digital cameras is you don't have to pay for film. Keep the interesting stuff coming.

[@TheSeanMichael]

Thanks Johnny, maybe I will do a "director's cut" with some more narration. Yes, this was an experiment! Appreciate your checking it out.

[@Libratarot]

Very cool :)

[@yolacintia]

Why do you have to sit while taking off and landing? I've been on several hot air balloon rides in USA (several in Sedona and one in CO) and we never had to sit down, not even my tiny 9 year old.

[@TheSeanMichael]

Interesting question! Honestly I just assumed it was standard safety procedure. This was my only real balloon ride so that's all I know, haha

[@BigFireDave]

Why is it people will get on an airplane without a thought but start getting scared when a hot air balloon lift off. The death rate of accidents for Hot Air Balloon crashes is MUCH smaller than the death rate of airplane crashes.

[@TheSeanMichael]

I haven't done a search for death rate, but for most of us ballooning is a much rarer activity than airplane flight.