There's no way we would've missed out witnessing the daily handling of the torch from darkness to daylight. The idea was to stand somewhere atop a temple and greet the sunrise with awakened eyes. However, in rare instances where reality overtakes the expectations of imagination, what I saw was more gratifying and romantic – even without reciting a line from a Nicholas Sparks novel. Even If I nibble the breakfast of the most obnoxious man in the world that morning, I'd still categorize the major part of what I experienced that day as something I should keep in my memory vault.

Notwithstanding forgetting the name of the temple, that moment when the sun rose up over the vast temple-ruin-filled plains of Bagan, each moving stills commanded a concentrated stare. Moving images which are now on-call for situations when I find myself blindfolded, just so I could be reminded that a new day starts when darkness fades.

It was still dark when we went out on our rented bicycles, while we chose to pedal our way, the others opted to ride a horse-drawn cart to Buledi Temple. The weather was colder than I expected coming from a day with high 30's Celsius temperature. Our ride was smooth over the asphalted road, with the stillness of a new day hanging around like the quietness of an empty room. I could only hear cracking sounds of scattered twigs as my bike wheels rolled over it.

Soon our guide, who was commandeering the horse-drawn cart turned right and unto a sandy terrain, pedaling through it became a bit harder as the thick soft sands buries our bicycle wheels by a couple of inches, leaving us no choice but to push it along until coming again over a flattened soil. Looking around I saw temples illuminated against a black sky, shining like gold from a distance while still surrounded by darkness.

We reached Buledi temple by the time the sky starts to turn light gray. The slowly seeping daylight exposes the vast light golden color of the Bagan plains. I saw the towering edges of the nearby temples, counting it will distract you further because of its sheer number. We climbed the stairs until we reached the third level of the temple and sat facing the direction of the rising sun.

As I was setting up my tripod, I looked out and saw an un-ending image of temples and pagoda of all sizes scattered around. It was a scenery similar atop Schwesandaw Pagoda, where we saw the setting sun the previous afternoon. Blinking your eyes means missing out on it by a precious few thousands of a second.

The sky was foggy and even dusty, might be due to the desert-like terrain around Bagan. While it covers the sun, the brightness was enough to make the sun visible. As the Earth slowly turns and the fiery yellow round sun shoots up the sky, it produces a golden colored landscape. Soon the whole sky was turned into a high contrast of yellow-red, a dramatic picture which could fill an old man's eyes with drops of tear, while recollecting memories of a naked lover lying stretched over a grassy knoll.

I'm not that old yet, so my train of thinking was re-routed on how the towering temples silhouetted against the sun, weirdly reminded me of Gengis Khan's head. A little over a week before our trip to Myanmar, I came across many descriptions of Bagan. The word "timeless" is always mentioned. Standing atop the temple, nevermind if a heavy DSLR was hanging on my neck, shrug the existence of my lightweight tripod and the LED smart phone screens producing shutter sounds, there is this vibe of being captured in time - catapulted back hundreds or thousands of years and using your imagination, you could almost feel what it was like back in the 13th century.

The temperature that morning must have felt like **40°C** when our group boarded two vehicles heading to Mount Popa. The plains of Bagan was unforgiving during that time of the year where the sun seems to be closer than any place on Earth. The thought of a side trip to a place thousands of feet above sea level seems like finding an oasis. As I sat at the backseat of the car, as it roll over burning-like asphalt road, flowing fire disguised as wind blows across my face. My eyes were almost tearing because of the scorching heat. I listened to the small talk between Chef Jana who was seated beside me and Melo who was at the front passenger seat, for a time before the two of them fell asleep and I was left to watch the passing dried farmlands, trees and twigs at the side of the road. 

Once in a while we would pass by small pockets of town and then a long stretch of highway again, then I would see one or two people walking by the side of the road. With the intense heat, I wondered silently how they'd survive being out for long in that heat. After an hour and a half of that repetitive scenery, our car finally rolled into the slowly elevating zig-zag road leading to the center of Mount Popa. I rolled down the window of the car and soon, I felt the breeze becoming cooler. 

Another half an hour later our driver parked at the side of the road and ordered us to get out and pointed to us the Taung Kalat Buddhist Monastery. From where we were standing, I saw the stunning structure as it sit immovable atop a hill of the same name which was formed out of a lava neck, also called as a volcanic plug.

Rising a total of **2,417 feet** above sea level and reachable by climbing its **777 steps**, Taung Kalat Temple provides an amazing panoramic view of the whole Bagan plains. Tourists and worshipers of the Buddhist faith flock to this temple all year-round. After a few minutes we went back to the car and headed to the foot of the Taung Kalat pedestal hill. 

During the middle part of the trip I've already felt some unusual rumbling in my stomach. I resisted the urge of farting and even making sudden movements as I'm pretty sure, the dam will break wide open if I did. So, I was really hoping we'd reach the place fast and hope that there are public restrooms located there. I'm proud to say, I was able to hold the fort until we arrived.

I went out of the car first and told Melo and Chef Jana I would just meet them at the top. The other van which were transporting Gaye, Monette, Dong, Jerome, Ron, Reuben and Baby Luna has yet to arrive. We later found out that they stopped by the market and bought thanaka and had it applied on their faces.

Climbing barefoot I encountered Mount Popa's famous residents, some of the **20,000 monkeys** known to be living in the mountain and mostly concentrated at the Taung Kalat hill. They bother the visitors for peanuts, and sometimes would pick up bottles of water or anything they could get their hands on. After a dozen steps I saw a sign pointing to a public comfort room. I wasted no time and headed straight there. The toilet was surprisingly clean, almost spotless which gave me a comfortable time depositing my loose load for that day. I gave the caretaker **1,000 Kyat** afterward.

Feeling like a rejuvenated soul, I found the rest of our party huddled together by the steps all set out to climb the rest of the **777 steps**. After **15 minutes** I reached the top of the hill and the temple itself with Monette. The temple looks simple and a bit detached from the impressive view as seen from afar. Still, the feeling of stepping foot on a place once resided by the hermit U Khandi provides a natural high—higher than the steps we just climbed that day.

The view from the Taung Kalat Temple shows the volcanic peak of Mount Popa which towers **4,981 feet** above sea level and the surrounding plains of Bagan. I stood for a few moments, while I gather my breathe and at the same time enjoyed the cool wind. Resting, I transfixed my eyes towards the majestic **360-degree** surrounding. I took a few photographs of some monks, relaxing and surveying the scenery as well before I roamed around the remaining part of the temple.

Going down, I once again encountered a number of monkeys. These funky playful creatures have become one of the attractions of Mount Popa. I took one last dump at the toilet, feeling fine I joined the rest and prepared to be extracted back to our hotel in Bagan. That moment, I felt a twinge of bittersweet feeling. Our Bagan trip was about to end and I'm just starting to savor the great experiences I had in such a short time I was there. On the way back I fell asleep on the car and had a dream about being a monk living at Taung Kalat Temple, for some reason I found it one of the best dreams I've ever had.