DAY 1: BAGAN TO SALAY (lunch and dinner included)

We’ll pick you up from your hotel (at approximately 07:00) and drive to the jetty in Old Bagan where our traditional teak boat will be waiting. This boat will be our support vehicle for today, so you may wish to stow your luggage temporarily here. We’ll have fruit, snacks, tea and coffee waiting so you can top up your breakfast while we make our way across the river, enjoying the early-morning sunlight illuminating the many pagoda spires of Bagan. Getting off the boat may well prove more adventurous than getting in, and soon we’ll be riding through farmer’s fields using tracks made by ox-carts and then onto sandy roads. These will bring us to the first of many villages where astonishment will be the main reaction as they seldom see foreign visitors here.

We’ll make our way from the flatlands towards the distant hills, passing fields of crops and through bamboo villages. The trail occasionally hugs the riverbank and finally delivers us to a small jetty where our boat will be waiting to sail us to Salay, allowing for a scenic couple of hours relaxation after the morning’s exertions.

On arrival into Salay, we’ll disembark quite literally in the back garden Salay House, a restored colonial house where we will eat a fabulous traditional lunch. This small, sleepy riverside town hides a surprising number of interesting places to visit but for now remains pretty much off the tourism radar. Elegant, although mostly crumbling, colonial-period houses line the Strand Road on the river bank, some still crowned by the rampant lion emblem of the British Royals.

Apparently, the British officials tasked with managing the nearby oilfields at Chauk preferred this smaller town for their base, building these magnificent dwellings. Salay had previously been an ancient satellite town of Old Bagan, with a number of Bagan-era pagodas dating from the 12th and 13th centuries. It also hosts the largest lacquerware Buddha image in Myanmar, which is said to have washed up from the river after heavy flooding in 1888.

DAY 2: SALAY TO BAGAN (breakfast and lunch included)

Setting off nice and early from Salay not only beats the heat but is in step with the locals who are all up at the crack of dawn. We will start on a peaceful road through the countryside as we climb steadily away from the riverbank and make our way inland, heading for the oil-producing town of Chauk. Here we’ll visit the bustling, all-local market where giggling schoolkids and ladies carrying large baskets greet us with curiosity. After a short stop at Ma Tin Win’s noodle shop to sample some of her signature specialities we press on to encounter rolling hills dotted with the hypnotic ‘nodding donkeys’ of the oil pumps. Oil was discovered here by the British in 1902, giving birth to a company called British Petroleum (BP).

The hills die away as we pedal through villages on a road that runs parallel to the Irrawaddy River, catching glimpses of its tea coloured waters through the gaps between the toddy palm trees and peanut crops. We’ll get a better view when we stop for lunch at a riverside restaurant, not far from Bagan itself. After lunch our guides will guide you to your hotel using the quietest trails they know and will introduce you to some of the more esoteric ruins along the way, showing you some fine examples of medieval mural painting.