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55 F or the seasoned backpacker, night buses present an alluring transit option: They can usually be booked on the fly, and often save you from wasting pre- cious daylight hours on road travel. The downside? Arriving in the awkward morning hours, too late to find a room and too early to check into the one you’ve booked. It was 4:30 a.m. in Bagan and, luckily, my travel partner and I had an appealing alternative. Flash- lights in hand, we headed out on foot through the pitch-dark desert landscape, following a shoddily paved road. As the sky began to brighten and uncover the ancient details, our tiredness made way for adrenaline and we turned onto a sand path toward Shwesandaw Pagoda. Pockets of warm blue were creeping out of the clouds as we reached our destination, so we climbed five tiers of impossibly steep steps, took a seat on cold bricks and watched as the history of our surroundings was revealed. Slowly, beautifully, layers upon layers of temples and pagodas rose up out of the desert horizon, the mist disappear- ing behind the Irrawaddy River as hot air balloons filled the panorama. We could not have been anywhere else in the world — this was Myanmar. A stunning country with warm-hearted, laid- back people, the nation also known as Burma is becoming increasingly traveler-friendly. Yet be- yond the glittering stupas lies a tragic past that haunts its confounding, if improving, present. Some of those grand, imposing temples I wit- nessed in Bagan date back to the 10th century, back when the Bamar ethnic group gained power and prominence. Today the Bamar people still make up 65 percent of the population, but the borderlands that house many of the Karen, Shan, Wa and other minor ethnic groups are a source of constant conflict (and are highly off-limits to tourists). Many people come to Myanmar searching for George Orwell’s perspective, since the famous British author spent his military posting in the country when it was held as a boundary region for the British Empire in India. Others come to make sense of the troubling headlines about re- pression of free speech and human rights abus- es. Still others come in search of untouched Asia, since Myanmar, having recently loosened its restrictions on tourism, lacks the mass com- mercialism or speedy Wi-Fi seen elsewhere. In many ways it still feels traditional and authentic. I can’t pinpoint my exact reasons for coming to Myanmar; it could have been any of the above, or maybe it was none of them. I’d spent last winter raving with the incoherent at a Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan, Thailand, avoiding the pressing gaze of ladyboys in Chiang Mai and chilling out in bungalows in Laos. I was ready for a new ad- Slowly, beautifully, layers upon layers of temples and pagodas showed themselves in the desert horizon, the mist disappearing behind the Irrawaddy River as hot air balloons flled the panorama. We could not have been anywhere else in the world — this was Myanmar.