#TravelOnYourDoorstep: GetYourGuide Contest
GetYourGuide has a great new competition which is open to any blogger in the world.
The rules are simple: Share your favorite story from traveling in your home country. Can be a country you have lived not only your born country so many options to share your story.
We want you to share your most incredible domestic travel experiences.
Tell us about a stunning waterfall you stumbled on while lost on a weekend road trip. Write about the time your grandmother hustled all the locals on the pool table during your last family vacation. Explain how you weren’t really scared after taking that ghost tour, but decided to travel 200 miles home in the middle of the night because you “just couldn’t fall asleep.”
The prizes are quite great as well!
What’s in it for you? A chance to win a €1,000 travel prize package.
1st prize for bloggers
The travel blogger with our favorite domestic travel story will win a travel prize package worth €1,000 to be used in 2021.
1st prize for readers
The reader with our favorite domestic travel story will win a travel prize package worth €1,000 to be used in 2021.
Special prizes for bloggers
10 travel bloggers will receive €100 GetYourGuide gift cards as runner-up prizes.
Special prizes for readers
10 readers will receive €100 GetYourGuide gift cards as runner-up prizes.
Getyourguide Contest: The Story
Here goes my incredible experience in Myanmar. Myanmar is quite famous for the balloon ride which can be taken in a few locations as Bagan, Inle Lake, Ngapali Beach or Hpa An. The most famous one is the balloon ride in Bagan as it can be seen on most on the postcards, instagram tags with Bagan or on google photos when you are searching for Bagan. It’s an expensive activity but it does worth it!
Well, the balloon experience is an amazing one but the story here is not about the balloon ride experience but the pre-balloon ride experience. And it’s not the hot air balloon ride in Bagan but about the balloon ride in Inle Lake which I consider (personal opinion) to be way better compared with Bagan.
I have decided and plan to proposed to my future wife in a balloon ride. It’s not a easy task when you are talking about a burmese woman (which is almost impossible to hide anything; you have to think where to hide the ring, make time and excuses to go and buy the ring, book the balloon ride and then wait for the day to come!
Now, there is an issue with the balloon ride: it can get canceled due to the weather (either rain or wind). We will get refunded but in my case I had only one chance to propose here as I have planned to stay in Inle Lake for only 2 nights (budget constraints :D)
On the arrival day in Inle Lake it was a bit cloudy and the night before I have found out it rained a bit (even if it was November and rainy season in Myanmar was over) and in that morning the balloon ride it got canceled. So, my worries and nightmares were started to get a bit real!
I have enjoyed a nice trip on the lake and headed in the evening at the hotel on the lake I have special booked for this occasion and went to sleep waiting for the down to come again. The sky was not that clear but at least it was not windy and no rain, yet to come.
Wake up for the balloon ride is early in the morning: around 4am! We have time only to wash your teeth and get dressed as your motion functions are not yet awake. Then a boat comes and picks you up and take you (completely in the dark) to the take off point.
I remembered as it was yesterday. Arrived on the spot where 1 balloon was waiting for us on a school yard; few children were already there. The pilots were present there and since we were only 3 person they decided that only 1 balloon was to be in the sky today.
But it was a small problem: sun was nowhere to be seen due to the clouds! Still no rain but if clouds were to thick it would have been impossible to navigate or to see something down.
First a small balloon was inflated to see how far it can be seen; signs were not that good as seen on the pilot face.
Then, the chief pilot, Donna did a round around the area to have a better look; again here face did not look to positive! And I was already started to think of alternative ways of proposing to my future wife as the balloon ride option was not yet to come true.
I decided to do something: talk with the pilot to see what are the chances and somehow try to influence her. I asked her what are the chances to go up today. She reply not at this moment not so many chances and we have to wait a bit.
After 15 more minutes and 2 more cups of coffee (and a bit of stomach pain as it always happens to me when I am nervous – always happen while taking exams and it’s a must having a toilet paper with me on those moments!) Donna decided again to take one more round to see if the situation has changed of not
On here return I went to talk with here again. So, we will be up today in the skies? She replied – not sure yet. The clouds are a bit thick and we will not be able to see much from the balloon ride.
In my mind I was just saying: well I just need to be in the sky, don’t care too much of the balloon ride at this moment! If you are OK with that we can go up today but it’s up to you as we are the only person flying today. I said: well let’s go then and will see that I will see!
In her mind I think she already decided to cancel the balloon ride for that day but taking into consideration that there were no safety reasons only bad views or no views at all from the balloons she decided in the end to go up! I was so relieved as I did not have a plan B and to propose in a different location was not on my plans.
To keep it short the balloon ride was amazing, she said yes; the weather was fantastic in the clouds and great views and due to the fact that the wind speed was very low we stayed in the air up to 2 hours (normal is around 1 hour) and on the landing moment we did not succeed till 4th time as we had to encounter the perfect spot (not on people crops) who probably would have asked for money due to the damaging of their crop!
On the celebration moment, the pilot perfectly understood why I wanted desperately in the air on that day!
If you are planning to propose in a balloon I personally recommend it and can to this activity while in Myanmar and book it on GetYourGuide here.
