Follow your heart and it will take you to where you belong.

This is Bagan, an ancient city located in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan, the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar. During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas still survive to the present day.

Mary Gadams said Myanmar is the kind of place where Racing the Planet would like to have a roving race. Destiny has first brought me to this country since 2008. The experience I gained from working here and interacting with the people has to be one of the most enriching life experiences I have ever had. From building schools, disaster relief, post-disaster reconstruction, I have seen beauty, love, happiness, compassion, kindness, patience, wisdom and inner strength. This country has never ceased to amaze me. I would be so happy to help organize a race to share all these with the RTP community. It's also a coincidence that I finally have bitten the bullet to start my own micro project there, working on a holistic village model benefiting both education and livelihood in rural villages.