Google "Bagan" and one of the first images you’ll see is a red and gold hot air balloon, floating in the dawn light above curls of mist over a plain of ancient Buddhist temples.
Only seven men and women fly that balloon.
They're hired each high season (October through March) by Balloons Over Bagan, a stylish operation in central Myanmar that's routinely featured at the top of travelers’ must-do lists.
Ian Martin is one of those pilots. His dedication to ballooning led him to set up his own aerial display company, Flying Enterprises, in the UK in 1997.
“Some flights you remember forever,” says globetrotting balloon guide Ian Martin.Today, Martin works with clients worldwide to market and advertise their brands using hot air balloons.
"It's the biggest billboard you could achieve,” he says. “People always remember a balloon, because it’s unusual.”
As well as running his business, Martin conducts sunrise flights for tourists over some of the world’s most amazing landscapes.
“There are a lot of opportunities as a balloon pilot, because there aren’t a massive number of us,” he says.
Bagan, Tuscany and Marrakech are the main three places he flies.
Martin also helps set up ballooning companies around the world, and is working on new projects in Kenya and Panama, where he says one flight may begin at the mouth of an extinct volcano.
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