Burma Part VII : More Yangon, Golden Rock and Bago

We are back in Yangon and en route to the hotel we get the chance to stop at the home of the president, Aung San Suu Ky. This is the house where she spent her time under house arrest (approximately twenty years). You can’t actually see the house as it’s guarded and surrounded by large gates.

We have a free afternoon in Yangon so we decide to take a train to experience how the locals live. Apparently it’s the thing to do!! It costs 200ks (pronounced jets) which is 10 cents!! It’s a three hour journey on a circular train so we decide to do half of the journey and then take a taxi back to the city. But first we need lunch so we go to a famous restaurant called Monsoon. It looks like we won’t make the train on time so in our wisdom we decide we’ll taxi to the half way point which is a a market at a stop called Danyingon and take the train back. Delighted with our plan, Suzanne and I along with our Austrian friends head off in a taxi ……. cut to an hour and a half later sitting in a taxi, sweating with the heat and crazy traffic we are realizing this wasn’t a great idea… it’s tough to communicate with the taxi driver and he keeps saying what sounds like Buddha and I’m worried he’s bringing us to a Buddha statue not a train station. We are all laughing but it’s starting to feel a bit uncomfortable! Well eventually we get there and it’s a relief to get out of the car…

The bad news is that the next train is not for nearly an hour and the market is very “local”… in reality manky… we barely walk through one row and have had enough. Smelly fish alongside fruits and veg, in the heat with a load of flies.. it’s not pleasant. We hang around waiting for the train and it is interesting to watch the people, in particular those who have set up shop on the railway tracks. This is platform 3 (no joke) where our train will arrive:

When the train finally arrives the people eventually move but they leave all their goods and the train drives over them but they’re perfectly in tact underneath …. it’s quite incredible. As there’s no platform it’s a huge step up onto the train. I try to go first but can’t get up too easy so Martina who’s tall jumps up ahead (with a bit of a hoosh) and helps the rest of us up. It’s comical as we’re doing this at high speed in case the train pulls off. It’s quite empty and a reasonably pleasant ride with the doors and windows wide open

No joke this woman jumped from the train as it slowed down but before it stopped. It was an impressive move while balancing all that on her head!

Unfortunately we have to change at a station in order to get to Yangon and we’re told there’s no train til 8pm… it’s not even 6pm right now… yikes!! Guess we have to get back in a taxi – what a bad choice of things to do for an afternoon, we essentially spent the whole time in traffic. Ah well, it was somewhat of an interesting experience and we can get the taxi to drop us at Sakura Tower for a drink at the sky bar which has some great views of the city.

Next morning we are picked up by a guide and driver and we are driving south to the Golden rock. First I try mohinga for breakfast – it’s catfish soup with noodles and very tasty:

It’s a four to five hour drive depending on traffic. The guide Oma, is fantastic and tells us lots of things about the country including taking us through a map and showing each of the states and divisions and where different tribes live and what different resources are where.. it’s super interesting and informative. We see some nice scenery on the way and not far from golden rock there is a giant Buddha being built. From a distance it looked like part of the mountains. It should be finished by 2020.

The golden rock is situated up a mountain and in order to get there we have to leave our car and get into a truck. The trucks are the only transport allowed up. They have six rows with six people in each row and room for a few more in the front cabin or standing in the back with the bags. Every one of them is packed.

It’s a bit of a roller coaster journey up the mountain and the truck tears around the corners. We arrive to the top and there is a full-on little town up here. It’s busy with pilgrims and if you can’t manage the journey you can take one of these deck chair /stretcher thingys!!

We check into the Mountain Top hotel which is gorgeous and we have a great view out over the mountains.

After a little rest it’s time to see the rock. We’ve been told that unfortunately the rock is being cleaned – it only happens every five years so we are a bit unlucky but I’m hopeful we can still get a good view through the bamboo scaffolding. When we arrive to the first viewing point my heart sinks… it’s completely covered 😪😪😪

We continue up to the platform and experience the pilgrims praying and eating. There are a lot of people around and many will sleep out on the platform tonight.

There’s a whole other town up here.

Lots and lots of food stalls….

From another viewpoint we get a little better look where it’s not so covered up.. can you tell I’m sad behind that half smile…

We buy some gold leaf and a lovely guy offers to place it onto the rock for us as women are not allowed to touch it.

It’s a bit of an anti-climax after traveling all the way to see it but what can you do. We soak up the atmosphere and then head back to the hotel for drinks and a really good meal.

We have a great view of the sun rising next morning and then it’s time to take the crazy truck back down. It’s harder going down as you keep falling forward. I found it hard to stay on the seat and my wrists were sore from trying to hold my body back. We pull in a couple of times to let trucks go past us and as it’s the weekend it’s very busy with pilgrims and lots of monks…

Reunited with our driver, we get back on the road to Bago. On the way we stop at a pomelo farm and taste some fresh pomelo just picked from the trees. It’s delicious.

We have a few stops in Bago (which was a former Myanmar capital) which I’m excited about – first The Shwemawdaw pagoda, a huge golden temple that can be seen for 10km around the city. As we approach we’re told that it’s closed as they are getting ready for a huge festival with 2,700 monks in attendance. Not to be deterred by that our guide gets the driver to drive around to a back entrance and blags her way in so that we can get a quick walk around the huge stupa…

Places are laid out for the monks:

Next a huge (55 metre) reclining Buddha built in the tenth century

Some monks having a lecture by the reclining Buddha:

A quick stop at another, even bigger reclining Buddha, more recently built but based on an ancient one that once stood here:

I love this statue of the Buddha being followed by his apostles:

The four seated Buddha’s at Kyaikpun is our nest stop and it doesn’t disappoint. Four gigantic statues back to back….

It’s quiet here with no tourists and we get accosted by a group of teenage boys who want a photo. What’s even funnier is that a group of girls come around the corner and when they see this they literally make a run at us and grab us sending the boys away so they can get a photo too.. such a giggle…

We also say hello to these young novice monks

We visit the Palace of Kambozathadi which has been rebuilt to show how it looked in its splendor. They excavated some of the original teak pillars that held it up which was very cool to see…. they’re huge!

There’s a lot of traffic as we arrive in Yangon but we make time to stop at a monastery where we see lots of novice monks praying:

And we get to meet this master as our guide knows him well. It’s an odd experience as we are ushered into a room where he’s sitting on a huge armchair (throne like) with about five monks sitting on the floor around him and a hospital bed in the room beside him (with beautiful pink floral sheets), apparently he hasn’t been well. One of the monks lifts a bowl to him to spit into after he coughs and then makes sure he has a towel to wipe his mouth. 😲 He does have a lovely relaxed and calm aura about him and he talks to us through our guide as he doesn’t have English. He says he’s been to Ireland and he’s also been to California a few times. By way of a blessing he places a yellow band around our wrists, being careful not to touch us as monks don’t touch women. It’s very pleasant if not a little peculiar but it does feel like an honor to have met him.

We eat at our hotel tonight and debrief on the day (in particular the monk visit) and have a lovely night view of the shwedagon pagoda form the restaurant:

Next day it’s time to leave Burma but we have a few hours with our driver and we’re going to make the most of it and see as much as we can. We start with a trip to the resting place of Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother which is next to the mausoleum of the last king and queen of Burma:

Next to those is U Thant’s mausoleum

Next it’s onward to the martyrs monument which is dedicated to General Aung San who is considered the father of democratic Burma. He was shot dead at the age of just 31 along with 6 cabinet ministers and is buried here.

There’s no English on the information provided but it’s interesting to see the photos and it’s a very atmospheric monument to walk around.

A short drive away is the house of U Thant (who’s mausoleum we saw earlier). He was the third UN Secretary General from 1966 to 1971. He was clearly a brilliant man who was famous for helping to resolve the Cuban Missile crises and many other international

Next a giant seated Buddha famous for having lifelike eyes (called Kobe Htat Gyi). He’s lovely but we don’t really see anything different about his eyes.

To finish off our site seeing we visit another Buddha, this time carved from a single giant piece of marble.

More requests for photos from the locals which we’d never refuse….

One final selfie and it’s off to the airport. Burma/Myanmar you have been wonderful and I really do intend to come back. But for now, ta ta!