Myanmar, our last days.

We, like most travellers to Myanmar went to the Golden Rock on Kyaiktiyo Mountain. Which was as we have now come to expect as standard in this country, great fun but nothing like what we expected. This is primarily because it is the number 1 destination for all the Burmese tourists and pilgrimage  goers. They travel there, as all Asians tend to do in great big groups and all the catering and the tacky souvenir shops are full of things they want to buy, not for that Europeans want to buy.

To get to the top of the mountain you can either do it the religiously accepted way which is to walk, (5 hours 3000ft) get a truck 3/4 of the way and walk the rest, or get a truck all the way. We were being lazy and did the latter. Our guide book says the trucks which are packed to the gunwales slowly grind their way for about an hour up to the top, but like much of what the book says it is out of date and wrong. While they are still packed to the rafters - about 70 people per truck, they do not grind. They have new trucks now and they roar up. With a one way system in place the drivers do not fear anyone coming the other way and just hit it full bore. Now it does not take them an hour it takes 20 minutes. I would have taken some great pictures up the hill but I was just hanging on for dear life. Yet again we realise how lucky we are to be much more used to travel than our truck companions as a significant number found this very cheap roller-coaster ride too much and were sick.

There are trucks leaving in convoys of 10 or so first up and then down every 15 minutes or so so there are thousands of people at all times around the rock itself. Most of the Burmese arrive and stay overnight at the summit in one of the very large open area dormitories that surround the place although foreigners are not allowed to do so having to use only those hotels which are registered to accept them.

The Burmese take their pilgrimage very very lightly, in fact it is much more of a holiday with the snacks, drinks, picnics and playing games, singing karaoke all seemingly of much more import than any religious undertaking.

The balancing rock itself is to be honest not that spectacular, there are a number in Derbyshire that look more precarious to me, however they are neither kept in place by one of Budhha's hairs or covered in gold leaf so they have not been made into one of the major tourist destinations in the country.

 Local tourists having their picture taken, note the gold on their cheeks, this is worn by almost all Myanmar women, and most of the boys too. It is made from sandlewood.

 Trucks waiting to go down while we came up. This is now one of the worlds cheapest roller-coasters and not for the feint hearted.

 Up we go!

 Just to prove I got there!

 What it's all about... the rock itself.

Men are allowed to put gold leaf onto it...  Note how even here they do not care about litter, the scraps of paper the gold is sold in are just waved into the wind.

Our final stop was Bago which is described as the disneyland of Myanmar stupas and we saw what they meant.

We hired a tuk-tuk for the day and spent it on a speed stupa hunt. By 10.30 in the morning we had visited 5. (Actually not so stupid as another early start was neededdue to the as by now normal heat!)

 No idea why this rat was here but it looked cute!

 All Stupas and temples have water for anyone who wants it although we were told it was much safer to buy bottles!

 No slipping here!

 Notice the waving wife - for some reason this stupa was men only -

 Please chop off your feet for this one!

Notice the metal bars to the right which are for the future construction of the roof. We commented that in England they would be covered up and made to look nice. Our guide said that here they were deliberately left raw so that worshipers would be reminded of the need to give more money so the thing could be completed.

This was the last of our Myanmar days the next one taken up with Yangon to Medan in Sumatra via Bangkok. We had sorted which airports we were using in Bangkok this time so we had no travel issues this time round. 

To finish off the post and now we have managed to get it uploaded here is a very nice video of Inlay lake although I'd turn the sound down as it's just the boat engine!
Inlay lake video