I arrived in Bago at the great time of 2:30 in the morning and after finding a hotel for the night I spent the day touring around the town. The main draw of Bago are the many temples and monasteries located there. So I found a motorbike driver that was willing to give me a tour for the day of the main sights. We started the day by visiting the second largest monastery in Myanmar (Kha Khat Wain Kyaung) where around 1200 monks live year round, apparently thousands of monks apply each year to get to live here so there has to be an interview process. After visiting the monastery we headed to Shwemawdaw Paya, the tallest pagoda in all of Myanmar. From there we spent the rest of the day visiting several other pagodas and one other monastery but none of them were too spectacular other than the Shwethalyaung Buddha (the second largest reclining Buddha in the world with a length of 55 meters!). However the only draw of Bago is all of the temples and monasteries and as a result most people just visit the town as a day trip from Yangon. I did something similar although after touring around Bago for the day I headed to Kyaiktiyo to view the Golden Rock.
The following morning I awoke in Kyaiktiyo and proceeded to head up the mountain in a large truck to view the Golden Rock. At the end of the truck ride I still needed to continue climbing for about 45 mins before I was able to see the Rock. The Golden Rock itself was pretty impressive as it's a giant boulder that has been painted gold balancing on the edge of a cliff. In addition there is a small stupa on top of the boulder. The most interesting part of the journey though was seeing the hundreds of Burmese pilgrims climbing the mountain and praying at the boulder (I only saw a couple of other tourists there). After getting back to the town of Kyaiktiyo I quickly found a pickup truck to take me to Mawlamyine where I hoped to catch the ferry to Hpa-An the next day. The journey to Mawlamyine was an experience in itself as I at first had to ride on the roof of the truck since it was so full. This was a great way to travel I thought as I was up high and there was nothing to impede my views of the surrounding areas, not to mention that all of the locals on top of the truck were also very friendly. Halfway through the journey though I had to switch pickups to one that was continuing on to Mawlamyine, this didn't end up being a very good thing though as this new truck kept breaking down. It could only run for about 5 mins before the driver had to get out and bang something in the engine to keep on going. So eventually after a 6.5 hour journey (supposed to only be about 4 hours) I made it to Mawlamyine.
Mawlamyine was a fairly large city in Myanmar; however I didn't get a chance to really explore it as I was only really coming here to take the ferry up river to Hpa-An. A journey that the lonely planet claimed was the best water journey in Myanmar. The ferry also only ran twice a week so I was rushing through the previous couple of days to make it in time for the Friday ferry (I managed to arrive on Thursday night). The ferry was a large old boat complete with 2 rickety benches for comfort so it didn't prove to be a very comfortable 5 hours. In addition most of the surrounding landscape was very flat and just growing mostly sugarcane so it wasn't a very thrilling journey. The only worthwhile part was when we neared Hpa-An and limestone mountains rising out of the flat land; unfortunately though this was only for the last 30 mins of the trip and it was starting to get dark so we couldn't see much. A thoroughly disappointing trip and not worth all the effort to make it.
In Hpa-An I was able to spend 2 days before having to head back to Yangon. The first day was spent climbing the tallest mountain in the area where a pagoda had been built (surprise) called Mt Zwegabin. The mountain was about 750 meters above the surrounding countryside and offered fantastic views, although it was a little hazy due to the heat of the day. After climbing the mountain I headed to a nearby swimming hole to refresh. Arriving at the swimming hole I found it packed with local teenagers and kids as they all seemed to have the same idea on a Saturday. The afternoon spent there was quite fun playing with the kids and feeling like a celebrity as it seems everyone wanted their picture taken with a foreigner (I can't remember how many pictures I posed for but it must have been close to 50!). The second day I rented a bicycle and toured around the country side which was very beautiful with the green rice fields and limestone mountains. While cycling through the countryside I also stopped at two cave temples that contained lots of Buddha carvings on the walls and also Buddha statues all around, but nothing too spectacular.
From Hpa-An I returned to Yangon to organize my Indian visa and my flight there. In addition I took this opportunity to see the sights of the old capital city, but more about that in my next post.
Standing in front of the gold covered feet of the reclining buddha at Shwethalyaung Buddha.
Pilgrims applying gold leaf to the Golden Rock.
One way of climbing the hill to the Golden Rock was to get 4 locals to carry you up in a chair as this lady was doing.
Villagers waiting to greet the ferry at one of the few stops that we made along the river.
Sunset over some of the limestone mountains while viewed from the ferry. This was the start of the nice section of the journey, about 30 mins away from Hpa-An.
Standing at the top of Mt Zwegabin with a nice but hazy view behind me.
The brilliant green rice fields of the countryside surrounding Hpa-An.
A view from one of the cave temples outside of Hpa-An.
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