Today we depart Yangon for our short driving tour of southeastern Myanmar. After another hearty buffet breakfast in the hotel, we meet our driver who will be taking us around. He is a young guy with a smattering of English. We should get along fine. His car is nice, but as usual here, a bit old and run down in certain areas. But as long as it gets us from here to our destinations and back again in one piece, we will be happy.
After loading our stuff into the car, we are off shortly after 8 AM. We are heading straight to Kyaiktiyo, where the famous Golden Rock is located. We spend about four hours driving east and then south. The roads on this stretch of the way are not too bad. Right near Yangon, they are a dual carriageway and further out is is a two lane road with minimal potholes.
The major driving hazards is the other traffic on the road - and that does not include the other cars. The cars are in the minority - the other traffic includes pickup trucks converted into minibuses that are stuffed to the overflowing with people hanging on from all sides and sitting on the roof. There are lots of bicyclists, pedestrians, bullock carts, animals, trishaws, overloaded trucks, horse carriages and buses. The liberal use of the horn seems to be the accepted way to navigate through all this traffic that moves at their own pace and in their own way along the dusty and often narrow roads. There are lots of road works along the way, but we will discuss that further later.
We drive parallel to a train track for quite a while. This mode of transport was one of our other options for seeing these sights. Our driver said that would be a mistake - they are very slow and are always running late. With our limited amount of time, he is probably right. They look like pretty basic trains. They were also pretty crowded, with some people resorting to sitting on the roofs of the carriages. Natural air-conditioning.
Just after noon we arrive in the small village of Kinpun - the "base camp" for accessing the Golden Rock. You cannot drive up to the rock, rather you have to take a truck ride up the hill to another small hamlet, from where you walk. We decide to have lunch before heading up - what a mistake. We find a small restaurant to eat in and pick out a few dishes. We make the mistake of not asking the price before hand. The portions are small and we did not want too much to eat. But when they send us the bill, we are astonished - it is over twice the price we paid for a full dinner in Yangon with drinks. They are certainly geared up here to rip off the tourist. We had become too trusting (especially after our great experience in Central Asia) and learned our lesson.
Then it is off to organise the transport up the hill. We buy our ticket from a counter and are then pointed towards a raised platform from which we can climb into the flat bed of a medium sized truck. The fare is cheap - like 30 cents each. If you are willing to splurge, you can pay a dollar to sit in the cab. But we want to experience it for what it is like. And what an experience.
The truck seems full to us, but we just keep on hanging around. We are told that it is not full yet and they are waiting for more passengers. They slowly trickle in and more and more squeeze their way into the truck. We were getting squashed and our driver noticed this and paid for an extra ticket so that we would not have to be squeezed in too tightly. As we wait, lots of vendors come by and try to sell fruit, hats and other stuff. After over an hours wait and lots of squeezing, we are ready to head off up the mountain.
As there is no other traffic along this road other than the trucks, the drivers roar along like it is their private road. The truck sways and rocks around the many curves and corners. After a short way we come to a stop - from here on it is a one way road and we have to wait for the trucks coming down to pass. After about a 20 minute wait, we get the all clear signal and the waiting trucks head off in a long convoy up the mountain road. Now it gets really steep and winding. Not only are there sharp turns, there are sharp ups and downs and the driver takes advantage of gravity on the downward parts to gather up speed to race as fast as possible against gravity on the up sections. We are at the back and are holding on for dear life.
After almost an hour, we arrive at the final stop where we all have to get off and make our own way up the rest of the steep climb to the Golden Rock. But first, we need to find our hotel. It is a short walk up the trail. There are dozens of porters chasing us to carry our bags, but we just have to keep telling them that we are happy to carry our own bags. They follow us and keep on hawking their services. But it is only 5 minutes walk to the hotel and we check in and drop off our stuff.
Around 4:30 PM we decide to make our way up the steep path to the Golden Rock. It is supposed to take about 45 minutes to one hour to get there. We are chased by the sedan chair guys that want to carry us up there in style. Jacqui's mom at first wants to walk up (good exercise), but the heat and the steep path eventually persuade her to accept the offers of the sedan chair that has followed her this far (guess from experience they can tell who will give into the temptation). We slowly made our way up the mountain as she was carried in comfort.
We catch up with her near the top of the mountain - nice, cool and relaxed compared to our hot and sweaty selves. A short walk further and we are on the huge compound that makes up the Golden Rock complex. It is full of people all over the place doing various things, ranging from praying, attaching gold leaf to the rock, hanging out and talking and taking in the view to buying souvenirs. It is mainly locals, with a few tourists spread out here and there.
First stop is the toilet - and here we find the part of the compound that is off limits to foreigners. Lars almost walked into one of the dormitories by mistake, but was sent out. They have a huge town set up to house all the local pilgrims that come to visit and pray. After being successfully directed to the toilet, we begin our own tour of the complex.
We first buy some gold leaf to stick on the rock. As only men are allowed to approach the rock, Lars is given the honor. After walking across a small bridge, Lars waits his turn - it is quite crowded. Lars finds a nice spot to stick the gold leaf on - it is not as easy as it sounds. The thin gold leaf sticks to anything that touches it, so it is important not to let it come in contact with anything other than the rock - in particular your finger.
Once back on the main platform, we wander around the rock on the several levels laid out. It is interesting to watch the locals as they go about paying their respects. Many have given food as an offering - after having been placed on the altar, a guard gives out the food through a window. This is very popular, in particular amongst the children. They seem to love the soft drinks.
We take the time to watch the sunset. It is not as spectacular as we hoped for as the sky is very hazy. But the rock is floodlit and as the sky grows dark, the Golden Rock glows brighter and brighter. Quite an awesome sight.
Once it is dark and Lars has finished taking his photos, we decide to begin our walk back down and look for a place to have dinner. It is very dark and there are virtually no lights on the path. At times it can be quite treacherous and it is fortunate that we have brought with us a small light. As we head through the maze of souvenir stands that are shutting down for the night, we observe, as we did on the way up, that the biggest selling items seem to be fake wooden guns - a strange thing to sell and buy at such a holy place
Most of the food stalls that we observed on the way up are closed and we are fortunate to find one still open a short way before we reach our hotel. We have some good local food sitting at the low tables and chairs that seem to be the norm at there small street-side hawkers. Good and reasonable. We arrive back at our hotel just before 8 PM. First order of business is a shower to wash away all the grime, dust and sweat that has built up on this long day. Then it is off to bed early - not much to do in this quiet hotel. No air-conditioning is needed - up at this elevation the night air is nice and cool.