Today is mainly a long driving day - heading back up north to Bago, our next stop. But first we have some things to take care of before we head off. Breakfast is a light affair and the service was a bit lacking, but at least something to start off the day with. Our first stop is to take a quick look at the mosques that were built during the British time. While quite decrepit, they have very ornate exteriors.
Then to the most important stop of the morning - in the local market. We are in search of a lethouq - one of the highlights of Burmese cuisine. They are light, spicy salads made with noodles and raw vegetables mixed with lime juice, onions, peanuts, chillies and other spices. We find a lady sitting in front of a stall with the many bowls of ingredients arrayed around her. We order a number of plastic bags of the dish to take with us for lunch on the road. She would pick out the ingredients we selected, put them in a bowl and then mix them together, all using her hands.
Before we head up north, our driver has suggested that we go south and see the largest Buddha image under construction. Well, how could we miss that. The drive is not too far and we turn off the main road to head up to the hills where the statue is being constructed. Along this road they have set up a long row of statutes depicting monks out collecting alms. It is a long, long, seemingly endless, row of them - not sure how many in total.
Then the huge image appears before us. It is a reclining Buddha, laying back on the slopes of the hill. It is huge and only half finished. The shell is done, but only part of the body has been finished and painted. It appears like the Buddha is undergoing a huge acupuncture treatment with all these steel bars sticking like needles out of the body. We drive up to the base and decide to walk up to the statue to check out the interior. The whole inside of the statue is filled with rooms that are to be filled with Buddha images and other scenes. For now, most of the rooms are still unfinished - the ones that are finished seemed to be filled with scenes from Buddhist Hell and it is very gruesome. One quick look is enough and then we are back in the warm sunshine.
Back down at the base of the huge image, as more worshippers come and donate significant portions of their meager income, we are struck by the enormity of the task and what this must be costing the people. The first thought is whether this is really a good use of the people's money and time. What if all these resources could be poured into more "productive" assets. But then it makes us think of the great cathedral building age in Europe back in the Middle Ages (or whenever it was). The amount and percentage of each persons' work and output that must have gone into building those monuments to God must have been huge. Guess if the people are happy with it, than that is what counts. How are we to know what good this may do the people in this life and the hereafter?
The ride back up north is long, but interesting. We stop along the way to take photos of some of the more scenic spots. Limestone formations pierce the flat earth all around often topped with stupas and pagodas, with the surrounding lush green rice paddies softening the glare of the sun. The bullock carts weave through the fields and along the roads.
Many of the villages that we drive through are simple, but very pleasant. While the life here may not be as "bright and colorful" as in the big city, it also may not be as harsh. But the roads themselves can be so chaotic with all the different traffic making its way in both directions. Someone must be looking down on this frenetic flow of traffic as we saw no accidents amongst the cars, trucks, pedestrians, bikes, motorbikes, bullock carts and multitude of other traffic that made it's way around this country.
In addition to the numerous toll booths, as we drive along the roads in Myanmar, we are constantly passing religious collection points. It seems that every village has a project underway to build a stupa or pagoda or other religious building. In order to help fund the construction, they set up donation stations on the road. You pass them all the time. Once a car approaches, people will get up from whatever shady spot they have found or set up and go to the side of the road and hold out alms bowls. Sometimes they even have music or some sermon blaring from loudspeakers. Not many cars or vehicles stop - the locals have found a more practical way to deal with this situation. They throw money from the vehicle.
For lunch we pulled off the side of the road and enjoyed the lethouq that we had picked up earlier in the day. As per tradition, we eat it with our hands. It was quite yummy and we were just sorry that we had not gotten more. We finally arrive in Bago after 5 PM. We are glad that we have arrived before it got dark. It would have been too maddening to have driven at high speeds along this roads in the dark, with most of the traffic having no lights whatsoever. That would not have been good for the nerves. We arrived at our hotel, checked in and dropped off our bags.
Then it is off to find some dinner. Once again we want local Burmese food and our driver knows a place so we head right there. It is a simple place and there are other people eating there - always a good sign. We are able to order our food by going and looking at the row of pots laid out filled with the different types of food. We eat the selected dishes with rice.
After dinner is finished, we start to talk about the plans for the morning. We would like to go and visit the huge monastery that has hundreds of priests and give them some alms. There is quite some discussion amongst the owner and the other guests on what would be the best time. We never get a straight answer. But we do find out where to go and buy some cakes that we can give to them.
So, off we go. We are able to find the cake vendor. They have a push cart on the side of the road filled with all sorts of local dessert cakes. We examine their selection and persuade them to let us try. It is so good that, in addition to the cakes that we will buy for the monks, we decide to buy a bunch for ourselves as desert (and maybe even breakfast).
After that nice break sampling the sweets, we went to go and visit the main pagoda in Bago, namely Shwemawdaw Pagoda. The stupa reaches 114 meters into the sky and the gold dome was beautifully lit up in the darkness. It was supposedly first built over 1,000 years ago, but has gone through countless expansions and reconstructions. In 1930 a huge earthquake leveled the whole stupa and reconstruction was completed in 1954. Some of the remains of the earthquake can be seen in the northeastern quarter. Our guide brought us here in the evening as he knew that we were not comfortable with the high entrance fees they charged to enter. We are happy to give donations, but the fees are just excessive. The place is quite full of locals, some praying but many more just hanging out and socialising.
It has been a long day, so after our visit to the Pagoda, we head back to our hotel room to wash up and just relax before heading off to sleep.