Myanmar: Kyaiktiyo to Yangon via Bago

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  Sadly the time to leave Kyaiktiyo and head back to Yangon. But first to get down the mountain. We packed back into the converted dump truck with 30 or so of our closes unknown friends and all their belongings before rumbling to life setting off down the mountain. While the trip up was 45 mins of roller coaster action, the trip down was faster ( hey who needs breaks anyway). I managed to set the gopro up on top of the truck, and using the wifi remote mode was able to capture the trip down to show you.

After arriving at the bottom of the mountain - formerly referred to as base camp. Our driver was waiting to take us back to Yangon. The trip back was via the town of Bago with its colonial era town clock tower and coming together of the rural traders on the main road to Yangon to trade their wares with wholesalers who sell in turn in Yangon.

The scenes of rural life, without reliable electricity, without permanent housing structures ( currently built of palm fronds and bamboo with the odd tarp thrown in) by the mighty Irrawaddy river as it makes it's way down from the hills to the Myanmar delta to flow in to the Bay of bangl are the images of the REAL Myanmar for me. The untouched. The uncorrupted every day life really resonates with me.

Dinner in Yangon tonight with some of Frankies school friends, then another quick turn around out to the Temple city of Bagan again at stupid o'clock

Mt Kyaiktiyo – Myanmar’s Golden Rock

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Mt Kyaiktiyo

The Golden Rock of the Golden Land

 

Golden rock at night

 

Getting there

 After leaving Yangon by the newly constructed multilane concrete hghway the former capital with the new capital Nay Pyi Daw located towards the centre of Myanmar it struck me – we are one of only a handful of cars on this road. It soon struck me as to why. Toll booths – paying the few kyats at each the toll gates located as close as 20km apart was simply beyond the means of many Burmese. They simply found less maintained paths.

Turning right at the big fork in the road heading towards the mountain the landscape changed from the rice producing flat lands to the fertile hilly region of Mon State where Mt Kyaiktiyo (to my ear it is pronounced Mt Jie Tee O) is located.

Some 6 hours after leaving Yangon we arrived  at the bus station at the base of the mountain. I say bus – really a tip truck with wooden planks for seats. Hey – if it was easy to get to, it wouldn’t be a pilgrimage site.

Taken from Wikipedia


The season that we are  in Myanmar is the period between the end of the monsoon season and the start of ‘festival season’. (Early October).

Most of the religious sites appear to be forgotten, unrepaired and abandoned. This is a good thing – no other people around, locals or tourist.

During ‘festival season’ all the sacred sites are polished, painted, swept and thus crowed with not only foreign tourists but also Burmese pilgrims coming to pay homage.

Why See It

Mt Kyaiktiyo, with its famed Golden Rock is one of Myanmar’s 3 most holy sites. :

• Swedagon in Yangon
• Mt Kyaiktiyo’s Golden Rock; and
• The Maha Muni Buddha image in Mandalay.

Where to stay

We stayed at the well named “Hill Top Hotel” which really couldn't be any closer to the Rock if it tried. It is also the most expensive place to stay costing between $100-150AUD per night. For the cost conscious you can always stay at the bottom of the hill in the local village and day trip up the mountain.

3 Days in Yangon

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Early riser?

Our first full day in Yangon was Sunday; Sunday is donation day for the local Buddhist monasteries.

After being woken at an‘unholy hour’ by the 'donation truck’ - a van with speakers calling out for donations of money and food for the local Buddhist monasteries and temples, we were treated to  what would, I later discovered, was a daily procession of the local monks in their crimson robes. Walking house-to-house barefoot accepting donations of food in their earthenware pots held in a sling over their shoulders.

Frankie's family, his father in particular, are devout Buddhists, along with running the family business that has been selling religious supplies such as robes, incense and fans for over 120 years.

Frankie’s Parents always offer rice and drinks of cool water to the full robed monks in the rapidly heating Yangoon morning.

Some of the monks could not be older than 5 years old.

Young Burmese Buddhist Monks on donation day

Each Burmese child at some stage of their life is attached to a monastery where they undergo ‘live in’ religious instruction and teaching. This is usually only for 1 week.

Frankie was telling me that the reason you do not see people begging for food and money in the streets in Myanmar is that if you truly are in need, the Monks will share their food and lodging with you.

FOOD!

Today's food highlight was at a huge Chinese Dumpling House - we polished off 50 plates of dumplings between 5 of us - coming to a total of less than $50 aud.

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Quick Yangon tour by car

Frankie's parents took us on a short driving tour of Yangon including a drive past Aung San Suu Kyi's now famous residence that also served as her prison following her home detention.

The rest of the day was spent with Frankie's college friends eating, being massaged to a pulp and eating some more - massage cost less than 4 dollars for 2 hours.

Myanmar: Gay Scene

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After traveling for close to 24 hours, the last thing I expected to be dragged off to was a gay bar! After unpacking, and sprucing ourselves up, one of Frankie's Facebook friends from Yangon invited us to a 'gay' night that is held once a month in Yangon at a local club. Let's just say fun was had by all. Less than 2 dollars a shot of vodka with unregulated Thai style redbull.

Home in bed by 3am local time, 30 hours after we started traveling oh and throw in a few timezone changes.

Myanmar: Getting there

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Leaving Australia

Departing Sydney at 2100hrs arriving Kuala Lumpur (KL) at 0400, flying flew both legs, SYD - KUL then KUL-RGN with Malaysian Airlines. I'm glad to see that most of their fleet now offer in seat USB to charge devices now. Their A330 and B737 that we have both had them with the standard inflight fit out entertainment wise.

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Transiting

Anyone who has been to Malaysia's KLIA knows that's it's a pleasant airport to spend time in, as airports go. Free wifi, air conditioned and these cool chairs that you can sleep in.

Since our longest leg of 8 hours was overnight, the traditional sleeping times it did make the longer legs more bearable.

Arriving in Yangon

 

Welcome to Yangon!

Initial impressions of Yangon reminded me of a cross between Bali's Denpasar Airport (DPS,  before their new renovation) and Bangkok's newly renovated DMK. Our B737 was the only plane that had an aerobridge attached. Air Bagan and Air KBZ (formerly Air Mandalay) both had ATR's sitting on the aprons ( sorry that's plane nerd stuff - basically they are flying very safe and new aircraft that are similar to the ones that Virgin Australia are now flying the Sydney - Canberra route along with the regional areas- the ones with the propellers).Air Bagan and Air KBZ mostly offer internal domestic flights.

Customs and entry requirements were easy to clear, as we had a pre-approved visa  ( issued by the embassy in Australia) prior to arriving. The usual stack of forms - customs declarations, quarantine, arrivals cards etc were all in English and easy to follow.

Frankie's parents also met us at the airport so the process was pretty stress free. No taxi arguments. Bags were collected and off we went.

The quick 30 min drive through the city to Frankie's parent's home looked like most developing countries (I say developing, actually it's exploding with development at the moment). Myanmar is wrestling with itself - maintaining it's cultural heritage and expanding to maintain need. Frankie pointed out a large plot of land that used to be a large cemetery that now happily had buildings on it. Like any city the past needs to be balanced with the future.

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