Yes Diane, we road those same trucks up to the Golden Rock Pagoda that you saw in the DVD, but said "we won't tell mom!"
When we went the next morning at 5:30 in the morning, there were probably a quarter million people on site. The place is, for the people of Myanmar, somewhat like Mecca is for Musliims.
We spent 3 nights in a monastery in Kalopi in the state of Mon. This is a restricted travel area, so the Monastery had to get special permission for us to attend and provided additional military security as you will see in the picture. The central intelligence military provided motorcycle escort and road on the tops of the trucks when we were in open vehicles.
Our accommodations were welcoming, if a wee bit sparse - but what would you expect at a monastery! The food was great! Dad, you would love it - soup at every meal!
We spent 3 nights in a monastery in Kalopi in the state of Mon. This is a restricted travel area, so the Monastery had to get special permission for us to attend and provided additional military security as you will see in the picture. The central intelligence military provided motorcycle escort and road on the tops of the trucks when we were in open vehicles.
Our accommodations were welcoming, if a wee bit sparse - but what would you expect at a monastery! The food was great! Dad, you would love it - soup at every meal!
The villagers were the sweetest and kindest people you could hope to meet. Because they do not see foreign travellers, we were treated like royalty.
In fact, we had a parade through town with the official flag and military escort as we were driven through town to another pagoda via ox carts. 25 ox carts in single file is quite a site!
Many of the children also brought their smart phones to have their pictures taken with these odd looking strangers! It is interesting to see the dichotomy between the relative standard of living (from our perspective) and the use of newer technology. The power doesn't always work, but they can take pictures with their smart phones!
Today on our way back to Yangon, we visited a 94 year old monk who lives atop a mountain. Our ride up was standing up in the back of 3 ton trucks with no tailgate. 67 people in two of these is cozy.
Today on our way back to Yangon, we visited a 94 year old monk who lives atop a mountain. Our ride up was standing up in the back of 3 ton trucks with no tailgate. 67 people in two of these is cozy.
Update:
As we could not get a good connection before taking off to Bagan, I will add to the blog until we can send it.
Bagan is s city of about 70,000 people. It is known as the city of 1,000 pagodas. This is not an exaggeration, which you find out when you explore it. We visited several pagodas and watched sunset from the last one we visited.
Today (Saturday), at this writing time we have journeyed to Mount Popa, about 80 kms from Bagan. The trip took about 1:45, which will give you some appreciation of the roads and the traffic! Tomorrow is Independence Day, so Mount Popa has been quite busy building up to this date and is really busy today!
5 pm. Having just come down we can say that this made it a bit slow going, but good in that the monkeys that are here are mostly well fed and were less bothersome to us.
There were 777 steps to the top. All in all not an overly difficult climb but an interesting one along the way. There are many stops for devotion and I was reminded of the Catholic tradition of the stations of the cross where you stop and pray at each station. It is always interesting to see a different tradition that you typically only see on the travel shows.
Sunday morning 0900. On our way to a temple, we were held up on the road by a procession of people that were celebrating the initiation of their young sons into novice-hood (first step towards becoming a monk) and daughters into becoming nuns.
The procession was very ornate, with the young noviciates riding on a horse, symbolizing a prince, in commemoration of the Buddha being a crown prince. This is the highest calling and a moment of great pride for the parents.
We stopped in a field with more than 50 accessible pagodas. We climbed to the top of one, through a very narrow staircase. Once atop, we could see perhaps 200 within easy view. Most of these were built in the 11th through 13th centuries. The styles change over the decades and centuries, with "newer" techniques employed to build bigger more stable pagodas.
Onward with the adventure!
Happy New Year to All!
Paul & Sonya
We stopped in a field with more than 50 accessible pagodas. We climbed to the top of one, through a very narrow staircase. Once atop, we could see perhaps 200 within easy view. Most of these were built in the 11th through 13th centuries. The styles change over the decades and centuries, with "newer" techniques employed to build bigger more stable pagodas.
Onward with the adventure!
Happy New Year to All!
Paul & Sonya
