31/03/2016
After a couple of days of heavy travelling and no internet, I am back in the land of living.
Reporting to you from Pyin Oo Lwin (City of Flowers)
Yesterday was spent all day in the national park and visiting the pagoda at the bottom of the mountain.
The trip from Monywa took about 4 hours and the roads were really dangerous as the people coming down and coming up share the same road.
So, I would suggest leaving Monywa early (I left around 6:30) but I got to the top of the mountain at 10:00 and it was already 30+ degrees. So, ideally you would like to leave Monywa like at 4:30 to get to the top by 8:30-9am.
Examples of the roads are shown below.
Suggest you travel with an off road express as the roads are really only made of sand and hard rock and really dusty.
I didn't really see any foreigners going to this place, so I assume it is a bit difficult for them to get to. Or I might be wrong and I just went there at the time when there was no foreign visitors.
The roads are bumpy and it will take its toll.
And there is no real place to stay. You will have to sleep in the car or maybe drive back down and sleep in Monywa.
The pagoda itself is still 2-3 km from the car stop. and it is a very steep road towards the pagoda.
You might ask why the people are coming even though there are so many issues,....Because this pagoda is one of the most powetful according to legends. And the magical thing is that every year at certain times the pagoda statue at the second last photo on this set opens up slightly to allow for visitors to go further into the cave and more pagodas are in there.
Then, it closes again for the rest of the year.
Unfortunately, it was closed during my visit so I could not see the inside.
Again, note that there are steep hills leading to the pagoda and needs caution.
You can use elephants for the last mile, and I went up the hill with an elephant but came back on foot to see the sights and scenes.
So after this, we came back and rested up until the morning but as I suggested before, maybe go to Monywa and sleep there.
Anyway, I left around 6:30 and got back to Monywa at 12 noon. This was a very slow trip as there was a lot of stops in between.
After this, we went through Mandalay and finally ended on Pyin Oo Lwin at around 4pm.
So, not much to report today as it was all driving to get to another city.
A very tiring day indeed and so I will be resting up for another day of travelling tomorrow.
Cheers
Tin
29/03/2016
After my two day stay at Bagan, I got up at 6:30 and had breakfast and then headed to Monywa which also has some ancient and powerful pagodas.
After 3 and a bit hours of driving on some good roads and some questionable roads, we arrive at the 3 pagodas that is near the city of Monywa.
A side note, you should visit these pagodas first before going into the city of Monywa as it is filled with motorcyclist similar to the Vietnamese cities. And they do not know how to drive...
Asians huh, when are we all going to learn?
First on the agenda is bawdi 1000 (translates to 1000 Bodhi trees)
It is famous for its two giant Buddha statues, reclining one and the standing one.
The standing statue is the second tallest Buddha statue in the world at 129m and third overall largest in all statues.
It has 31 floors which correlates to 31 planes of existence.
The reclining statue is 101 m long and 18m wide.
Also, this pagoda has various buddha statues as shown in the photos.
Second on the agenda is Thanboddhay pagoda which is similar to the Indonesian Borubodur and was built in 1303.
Third but not last is Shwegu Kyi Pagoda which is also around 500 years old.
After this, there is not much to do but to rest for the next part of the trip which is going to be alaungdaw kathapa pagoda and national park (largest national park in the country)....
And I will be riding on an Elephant.....we shall see what happens....
On that happy note, I will come back in 2 days time when I get to May Myo (May City) as there will be no connection in tomorrow's area.
See you all....
Cheers
Tinkyaw
28/03/2016
Good old Bagan...birthplace of the modern Myanmar as we know it....Home to the famous kings who were our forefathers....King Anawrahta and Kyansittha...legends in their own rights.....
These past two days have rekindled what I buried deep inside long time ago...a love of the old chronicles and the natural wonders of the ancient burmese history which we were taught in school and also have read in many books.
It is truly a wonderful city and I suggest you will need to give a full two days to ensure you get to all of the famous pagodas in this region.
A brief history lesson here, Bagan is way older and more ancient than Angkor Wat (more than 400 years older) and this needs to be said.
So, these pagodas that we are visiting are around 1000 years old and they look really good for their age it has to be said.
I divided my trip into two days. And my schedule is as follows:
First day
Visit all the famous pagodas apart from the Swe Daw Lay Suu (4 pagodas which legend tells us the late King Anawrahta let loose an elephant with Buddha's tooth and the 4 stops that the elephant made - more on this later)
So, I visited the following
Ananda
Bupaya
Dhammayangi - largest in terms of area in the whole city
Dhammayazika
Htilominlo
Manuha - built by King Manuha who built it so tiny and made you feel claustrophobic as this was how he felt when he was taken from his home Thatung by King Anawrahta. He wouldn't give up the 3 pitaka (wikipedia link for this is Tripitaka) - 3 baskets of sacred scripts which are the most important treasure that Buddha has left after his passing....
(Side note: the same 3 pitaka was the focus of "Journey to the West"/ "Monkey" TV series)
Shwesandaw - has stairs that you can go up to view the sunset...please note it is fairly steep and usually full of people near the sun set time.....Only pagoda currently allowed to be step on.
Thatbyinnyu - tallest pagoda in the city
Kadawpalin
You will ask how I managed to visit this many in one day, I suggest spending only 30 minutes or so in one place.
Remember it is hot all year round in Bagan and temperatures can go upwards of 40C. So make sure you hydrate, start your journey early in the morning, rest between 12-2pm if possible and then go again at night time. The pagodas usually open until 10pm so you got plenty of time.
I started at around 9am and finished at 8pm.
Some notes on the trip......
I stayed at Amazing Bagan Resort....Nice rooms and a pool...
Prices start from 48 USD per room and suites are $100-$150
Hot Air Balloon rides are expensive ($320 USD), however if you like aerial routes for the city, this is a great way to see the 4000+ pagodas...
They start pretty early like 5:30 in the morning to beat the sun....
Second Day
You should visit all the 4 pagodas that appear on the list of Swe Daw Lay Suu (Directly translated into 4 Pagodas that have the Buddha's tooth)
These pagodas are a result of King Anawrahta sending an elephant with the tooth and the elephant set off and stopped on the four pagodas.
These pagodas are very powerful and our people believe that if you visit them before 12 noon in one day, your wishes will come true. This belief is strengthened by the chronicle of King Anawratha who did the same many many years ago and wished for the drought to end. After his wishes were granted, the legend of the four pagodas grew.
Four pagodas are
- Tant Kyi Taung
- Tu Yin Taung
- Shwezigon
- Lawkanandar
The suggestion is to visit in the above order.
1st up is Tant Kyi Taung which needs to be visited across from all the other pagodas. So, you will need to take a boat acorss the lake and get there and then hire a car to go up the mountain. The whole journey should take around 2-3 hours maximum.
Private boats will cost around $18-$20 but if it is in holidays it can go up to $50-60. You can go cheap and go with locals on small boats but suggest forking out a few dollars to get a private boat as they are better value.
The car hire will cost around the same as the boat.
Some people might suggest to leave this until the latest but by that time you would not feel like going after a long day, so go early in the morning around 8am like I did so you should get back to the main land by 11am or so and leave plenty of time for the other three.
2nd up is Tu Yin Taung which is a fair way off the other pagodas so I would suggest going there before the other 2 which are in the city centre.
This pagoda is famous for its 500 monk statues as you go up the mountain and the Big Buddha statue pointing to where the pagoda should be.
Again mind the steps as there's a lot of them.
3rd up is Shwezigon which Anawrahta started and Kyansittha completed.
Finally, we get to our fourth stop which is the Lawkanandar Pagoda....just a tip...do not go to this pagoda at lunch time, it will burn your feet off... you can see me jumping up a bit here as I was burning up before the photo was taken...
Last stop for me is the Star Tortoise program that Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry.
These creatures are native to the Myanmar only and there were only about 1000 left in the country before the ministry took initiative and started breeding them again and now numbers around 3000 plus...
These guys can live up to more than 100 years old and the little ones go for around 800USD. I might try and get one as a pet maybe...that's what they do in Japan and Korea I am told....
So there you have it guys....my trip log from Bagan....
Tomorrow, I will be travelling up to Monya City and beyond...
Hopefully I will have internet to post another post...
Til then, see you soon..
Cheers
Tinkyaw
