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Three of Myanmar's touristic higlights are the Golden Rock, U Bein's Bridge and the Bagan Temples. All of them are worth a visit.
The Golden Rock is located on Mount Kyaiktiyo about 4h drive to the Northeast of Yangon. Literally speaking, the Golden Rock is a huge round rock covered with golden leaves and a small stupa on top that is kind of hanging of the side on the top of a mountain. To be honest, it is quite impressive because it is difficult to find a rational reason for the maintenance of its balance. Legend says that one of Buddhas' hairs was given to a King with supernatural powers, who found the rock in the sea and decided to put it on the top of the mountain. Buddhas' hair was placed in the stupa on top of the rock and has maintained the balance of the Golden Rock since. Apparently it is one of Myanmar peoles' national pilgrimage spots and people were in deed fascinated when we showed them our pictures afterwards!
To get up to the mountain you need to take first a pick-up truck where you sit with approximately 80 other persons on wooden benches made
for Asian sizes and flexibilities... Afterwards you climb the mountain passing by small cottages where natural illness remedies are offered. You must be really brave to actually drink that!!
Ani and I were the only Western tourists when we got there and immediately became the sightseeing attraction for many of the local tourists that were visiting the spot. First because we were wearing the longui with our own style and not following the Myanmar way of wearing it (actually, I think they were laughing at us, rather than with us!). Second, because we were taking pictures of things which are normal among them: men transporting all kind of things in huge baskets hanging down their backs, piles of blankets extended in the middle of the temple's patio for no obvious reason, military people with huge submachine guns or monks with their own camaras or smoking. We ended up being propperly dressed by a group of 15 year old girls and inmortalised in other peoples' camaras.
In relation to U Bein's Bridge, we were told several times on our trip that the detour up to Mandalay in order to see the Bridge was not really worth it. Well, we
The truck to go up the first part of the mountain to the Golden Rock.
Western size legs do not fit in there. Three minutes there ment suffer! are very happy to have gone. U Bein's Bridge was built in 1849 and is the longest teak pedestrian bridge in the world. It crosses over the Taungthaman Lake and despite being visited by many tourists it still is used by all local people. The time to visit the bridge is undoubtly at sunset. We crossed the bridge by foot, had the chance to talk to a fluent English speaking monk and came back by boat. I supoose that those who said that the Bridge was just a bridge had not come at sunset because the scenary became stunning! The combination of redish orange colors, the reflection of the Bridge on the water with monks and local women carrying their selling goods on their heads, the silence and calmness made the sunset amazing.
Last but not least: Stunning Bagan. Bagan is an archeological 'city' spread out on a huge plain (about 42 square km) which counts more than 4000 temples of different sizes and materials that decorate the arid and dusty landscape. The temples are connected through small dust roads on which we road on bicycle, horse carts, motorbikes (but this is not official as in Bagan local people
are not allowed to take tourists on their bikes) and car. Note that May is one of the hottest months in Bagan! The 43C in the shade at midday broke our sightseeing plans in two every day! But they also gave us the chance to chill out at the pool of our great hotel every day! :-)
The sunrises and the sunsets in Bagan are amazing. You sit on the top of any of the temples (you can actually walk freely in most of them) having a greate view over the plain, the river and the mountain chain on one side. On the other the top of the temples raise out of between the trees and bushes.
When visiting the temples at sunrise, loads of cocks announce almost simultaneously the arrival of the first sunlights that will break the total darkness that surrounds you. Actually, finding your way through the countryside to get to a temple and inside the temples themselves might become a good adventure if you do not carry a torch with you. Then the sunlight starts coming up, but it is when the real first sunlights fall on the temples that impresses you.
During
sunset, the singing of the birds is overtoned by the tireless screaming of the cicatas. A group of white cows grass on the dry fields that surround the temple you are sitting on. The spectale starts when the sun starts going down behind the mountains. The color of the sky changes and the brick temples start kind of shining in orange redish colors. You then realise the magnitude of the plain.
If you come to Southeast Asia, do not miss Myanmar. It is amazing!
Xox Ani & Viky
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