Feb 27th
Up before sunrise, ate breakfast and made our way to our bus to the Golden Rock. There was 28 of us traveling as a group through SAS. The bus ride we were told would take about 5 hours to the base of the rock. So me and Bridget went back to sleep and enjoyed a small nap. About 2 hours into the ride we stopped at a WW2 memorial. The memorial reminded me a lot of a memorial you would see in Washington DC. It was built by a British man and was made to remember those of Burmese decent who died during the war. We spent time taking pictures and walking around. It was a beautiful cemetery that was well kept up, but looked a bit out of place with the structures that surrounded it. A small village was across the street consisting of houses made of wood/mud. People who had been stricken with poverty and a road made of dirt. All of this was right across the way of this green grassed, marble, flowered, memorial. When it comes to the golden, beautifully built pagodas that are surrounded by this too you get this feeling.
We continued our way. Passing by rice patties, farms, people traveling, shops, small villages and pagodas. On the way to golden rock, one could easily spot 100 pagodas because they are such a necessary way of life for the people living here. For every town, it is necessary for them to have a pagoda dedicated to the Buddha. So since there are many towns and villages, there are many pagodas. It’s really cool observing the country through traveling on the bus. I saw people bathing in the river, people selling produce, boats catching fish, children playing and more. The little things one might not see if I had not been looking out my window or had traveled by plane. We arrived at the base of the mountain at around 2 and we had to transfer onto a truck which is the only way up the mountain, unless you do the 10 mile hike up. So the 28 of us squeezed onto the open back of the truck and prepared for our hour drive to the top. The trucked moved pretty fast up the turns of the mountain. At times we all held on for dear life as we made tight and fast turns. We all laughed at the crazy drive up the mountain and took breaths only when the truck had to make stops to let oncoming trucks pass by. At one of the stops we observed two men grinding sugar cane to make sugar cane water. It was cool to see them put it into the juicer and pull it back out and do t until the cane was down to nothing.
We arrived at the top and stood in awe at the view of the valley and mountains around us. We could see our for miles and it was beautiful. There was not a cloud in the sky and the green forest below made for a perfect picture. We then walked to our hotel, checked in and we had an hour to relax before we went to see the rock at sunset. I ended up with a single room because of the uneven amount of people, which I didn’t complain because I haven’t had a room to myself since January. After getting into our room we decided we wanted to walk around the town and see what there was to buy. We stopped at a small family restaurant and got some drinks. Since the water is not drinkable we each got a can of coke and people watched and talked for a good 30 minutes. We went back for a 15 minute nap before heading to the rock. About a quarter mile away from the rock it is required you take your shoes off. We walked barefoot to the rock, which was amazing.
The rock is about the size of a school bus, but it leaning off the cliff without falling off. The Buddhists believe that 3 hairs of the Buddha which is on top of the rock is keeping this rock up. People traveled from very far and basically camp out right outside of the rock and sleep there. This place is a major place within this religion. it was amazing to get to sit on the steps on the side of the rock and observe people near the rock. The closest me and Bridget could get to the rock was maybe 10 feet, woman are not allowed to touch the rock. But we still enjoyed observing people pray, light candles, light incense and families take pictures. We sat at the bottom base for a while and we quickly became an attraction for the locals as they were very curious of us. People asked to take pictures with us and so we got up and for a good 10 minutes, family after family came up and took pictures with us.
After the crowd ended we headed back up the stairs and had a few more pictures taken mostly with kids before watching the sun set behind the rock and heading back to the hotel for dinner. We had a buffet style dinner back at the hotel and also enjoyed the Wi-Fi. My professor who studies religion was on the trip with us and he had written a book on vampires in America. We talked about it for a bit and he told me he spent 6 months with them studying them and learning how they live and more. he told me most of the people claimed to be Christian and they mostly drank blood as a hobby or as something they believed they needed to do to survive. It was kind of cool to sit back and think that I had the opportunity to learn from someone who has done a lot of studies of people and religions. He has traveled to many other countries and has a doctorate on religions and anthropology.
After dinner we all agreed to meet up for drinks at 11 at a nearby hotel. Me and Bridget headed back to the rock, sat on the steps and enjoyed looking out onto the valley. Looking down you could hardly see any lights because of the lack of electricity, the stars were shining bright, people around us chanted and prayed. In the distance we could hear a group praying. We sat and had a small heart to heart and enjoyed the beautiful atmosphere. We sat there for 2 hours enjoying our time at the rock.
At 11pm we joined the others for drinks, we only had a few. But we all talked and laughed. The power went out a few times (power in Myanmar is very unreliable) so we had some great star gazing. We headed to bed at around 1am.
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