Daily Archives: June 2, 2014

Bago

Posted on by
Reply

Before heading North I wanted to stop at Bago.  It had the world’s second largest reclining Bhudda (the largest being in Bangkok) as well as several other temples and sights in the area.

Bago is about 100km from the base camp of Golden rock.  I caught a noon bus which took 3 hours to get to Bago.  Buses in Burma don’t know the meaning of being full.  Any additional passengers that the driver can cram into the bus is money in his pocket.  For this reason, he keeps stopping at the side of the road to try to get new fares.  This is interesting at first, and bloody irritating later on.
Once I arrived in Bago I found a taxi driver that found me a great deal on a hotel and offered to be a tour guide for the afternoon for $15.  Taxi drivers here are much better than neighbouring countries because they don’t get commission from a hotel.  In this way they can actually recommend whatever hotel they actually like.
There are several standing and reclining Bhudda’s in Bago.  This one is outside, which looks good, but the sun and the rain force continual upkeep on it, so it costs more money.
This one, behind me, is inside.  You can see the flashing lights again that are so popular here in Myanmar.
There were 4 standing ones back to back that I would of never found without a guide.  The guide was great, he had good knowledge about the history of the temples and it was nice to talk to a local about everyday myanmar life.  He also knew where to get cheap beer 🙂

Electricity

Posted on by
1

A big problem in Burma is a lack of power.  Some hotels have generators, but in general you can expect frequent power outages all over the country.

What you won’t need though is a travel adapter.  I’ve never seen plugs like this before.
From top left going clockwise, I can plug in North American or European plugs, UK plugs, and Australian plugs.  They pretty much have everything covered here.
In some places you see a mixture of sockets, with UK bring one of the more common ones.

Golden Rock

Posted on by
Reply

Due to a lack of network connectivity (kind of a lack of connectivity in total) it’s been hard to post blog posts, so I decided I would write them offline and upload later, when I can add pictures.

I decided to go from Yangon (if you read my last blog post, I’m sure you knew I was ready to leave Myanmar city life) and go to golden rock.  Golden rock is a large rock that is balanced on the side of a cliff.  It’s a famous pilgrimage site for Burmese people and about 200km from Yangon.
I decided to take a local bus.  The Yangon bus station is actually 10km north of the airport, aka the middle of nowhere.  There is no station, just a parking lot with 5 bus companies trying to get your fare.
I chose a company that guaranteed “good air conditioning”.  This was indeed not a lie, the A/C worked very well.  Unfortunately, the windows were stuck open so you had 40 degree air blowing in while 20 degree air conditioning created a kind of fog by the windows.  5 hot hours later we arrived at the base of the mountain.
I was going to stay at the base and do the hike up the next morning, but I met a German guy that highly recommended staying on the top, even though the price of accommodation may be higher.
To get from the bottom to the top there are a series of dump trucks that have been retrofitted with seats in the back.  They pack as many people as possible in and then off you go on what I can only describe as a roller coaster ride without any safety features! It’s a pretty steep assent and you get to the top (slightly bruised) in about 40 minutes.
This was them loading the truck up before we left for the top.  The sign at the front lists prices, and says that the prices include life insurance!
The view from the top though is really good and highly recommended.  The hotels are a bit of a rip off though.  We managed to talk them down to $70 a night which is pretty much the highest price you would pay in the entire country.  I have to give them credit though, the service was amazing, you can expect 5 star service in Myanmar for this price.
Seeing the rock at sunset and sunrise was pretty awesome.  All the monks were leaving offerings, putting gold squares on the rock, or chanting and praying.  It was quite foggy in the evening which made the rock a surreal sight.
I recommend Golden Rock, but you must be prepared for a long bus ride from Yangon, it’s certainly not the most comfortable travel I have ever done, but the experience at the top is pretty cool.