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 🙂