Weekend out of town

After several quite successful days in Yangon, we decided to head out of town for the weekend, to see some of the nearby attractions. Since Myanmar is huge, and the public transport is bad, we didn’t go very far:  started in Bago, a pagoda-packed town, and then continued to the famous Buddhist pilgrimage site of the Golden Rock.

I was hoping to get some work done in between the sight-seeing, and in the past days have come to appreciate the importance of having a working infrastructure – a room, with a desk, with internet. A chilly room, preferably. It’s actually quite impossible to do anything otherwise.

So our tourism started with a wonderful train from Yangon – the bumpiest, slowest thing imaginable; but with all the windows open, the breeze and views compensated for the comfort. In Bago we rented a tri-shaw driver to take us around to see the temples – we thought this was the most socially/environmentally responsible way to go around. Until I saw our driver.

This kid was more or less my size, and I felt pretty bad for him (in the picture below, he's the one in the striped blue t-shirt). It was hot outside. He negotiated a pretty good price for his services, but still I asked myself – are we encouraging child labour?

No. Turns out he’s nearly my age, married with a baby.

The kids here are SO cute (sample in the above picture). They’re so friendly, always smiling, giggling, waving. They look happy even when they’re doing chores (carrying wood, sweeping floors, etc.).

Bago was nice, and temple-packed as promised. Still very few foreign tourists to be seen anywhere.

That tiny person is me.

Sunset over a water reservoir, as seen from a pagoda on a hill-top.

I realize that the concept of time here is rather different than that of the west. I bought a watch last week and it seems that fact that it loses about 15 minutes every other day makes it, comparably, a pretty good watch here. The vast majority of clocks here show the wrong time. I wonder why they would even have a clock then? 

Two wrongs most certainly don't make a right.

The trip to Golden Rock left a mixed impression. We wanted to hike part of the way but neither one of our 2 guidebooks nor the internet provided sufficient information on the paths, and the friendly locals, who either don’t understand us or don’t know the answer, just smile and reassure us we’re walking the right way (which we weren't). The rock itself was more of a tourist bazaar than a classic pilgrimage site, and not that impressive.

The Golden Rock. Major pilgrimage site, major cheap-looking tourist bazaar.

Among all the hand-made unnecessary souvenirs (=crap) we saw up there, this is by far the cutest - carved out of a coconut.