Bago doesn’t seem to make it on the top places to see in Myanmar, and I have no idea why that is that case. This is an amazing city with so much see nearby, and within the spawling city itself. Most recommendation are to take a day tip out here, where as I would argue stay here for a few nights and see the sites in a little more comfort. I get the feeling the owner of the hotel I was staying at has the same thought – that Bago might just be the next big tourist destination.
The owner had been waiting for me at the bus drop off, which I was expecting to be the actual bus terminal, but instead was in front of several motorbike shops. The only reason even knew this was Bago was due to the big sign to my hotel. I couldnt make out what the bus conductor was saying, for the life of me I didn’t pick up on the word Bago. After asking him if this was Bago he nodded and I jumped off.
There were two striking things about the owner of the Amara Gold Hotel. The first thing was his teeth, and what looked to be a blood filled mouth. I’d noticed people in Yangon with the same deteriated dental health and a strange red liquid that I had iniatially thought was blood.
But no, the redness is caused by Paan, a rolled Betal leaf mixed with nuts, spices, and sometimes tobacco. Just like with many other cultures, the rolled left, or quid, is placed in the gums and sucked on through out the day. What’s different with this one is the very visual affects. The blood red saliva is spit out, either into bins or if you’re in the car, open the door and spit out onto the road. The colour also stains the teeth a dark red, and along with the constant saliva in the mouth, the teeth begin to decay.
It’s pretty gross, and I can only guess there’s an addictive quality to the leaf if people don’t give it up after looking into the mirror and see the grinning horror looking back at them.
The hotel owners teeth had decayed so much that his front teeth were nothing more that pointed stalactites. Imagine a mouth full of nightmarish fangs, covered in what looked like blood. That was the horror that was his mouth.
Getting past that, he was quite poud of the hotel, boasting different things to eat for breakfast and more of a hotel-y feel to the place. There was a welcome basket with toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and interestingly condoms. After I had told him where I was planning next, he offered advice on how long to stay and which buses to catch. It was actually exactly how I had planned except for staying on one more night in Bago to do a day trip to the Goldern Boulder rather than spending a night there. The reasoning was the bus from there to my next town was a pick up bus, meaning it was just a standard bus with no A/C for a 6 hours ride. But from Bago I could get a VIP bus with A/C insead. Better, I agreed.
The next day was off to the Golden Boulder on Mt Kyaiktiyo. I had a driver for the 2 hours to get there and back, and something just wasn’t sitting right. It’s wasn’t just the average speed of 100/Km, darting and overtaking like we were in Death Race, but the steering wheel, and what side of rode we were on… the steering wheel on the right side, the side of the road also on the right… what the hell??
Back in 1970 the General at the time, Ne Win, ordered the country to switch sides of the road overnight. One theory as to why says an astrologer that told him it would be better for the country, so the order went out. So now overtaking is a hair raising affair, since neither driver can see each other, they slowing inch the car over the other side of the road until the driver can see the incoming traffic. Suffice to say this is a little worrying for the passenger seat who is in direct collision course until the driver swerves back in.
When we arrived at Kyaiktiyo I unclenched the butt and made sure I could still feel my toes. Okay good, all in one piece. To get up the mountain it’s a 45min bumpy truck drive up and up. No space was to be spared, the truck bed is decked out in padded benches for seating, and they squeeze every possible about of seating. The Lonley Planet says they try to fit as many as 40 people in the back of the truck, and that looked about right.
The ride up wasn’t all that bad, and at the top we foreigners need to pay out own special fee for the privilege of visiting. After short trudge through market stalls and street food sellers, finally I arrived at the Golden Boulder.
I’m not sure how this works. The boulder very much does look like it’s sitting on a slope and really should fall off at any moment, especially when considering pilgrims are praying and adding gold leaf at the one side that would push if off the ledge. Is there a trick on how it looks? Is there re-enforcement holding the boulder to the edge?
Or maybe the legend is true; a hermit who had secreted a hair of the Buddha in his topnot gave the hair to King Tissa. He told the king to find a boulder that resembled the hermits head and enshrine the hair in a stupa on top. And that’s what the king did, and the boulder has stayed balanced on the edge ever since.
My final day in Bago was local site seeing. I hired a tuk tuk via the hotel to take me around to all the sites, serveral of which required an archaelogical zone ticket. And the sites really are amazing.
The Shwemawdaw Paya is actually taller than the one in Yangon, and equally as impressive. Plus there was some cloud over head so the marble floor wasn’t blissering hot. Locals took photos and prayed, and also poured water over the heads of the Buddha idols, something I hadn’t noticed being done back in Yangon.
One of the main attractions is the huge reclining Buddha. There are actually two, one out in open and the second dating back to the 10th century. The legend for it’s creation was the pagan king sent his son out into the wilderness to hunt, but instead he came across a woman whom he feel in love with and eventually married. She, however, was Buddhist. When the king discovered this he order both of them to be executed, but when the bride prayed in front of a pagan idol it shattered and the king was in fear of the error of his ways. He ordered the reclining Buddha to be built and converted his people to Buddhism.
That’s it for Bago, tomorrow it’s the 6 hour bus ride south to Mawlamyine.