On Sunday, we hired a driver/”guide” Zaw Zaw, who picks us up punctually and takes us on the 80 km drive to Bago. We’ve been told a wide array of things about the town—from it being a provincial but peaceful little backwater to that we should simply skip it--so we're truly wondering what to expect. We have foregone the longer trip to the famed Golden Rock—a precariously perched gilded boulder that purports to be held in place by a few of the Buddha’s hairs—so, it’s going to be Bago. The early morning traffic in Yangon hasn’t yet ramped up to full pandemonium and we make good time getting out of town. We stop in at the Allied cemetery about 45 minutes out of town—a beautifully appointed green area with the names of more than 37 thousand British contingents that battled the Japanese during WWII. It’s a stark reminder of the misery of war as well as the sweeping hand of British colonialism. Represented are groups from all over Burma, India and Great Britain and even far-flung Nigeria and other African colonial outposts.
Back on the road we get stuck in the congestion of morning markets in a couple of nameless towns, but eventually reach Bago, which is neither provincial, nor quiet, and seems to us like a large piece of Yangon was plucked up and transplanted these however many kilometers away. We crawl along what seems like the main artery, daily life(despite it being a Sunday) in full swing. Unlike Yangon, which prohibits motorbikes in the city limits, here endless lines of motorcycles swerve around the streets—.
Zaw Zaw tells us which places he’s including on the itinerary—number one stop, the old Kanbawzathadi Palace. Originally built in the mid 1500’s it was soon burnt to the ground, so what we see is a completely new rendition, rebuilt perhaps 25 years ago. The remains of some of the original teakwood columns are all that’s on display to show what might have been, unclear as that is to anyone not of the archaelogical persuasion. The new structure seems a tad Disney-like and there are virtually no visitors except a group of clowning monks, who are taking selfies on a cannon by the palace exit. They are excited to have us be in a photo with them!
Zaw asks if I’d like to visit the Snake Monastery, as there is a huge python there and he seems unsure that I’ll be comfortable with this alleged reincarnation of a Buddhist abbot. I’m game, though, so we travel along a monumentally pocked dirt road where monks have dressed up with giant paper mache heads to beg for donations to keep up their local road. Zaw says the government doesn't touch this road as it belongs to the monastery. At the monastery we climb the steep stairs to the structure where the enormous apparently female snake lies dozing, watched by a chanting caretaker monk. He takes each person’s donation, places the bill on the already sizeable pile in one of the snake’s folds, and bursts into –for us—an incomprehensible chant. The snake appears to be deeply asleep. Certainly a novel sort of sight at any kind of temple.
Back on the road to Bago’s signature pagoda, the Shwemawdaw. Not as imposing as Yangon’s Shwedagon, it is nevertheless impressive, gilded in some places, painted in others. It sports a number of different small hut-like buildings that house astrologers. This pagoda has routinely been hit by strong earthquakes, and one such piece of fallen stupa is now a shrine in its own right, thin smoking sticks of incense sticking out of it like pins in a pincushion.
After lunch at a restaurant that clearly caters exclusively to foreigners, we also visit the Hintha Gon Paya, a pagoda known for its frenetic music and dancing—done in a room in the cage-like lower level of the pagoda. The upper level shows the numerous depictions of the two hintha birds Buddha allegedly saw before making some prophecy about the future of Bago—which was one of the three principal kingdoms of times past. Then on to the immensely popular fairground atmosphere of Bago's Reclining Buddha, to another pagoda unusually built with tiers of white and gold, and finally the site of four large seated back-to-back Buddhas.
We’re particularly happy to have chosen to take this particular excursion with a driver as it’s close to dark when we finally arrive back in Yangon, and we’ve had another full, interesting day.
Pictures at the link: https://goo.gl/photos/nttmQGSqYSejAaCj6
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