Tuesday, 11th September 2012
I’d slept quite well at the Zwekabin Hotel and was quite sorry to leave at 8.30 a.m. We took the Yangon road and shortly crossed a girder bridge over a wide river as it started to rain. We passed a large, modern but rather shabby-looking modern building which Min said was the Pa-An computer university.
By the time we turned off the main road onto a minor road leading to the seventh century Kawgoon Cave site, I was pleased that the rain had stopped for a while. A long, straight, narrow road in very poor repair led past numerous houses to stop at a monastery site. Min paid a friendly monk in an admissions office and we walked along the base of a sheer, and in places overhanging, cliff. Most of the cliff face was decorated with thousands of bas-relief Buddha images, either carved in the limestone or cemented to the limestone. There were also numerous Buddha figures in various materials and of different ages. A building abutting the cliff held a large reclining Buddha together with Buddha images in various positions and in different sizes. We then entered a large, natural cave with the cave walls similarly decorated with bas-relief Buddha images and with numerous larger Buddha figures. As we made our way back to the main road, the rain (which had obligingly held off whilst we were out of the vehicle) restarted.
A production car caught my attention. It was very second-hand and the original engine had clearly failed so some blacksmith had ripped off the bonnet and front grille to allow one of the standard Chinese engines to be somehow connected up. Although parked when we saw it, the modified vehicle was clearly in regular use.
In the distance, we saw the cement factory and, next to it, the scarred hillside which had been the subject of the blasting we'd heard yesterday evening.
Before long, we arrived at the second caves we were to visit. The road we were on terminated in a half-flooded car park. Apparently, in the dry season the water recedes and there is a covered arcade which leads to a monastery complex near three bathing pools fed from a hot spring. Once the rains come, a number of wooden boats (similar to the ferry we'd used to Shampoo Island) are used to transfer monks and pilgrims to and from the monastery. Even with the boats, it was necessary to do a bit of paddling when getting in or out. Once on land, we followed a convoluted set of concrete steps which wound between the various buildings. There were monks, pilgrims and children. There were domestic animals like dogs and chickens and lots of acrobatic monkeys on the lookout for any food they could steal. We entered a large cave with lots of seated Buddha figures.
I'd come prepared with a small torch so, once Min pointed out the concrete path to the inner caves, I was off. In the darkness, I hadn't noticed Min wasn't following me me. I was told the passage goes about 600 feet into the mountain, with various Buddha figures on the way. I had reached the final chamber before Min, with a borrowed torch and the torch's owner, caught up. I was disappointed to see all the graffito in the final chamber - 'Kilroy was here' is not solely an English problem. We returned to our vehicle by boat, this time with a young monk as the boatman.
We rejoined the main road to the north at Thaton and continued to Kyaikto, where I'd left the train on the journey south with some relief. Another large girder bridge took us over the Sittang River and, to the right, I could make out the multiple spans of the girder bridge which carries the railway over this river.
Lunch was taken in a large steel-framed building with lots of tables and at least twelve young male waiters. The scale of the place (and the fact that there were at least eight ladies toilet cubicles, squat-type and a little basic) made me conjecture that the place provided meal stops for the many long-distance coaches which use the route and Min confirmed that this was correct. The meal was, in fact, excellent.
We set off again and it started to rain again, this time with a vengeance. Eventually, we came to Bago, where I knew our route took us over the railway just south of Bago station. Rain or no rain, I was determined to take some more photographs of the railway from the vantage point of the bridge. I got wet and I'm afraid Min (who insisted on looking after me) got wet, despite having a good-sized umbrella.
Our final call was at the large War Cemetery at Taukkyan near Yangon which is kept in immaculate condition. The large, stone colonnaded structure records the names of 27,000 soldiers of various races who gave their lives 'in Burma and Assam ... in the service of the British Crown'.
Tired, damp but happy I was delivered back to the Strand Hotel. Early the next day, I was to be transferred to Yangon's Domestic air terminal for the flight to Mandalay and the to 'The Road to Mandalay' ship for the rest of the adventure. I'll post updates when I'm able.
Photographs:
Kawgoon Cave.
Hot Springs.
Taukkyan War Cemetery.
[Revised 3-Oct-2012]
