Monday, November 1, 2010
Today was mostly a transfer day. Since the drive from Mandalay city to the airport is over an hour, we left the hotel at 6:30am for our 8:45 flight to Heho. The flight was only 30 minutes over a few hills and valleys, and we landed almost as soon as we had taken off. Our driver and guide were there to pick us up and my bag was magically transported from the airplane to the mini-bus. (Once again, the convenience of a tour.)
On the 60km, two hour drive to Pindaya, I began to understand why it pays to fly. The paved road, only wide enough for one lane of traffic, was incredible bumpy. In order to pass another car, or ox-pulled cart as the case may be, we had to drive partly on the dirt next to the asphalt. I can’t imagine having to sit on a ten-plus hour ride to commute around this country. Along the way, Ros kept asking to stop the car to take pictures. The scenery was stunning, rolling hills with a quilt-like patchwork of greens, browns, yellows and reds. Such a nice change from the cities and stupas.
The region is famous for its variety of vegetables and we saw ox-pulled carts full of cabbages. Open trucks held between 4 and 12 people sitting on piles of potatoes. Women worked in the corn field while children stood on oxen at the side of the road. A taste of the countryside. We had a quick pit-stop at Aungban where numerous locals were selling a wide variety of food products.
At noon we stopped for lunch. I stuck with lentil soup and steamed rice, hoping they would be ok on my stomach. The restaurant had a beautiful location, right on Boutalake Lake. We finally made it to our destination, the Pindaya Natural Cave around 1pm. We learned the legend of the prince and the spider: four princesses were bathing in the nearby Boutalake Lake and were abducted by a giant spider, which kept them imprisoned in the cave. A bold prince killed the monster with a bow and arrow, rescued the princesses and took the most beautiful of them as his wife. The views from the top were spectacular as was the cave itself. A large natural cave, it now contains over 8000 buddhas, some donated from around the world, the earliest dated 1783. Quite the site of gilded statues. Parts of the cave were a complete maze.
After we’d finished exploring, we saw the fine art of umbrella and paper-making. Somehow these small shops peak my interest. It’s usually easy for me to restrain purchasing items and I dislike the local sales pitch. However, the Myanmar people are so poor and sell their goods at a relatively low price that it is hard to resist. J.P. rushed us out of the house to start the drive to Nyaungshwe on Inle Lake. Sadly, Pindaya was completely out of our way, and we had to journey on the same road, past the airport, to get to Nyaungshwe. It was a bumpy but beautiful 3.5 hour ride.
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| Pizza pie |
When we got here, I had a terrible headache, so I rested until dinner. J.P. selected Golden Kite, an Italian restaurant for our meal, the first Western style restaurant we’ve eaten at on this tour. Even though my stomach wasn’t right, the pesto pizza was calling my name, especially after the owner had shown us the kitchen (so much cleaner than most places we’ve been eating, and with Italian mozzarella and Australian parmesan). I probably didn’t need to eat so much, but the pizza was delicious. Hopefully my body will sort itself out soon, as I haven’t had any problems like this so far on my travels.
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