September 11, 2007

Bagan (MYANMAR)

The Enigmatic Mt Popa and Returning to Yangon

Tomorrow morning we have an early AirAsia flight from Yangon to Bangkok, which makes today our last full day in Myanmar. It is amazing how quickly time (and countries) can fly by. Yesterday, we booked an afternoon flight back to Yangon, which left this morning free for one final adventure. We decided to book a taxi for a half-day trip to the highly religious sight, Mt Popa. It has been described as "the Mount Olympus of Myanmar," which is quite a title to live up to, and seemingly worth the hassle of traveling 75km to begin the climb.

From the word go I was not feeling well this morning, and by the time we reached the base of Mt Popa I was in real trouble. I hurried from the car to the nearest outhouse and puked out everything inside my body save my intestines. It must have been a mix of something I ate, dehydration from yesterday's day of touring temples, countless sleepless nights (I have had a real problem for about a year now), and typing on my laptop on the way to the peak (trying to keep these journals up-to-date). Whatever the case, Jo sat around for a full hour while I tried re-hydrating and eating smalls bites, only to have everything come back up.

Eventually, I convinced Jo to start climbing and promised to follow when my health returned. This was a slow process whereby I climbed like I was allergic to heights and took frequent rests. Fortunately, there was plenty of activity along the way to keep my mind occupied: monkeys, both small and big, were scampering about every which way. There must have been several hundred of them in all, and their shit was all over the 700-odd steps. As Mt Popa is a Buddhist sight, footwear is forbidden, and I spent most of my time choosing the path with the fewest layers of dried feces. In fairness, the monkeys did make for some good photos, but there is nothing more heart curdling than when there is dried crap between your toes.

Shown below is a perfect example of the evolution of the human species: from downright ugly, to what is hardly an evolutionary improvement, to the masterful final product:

When I finally reached the top I was dead to the world, and we spent most of the time sitting around watching the Burmese pilgrims feed the monkeys. It was frustrating to see because feeding the monkeys only encourages them to steal and hassle people, but this never seems to enter peoples' way of thinking (despite numerous signs backing up my argument). On the way up, I even saw an attendant fire a sling-shot at a particularly aggressive monkey as it fled away. I never realized this, but slingshots can really hurl a good-sized rock with a staggering amount of force. I heard the rock crack off aluminum, meaning it missed the wily monkey, but had it struck its skull there would surely have been one less monkey at Mt Popa and a large mess of blood to clean up.

The best views came as we were driving away from Mt Popa, which was kind of a shame. We had been warned in advance that the sacred peak is not as inspiring as one might hope, but it is a big 'sight' and it fit perfectly into our schedule.

On the way back to the town of Bagan we stopped at a peanut farm on the side of the road and munched on a variety of nuts while drinking cold tea. The owner tried to sell us a pack for 1000kyat, but we knew locals only pay 100kyat per bag (we once bought some on a bus-ride). This made the owner laugh, and in because he was so friendly we ended up buying five packs for 200 kyat each. We are close enough to the end that we must get rid of all our spare kyat - there is no exchanging the currency outside Myanmar.

We could only grab a quick lunch in Bagan before meeting yesterday's horse-cart driver for the 45 minute ride to the local airport. This was probably one of the strangest experiences of the entire trip: riding a horse cart to an airport. Only in a place like Myanmar is such local charm possible. On the way, we turned on Jo's iPod and hooked up a pair of speakers so we could listen to an entire Red Hot Chili Peppers album. It was one of the most relaxing moments of the summer.

We landed in Yangon by 6pm, and once more it was pouring down rain. Oddly enough, the only time it ever rained while we were in Myanmar was when we were in Yangon, so the capital city was not particularly high on our list of 'favorites'. (In fact, it was probably at the bottom of the list.)