We have to be at the station half an hour before the train leaves so we take a taxi, the man from the hostel accompanies us and gets us a good price.
When we arrive to the station we meet the Indian girl with whom we shared the potatoes yesterday in the Manhabandoola gardens, she greets us effusively, she is lovely.
Our train leaves the platform 7 punctually, it is a little old and reminds us of the Indian ones, they don't have windows only some huge blinds. In upper class the seats are more comfortable although the level of dirt is the same as in the other cars that have wooden seats. Food and drink vendors are constantly coming up. Although the trip is three hours but it is very short. The outskirts of Yangon are very dirty, people literally live on plastics and garbage.
Train to Bago
Several children travel in the wagon and we share cookies and candy bars. They are very nice and want to take pictures with us. The rural landscape is beautiful, rice fields and villages with bamboo houses. We are at the end of the rainy season and many areas are flooded. The people are sometimes sunk with water up to their chests working the land. Water buffaloes graze at their leisure. The children go to school and move about on the tracks.
We arrive in Bago at 9:25 a.m. and walk to San Francisco Guest House (it takes about five minutes). The woman who looks after us is adorable, she leaves us a map of the city, she keeps our backpacks and we buy her a ticket for the night bus to Kalaw. She tells us to come back at six o'clock in the evening when they bring us to the station.
Bago Market
We walk to the Shwemawdaw Paya, here we pay the ticket which is valid for the rest of the temples in the city. It consists of a huge golden zedi, more than a hundred meters high. It starts to rain and we take refuge in one of the temple halls, here we meet again with the group of Spaniards from yesterday.
Shwemawdaw Paya
After lunch, we walk to the Serpent Monastery, after stopping at the Hintha Gon Paya. Arriving at the monastery begins to pour, although the walk is worthwhile. The enclave is very cool and has viewpoints at the top of the hill. The python is huge, it is guarded by a man who receives donations. It is curious although it was so quiet that it almost seemed a lie.
When we leave it rains again and we ask for a taxi but they tell us that there is no taxi up to the main avenue, two kilometres away. I see a van that leaves with a monk and I make a sign, tells us to ride. He takes us to the main road and negotiates a taxi for us. We offer him money and he says no, how nice. We say goodbye, very grateful.
We get into the taxi and go to the other side of the city, we visit Shwethalyaung Buddha (reclining, beautiful), Mahazedi Paya, Shwegugale Paya and Maha Kalyani Sima, with the latter the Naung Daw Gyi Mya Tha Lyaung, a big Buddha lying down with a relaxed face. When we reach Shwethalyaung we tell the tuk tuk to wait for us but one man gets in the way and we cannot agree on the price so we have to negotiate again with another man on the way out.
Reclining Buda
We go back to the hostel soaking wet, the woman from San Francisco recommends us to go to dinner at the Three Five Hotel, all very nice. They are very nice.
At six in the evening we are picked up by a small truck and taken to the bus station on the outskirts of the city. We buy sweets and snacks. It doesn't stop raining.
After twelve hours of bus with two stops of thirty minutes each to eat and stretch our legs we arrive at Kalaw.
It's four o'clock in the morning. We are offered a motor taxi to get to the hostel but we prefer to walk. When we arrive two very nice girls give us the key to the room, we go upstairs and take a nap until breakfast time.
Train tickets: 1.200 MMK per pax.
Taxi from the hostel to the train station: 2.000 MMK
Night bus tickets from Bago to Kalaw: 14.000 MMK per pax.
Entrance fee to all Bago temples: 10.000 MMK
Food: local Burmese restaurant 3 rice with chicken and accompaniment 5.600 MMK.
Tuk tuk: 3.000 MMK.
Tuk tuk back to the city: 3.000 MMK
Dinner: Three Five Hotel restaurant 16.200 MMK (beers, noodles and soup, the soup is amazing).
Snacks at Bago bus station: 3.000 MMK, bag of potatoes 3.000 MMK.
Beer in the service area: 2.000 MMK.
- Log in to post comments
