Going up I saw lots of little places selling sweets of all colors and types, nuts, fruits and of course water everywhere! the locals have the basins of water that you can also find at the entrance of every temple and monastery.
It took me 2 h 50 (was supposed to be 3-4-5 hours!) to get up and WOW! what a contrast! From the peaceful hike to the absolute craziness!
The ''roller coaster'' trucks were packed as much as the rest of the street and even more in the main area. I could really not even move! There was all Myanmar in this place!
But this is normal as its the most sacred place they have. Some people were even camping on the floor for days. They use the bed covers to create tents, they live there for a few days...so I was stepping on rice, flowers and other liquids.... after the nice walk, I reached to the famous Golden Rock and yes, its impressive to have this mini Pagoda in a rock that is about to fall. The woman were all praying in front of it and on its side, while only the men are allowed to enter the closer area to the rock and touch it. I stood there for a while, just observing how people behaved and it was clearly very special for them.
On the way back,I decided to use some of the plane refreshing napkins to clean my feet :) good choice! While sitting there this family passed by and each of them took a picture with me... here people make you feel like a super star :) Of course I also took a picture with them :)
There were people alone, families, kids, groups of friends. Everyone was praying and giving something to Buddha as well as taking pictures.
And now it was time to go down.... and as I love hiking and get sick in cars and trucks it was easy to decide to go down walking :) and this was a wonderful decision...
On the way down I cross another group of tourist that were still hiking up and among them a french guy I have met before in Bagan, on top of a pagoda during sunset. Funny story here is that he also studied at Toulouse, how small the world is, right?!!?! Anyway, I advice them to be ready for the multitude of people coming soon :) and I continued. I wanted to go fast and I was and at some point a happy group of four kids started ''escorting'' me down!
This was just so much fun! we talked very little as they didn't speak English, we walk and even run down the mountain together. I guess they are the only ones who could keep up with my speed! and actually they were even asking me to please stop! :) indeed we did stop a few times :) The two boys were already gentlemen carrying the bags of the girls. They even took a long bamboo stick and hanged the bags there. Then they were carrying it all from the shoulders, sweet kids.
It took us I think two hours and a half to go down which is really fast! it was a really happy hike! I would dance and they would do the same, it was a fun game! When we reached down they stopped to buy some ice cream, twice! At the end kids are kids and they like ice cream everywhere in the world :) Then was time to say bye! I went to my hotel and they continued to theirs....
I was very lucky that the hotel allowed me to use a shower which was much needed before taking a car to go to Hpa-An which was a ride of about 3 hours.
Beautiful ride! The vegetation is super green, really tropical, crazy how the landscape changes so much in this country!
The views over the super green rice fields and the limestone rocks are just so so soooo beautiful! I love the nature in this area and truly cannot wait until tomorrow to go out and explore with my new friend Nat! The world is indeed very, very small!
Nat is the french guy I met in the Bagan temples, the one who studied at Toulouse, not only that, he studied there at the same time as I was studying there and of course we know someone in common! just crazy, then we realised we've been here in the same places, same place for Christmas dinner, same hotel in Inle.. crazy!
I cancelled my plan to go with a group of people as we made better plans just to go on our own and explore the area in motorbike, so cool!
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