Happy Christmas Buddha

Trying to Sell Fruit Through Window of Bus
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It was December 23rd and everyone seemed to be on the move for December holidays. We had planned to go and see the famous Golden Rock and that fact that it was almost impossible to get a bus just made it more attractive to go and visit such a pilgrimage site. One guy on the bus told me that the locals just wanted to go to the rock to say 'Happy Christmas Buddha'. I didn't ask any difficult questions!

Eventually we got to a town about 20km from the rock and there after a bit of local debate secured two spots on the top of the pick-up going to 'base camp' for the rock, Kin Pun.

Two Buddha hairs are holding the rock in place

Idan and Mysself Cruising Along
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Trekking to the Golden Rock

Next morning the amount of people in town was all too clear. We were up at about 6am to get an early morning start to trek the hour to the rock. Before starting out though, you have to take a 45 minute trip on an open back truck to the start of the trek. As each truck pulled in, all you could see was a ripple in the crowd and a wave of people drifting over the sides of the truck. We had no idea what we were going to do, but we just had to get into the action! A local made a little space at the front and we squeezed in. After a number of stops along the way with locals collecting money in begging bowls, we made it to the start of the trek.

Chaos at Base Camp
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We trekked in a continuous stream of locals heading up the snaking steep slope. A continuous stream that had stayed overnight at the top were coming in the other direction. The wealthy were ferried up the hill in sedan chairs carried by four sweating skinny locals. Like the Chinese, I would almost feel like knocking them off, seeing them on their perch looking down on all the locals around them.

It sounds more than a little bizarre, but the Golden Rock was one of the highlights of the country for me. It's a rock that is miraculously perched on the side of a mountain defying gravity. Covered in gold paint, legend has it that it's held in place by two Buddha hairs? The side that you can access was swarming with locals sticking gold leaf to the rock. The area behind the rock is like a big open courtyard for pilgrims. The atmosphere was magic. They sat about: praying, picnic-ing and playing. There were special viewing areas dedicated to praying to the rock. It was a serious business for the locals to worship the rock.

En Route to Golden Rock
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Back to Bago

So we had said Happy Christmas to Buddha and it was time to get back to Bago and check out a few of the local sights. We were sitting having Christmas Day breakfast in a coffee shop beside our hotel when a local approached to see if we needed to be ferried about on motorbike to see the sights. My first question; do we need the entry ticket? One of the big dilemmas in the country is when you pay an admission fee to something it goes straight into the pocket of the government. They do nothing for the people of the country with the money that they receive. The locals hate the government and are quite happy to divert the money away from them. So this local in the coffee shop would take us around for a few kyat (local currency) extra to avoid the $10 government fee. 'Give us the money and not the government', I had no problem with this.

The Great one, The Golden Rock
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First stop was dinner time for the monks in the local monastery. One of their rules is that they can't eat after 11am. So coming up to the big time, they have to make the most of their last chance for the day to get some food. About 700 monks and novices ate in the hall in total silence. A central pot of rice was the nerve center. The scooped out of it as fast as they could to feed the mass. Just after 11am, they exited the hall in single file. What a sight it was to see the monks filing past for about five minutes in a continuous line.

The Great one, The Golden Rock
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It was then time to pay a visit to the Snake Monastery. There we found the former head of a monastery in the north who died and has since been reincarnated as a 115 year old boa constrictor. He was supposed to have given the exact address of the monastery that he would be reincarnated to! Locals offered money to the snake, with the monk placing the money on the snake with the local's hand and offering a prayer. There wasn't much life out of the snake. He seemed to be about as alive as Mao on Tianamen square. It was a real sight to see locals coming to the window in front of the snake and praying with a real intense belief.

Christmas Greetings at the Golden Rock
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Bago is the place for big Buddhas and Stupas, so after visiting the 55m long reclining Shwethalyaung Buddha and the Shwemawdaw Paya, 114m tall it was time to catch the bus to Kalaw. Not such a luxurious way to round off Christmas Day.