Pindaya

PINDAYA – July 30

It is not easy to reach Pindaya without a driver, but with a little of good will it’s possible. The most convenient place to base is Kalaw, because here there are more hotels and comforts. If you instead want to see less tourists you can stop at Aung Ban, which houses a beautiful market, and where there are a few places to settle down. Obviously the reception of my Seint Hotel in Kalaw have no idea on how to reach Pindaya, except by taxi at the price of USD 35 return, and even the Lonely Planet is not very precise about it. But I am sure on the feasibility of the enterprise, and, immediately after having deposited my luggage at the hotel, I start patrolling on Circular Road the two points that I consider strategic, that’s to say the bus stop, and the mototaxi group, importuning everybody, even those who do not speak a word of English. Someone tell me the stall of the minivan to Aung Ban, where I have to change connection, is in the open space behind the market. The departure should be in the early morning. I rush to the place, and begin to question all present people. As a result, I literally materialize there on the next morning at 6.00, a small bus arrives shortly after me. We leave at 6.45 and after half an hour we arrive to Aung Ban, at the clock tower area, while it has again started to rain. No one has idea about Pindaya bus departure time, some say at 8.00 others at 11.00. Of course, many mototaxis offer their services, but 8.00 are not very far away, so I shelter myself under a balcony, and I wait. Some pick ups pass, but they are full. Eventually, an empty one stops. The guy at the wheel proposes 2000 MMK. I hesitate. Sit in the cabin there is a monk. I generally do not take lift, especially if the vehicle is full of men only, but these people do not seem so terrible. So I sit, alone, in the back

Once in Pindaya, the driver approaches to a bustling market, and makes a nod like if he wanted to say “piss off”. He gets out accompanied by the monk, and disappears. I am unsure on what to do. I wait a few minutes and then I realize that, if they really wanted the money, they would have withdrawn it before leaving .. I can see the caves halfway on a hill in front of me, so I decide to walk along the lake. I step next to a hotel with a nice view, named Pindaya, whose cheapest rooms cost 40 USD, then the Conqueror (I do not ask for prices). Hit by an attack of dysentery, and desperately needing a toilet, I avoid the Green Tea Restaurant, which I think is very expensive, even for a breakfast, and prefer to refuge myself in a simpler bamboo hut where they serve fresh yogurt and green tea

Next to the staircase leading to the Shwe Oo Min Paya, an expanse of white statues of Buddha, and farmers who load quintals of cabbages on farm tractors

Entrance costs 3000 MMK + 300 for the camera.In the cave more than 8000 Buddha, of all sizes and materials, are kept. Some men are applying gold leaves on the statues.

I go back in town and, to get back to Kalaw, I ask information to the polite manager of the cheap Myit Phyar Zaw Gji Hotel, located near the market. He tells me that a bus is scheduled at 14.00, and kindly invites me to sit down in his reception to wait. But there is time for lunch, so I thank him, and walk toward U Sake, where a soup of noodles costs 1000 MMK. For the whole time I have been the only foreigner around, apart a few tourists arrived with their drivers at the caves while I went out. You then can be sure that, if you arrive early in the morning, you will be peacefully alone. The 14.00 minibus really exists. Back to Aung Ban, a mototaxi taxi (2000 MMK) takes me back to Kalaw

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