Yangon to Golden Rock

Yangon to Golden Rock

Decided to take the train as I do love trains in foreign countries and opted for the “ordinary class” which consisted of wooden benches, open windows, open doors too where you can smoke and for the loo, just a hole where you can see the train tracks! The train ride was indeed what we call a ride! It was so much fun. Going from side to side(luggage falling from over our heads), up and down to the point my bum wasn't actually touching the bench anymore! I found it so funny, I started laughing, but all the locals found it funny I was laughing so suddenly the whole wagon was having a right good laugh! It was hilarious!

I love taking the lower class in trains for that... it's where the best people are... (très populaire) great atmosphere, everybody looking after each other: amazing! They kept offering me stuff, making sure I understood where I had to get off and all that, they were all so sweet. Started to really have a feel for Myanmar at that time.

I got off at Kyaikto and jumped at the back of a pick up truck to reach Kinpun, the village at the base of the famous “Golden rock”.

 Found myself a sweet little guesthouse but 7 times the price as what I would pay in the rest of South east Asia!! The prices for rooms here are SO expensive it's ridiculous. The thing is that there are not that many guest houses that accept foreigners and this year they had so many tourists coming over that they don't have enough accommodation for everybody. People had to stay in monasteries or hotels changed their dining room into temporary dorms!!! Yes it's that bad!

 Anyway so found myself a sweet place to stay and decided to go straight up to the rock. I was lucky as I managed to jump onto one of these monster trucks that goes up the mountain without waiting. (Normally you have to wait until it's full before to leave, but as I was one of the last ones, I didn't have to wait at all). On the top of that, they normally go half way up and then you've got to walk, but this one was going right to the top!! Perfect! The ride was so much fun as well, like a proper rollercoaster.

The Golden Rock... well... it was exactly that! A golden rock with small stuppa on the top and that was it. Don't get me wrong, it was really nice to see it, I'm happy I went but I was disappointed by the whole atmosphere. Loads of vendors selling cheap souvenirs and toys, food stalls, chav Burmese teenagers trying to score, monks smoking...and from 16.30 loads of foreign tourists invaded the place to see the rock at sunset. So yeah, not incredibly amazing I would say. Decided not to stay for the sunset as it was cloudy anyway and the atmosphere started to get on my nerves. Also I sat on an over ripped banana in the train (wearing white trousers), didn't changed and it got obviously even dirtier, I looked pretty gross with a shit kinda colour stain on my bum, which could have suggested many things... suddenly I became aware of it and thought it'll just be a good idea to just go back home, have a nice shower and put some clean clothes on!