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Saturday, March 26, 2016

Bago, Myanmar (Part I)

Thilawa to Bago, Myanmar -- February 22, 2016
2016 HAL Volendam Asian Adventure, Day 7
Weather: Light breeze, clear, 31C/88F

This was our second day on 2-day tour with One Stop Travel. We arranged to meet with Sunny by ship side at 8AM this morning but when we checked to see if the bus was there as we gathered on deck 3, we saw that Sunny and the bus was already there. As soon as everybody showed up we marched off the ship, onto the bus and left port at 7:50. There was less buses in port that day, probably because some tours spent the night in Yangon and some people only took a 1-day tour.







Again, we had our room service breakfast.

The bus ride from Thilawa port to Bago was close to three hours with very bumpy roads again and lots of traffic. It was a Monday morning and traffic was horrible! Here are just some of the photos I took as we were traveling on this long ride.

Some modest homes...

...and some beautiful houses.

busy highway

waiting for the buses

HtaukKyant Memorial Cemetery
Our first stop for the day was the HtaukKyant Memorial Cemetery. This is a cemetery for Allied soldiers from the British Commonwealth who died in battle in Burma during II World War. It contains the graves of 6,374 soldiers who died in World War II and 52 soldiers who died during World War I. These included soldiers from India and Africa.



It was a moving and solemn experience visiting this site remembering so many soldiers who died on a foreign land far away from their home country.

Reading some of the headstones was particularly touching.

It must be so unbearable as parents to lose their babies in such a way.

Unknown hero



It was like visiting Normandy, filled with emotions.

The public restroom across the street from the cemetery. I should have gone here instead of waiting for the next possibly 'better' ones. It did not have a line yet when some people in our group went. It was dangerous crossing the street also.

Just a few minutes later when the excursion buses arrived.






Kha Khat Monastery
Our next stop was the Kha Khat Monastery, the largest monastery in the country, where about 1,000 monks live and study together.

Entering the front entrance of the monastery.

Some activities down at the other end of the corridor.


Jars of drinking water

Buddha statues on the right inside the glass cases. We found restrooms at the end of this corridor and had to go in bare footed using the squat toilet. Yuck! I should have used the other one earlier.

dormitory

monks feeding the birds

busy studying
We did not stay here for long, but it was interesting to see how the monks live. 


Shwemawsaw Pagoda
This pagoda is similar to the Shwedagon Pagoda that we visited yesterday in Rangoon, except that it is smaller scale. But, this is the tallest pagoda in Myanmar. By the way, it seemed that everything was called Shwe--- something, even stores would have names like Shwe whatever and I forgot to ask Sunny why.

Food vendor at the entrance of the pagoda selling various kind of roasted meat.



Looks a lot like Shwedagon.


We were told that they are celebrating a festival (maybe still the Buddha Festival like the day before?) and they are cooking up some sticky rice for anyone who wants to have some. This is also a competition.



Much quieter than Shwedagon though.



Part of the old pagoda that was excavated.

Shoes back on.




Kan Baw Za Tha Di Palace
This palace was excavated and rebuilt the same way as the original one. It was built for King Bayinnaung, the founder of the second empire, in 1556, which consisted of 76 apartments and halls. Burned down in 1599, reconstructed in 1990 and finished in 1992.  There are not much inside but the building itself is pretty enough.


Beautiful structure well restored.

ceiling


original wood on display

airy and bright


Golden Throne

Royal Coach


It was way past lunch time when we came out of the palace. Sunny then took us to a restaurant called HanthaWaddy for lunch. We were told that they serve a buffet lunch for $8000 but all of us decided that we would skip the buffet and ordered a la cart instead because we were not sure how long the food had been sitting out there and there were flies zooming around.

Nice looking restaurant


With a balcony upstairs.

ChC had the grilled pork neck which he said was good but I did not get a picture of except the rice.

My order of basil chicken with rice.

MOR's noodle soup.
The total we paid for our food came out to $15 USD, which was quite cheap for a decent lunch.


The buffet

Now we are happy!


Our Bago adventure to be continued...

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