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Golden Rock, At Last

Posted by Stuart at 09:56 PM on September 03, 2006

Highlights from yesterday's Premier League Football is on TV with Westlife blaring from the stereo. Am I in an English pub in London? Of course not; I'm in a Burmese tea shop at 7:30 in the morning.

My friend and I are waiting for the truck to take us up the mountain to Golden Rock. The truck only goes when there are at least 25 people in the back, and each person pays US$1. Right now there are only three who are waiting, so we sit here eating noodles and drinking tea to pass the time.

If nothing else, this trip is an exercise in patience. My American "I want it now" personality has to be kept in check here. Otherwise it will cost me dearly. We can rent the entire truck for US$40. But I think that's a bit steep for a ride up the mountain.

My friend says that the trip is much easier in the summer (and by "summer" he means the dry season that starts in January) because many Burmese people make the pilgrimage to the rock and the truck therefore makes frequent trips. But today, there are no crowds of travelers, so there is no telling how long we will sit here.

Around 8:30, three Japanese tourists show up at the truck. By this time, about eight Burmese people have arrived as well, so after a bit of negotiation (we are always negotiating) we reached a happy medium: Eight Burmese people pay US$1 each and the four foreigners and one monk pay US$5 each.

The truck doesn't go all the way to the Golden Rock. The last, quite steep two kilometers or so has to be done on foot. On the way up, the weather swung wildly; one minute it is cloudy and cool, the next it is pouring rain, the next has blazing hot sun. But the five of us persevere and eventually we make it all the way to the top.

The travel brochures call the Golden Rock one of the wonders of the world. To be honest, though, that's a bit of an exaggeration. It's simply a big rock that looks like it is balancing on the edge of a cliff at the top of a mountain. It has been painted a bright gold color and has a small golden pagoda on the top. But the views from the top of the mountain and the pilgrimage itself make it a worthwhile trip.

But now, at the top of the mountain, we were only half-way through our journey; we still have to make it back to Yangon to catch my plane back to Bangkok early tomorrow morning. It has taken us 28 hours to reach this point, but my plane leaves in 20. Needless to say I am a little worried that I will miss my flight.

So we walk back down the steep trail to the truck, but of course we are the only ones who want to take it. We didn't want to split the US$40, so we decided to walk all the way down ourselves. As we started walking away (in the rain, I might add) the price suddenly dropped to US$25 for the five of us, which we happily paid.

After the truck ride down, the next leg required another truck ride to the main road. My monk friend told us that there were no busses to Yangon after 1 PM. Unfortunately now it was 2 PM, so I was naturally a bit pessimistic. But then, not five minutes after we arrived at the main road, a bus to Yangon appeared. Six bumpy hours later, we were back in the city, tired, sore, dirty, and hungry, but very, very happy to be back.

So it has been an amazing three days in Myanmar. My flight back to Bangkok leaves at 8:30 AM tomorrow. I have to say that I am a bit sad to leave. There is so much left here for me to explore. I guess it will all just have to wait for "next time".