The Golden Rock

We finally made it to Kinpun, the last stop for our trip in Myanmar. As the bus stopped we were flocked by touts offering us accomodation options, yet, since we already made bookings at the Sae Saw Guesthouse, which was just beside the pickup truck terminal up to Mt. Kyaiktikyo, we decided to stick with it. 

After refreshening ourselves, we found ourselves a pickup truck heading up the mountain  soon at the terminal; the truck itself could fit 35 passengers at the back, and 5 more at the front seat. Imagine yourself cramped in a sardine can, bouncing up and down along the serpentine road heading uphill for an hour. Well, that was what I felt. Fortunately I had already swallowed my motion sickness, so the trip was fairly tolerable, except for my constant fear of falling off from the pickup truck since I sat at the side.

A fee of 1500 kyats gets you to the half point of the hill where one needs to trek up another hour to reach the mountain top. We had lunch somewhere near where the pickup truck dropped us, and soon after we started our journey. 

I was huffing and puffing, cursing and swearing at this ridiculous idea of mounting up this mountain slope just to see a golden rock. However, I began to change my mind as we walked past pilgrims of all sorts; some on crutches or walking sticks, and some too frail, yet still strived to make their way up the mountain just to fulfil their dreams of seeing and touching the golden rock. How mighty the power of faith can be!

We passed by stalls selling icy cold beverages or desserts, and also peddlars selling souvenirs and exotic animal parts. I tried to catch a few minutes of rest whenever I could, resting my butt on benches, stools, rocks, etc., until I get that brackish look from the stall owner's face implying me to scoot. 

Miraculously, we managed to reach the peak of the mountain, alive in one piece! And there was already a big crowd there! We paid the USD$6 entrance fees and marched into the temple complex in a large stride, but the scorching marble floors made us run into the shades! I was glad that it was the last time I had to walk barefoot! 

And there, not far from us, was the fabled golden rock on the mountain, and we started taking photos frenziedly, as we approached it. Like other sacred sites in Myanmar, women are only allowed to get to a certain vicinity of the rock, and we squeezed ourselves past zealous devotees and other fellow travellers, getting closer and closer to it, until we could finally touched it for ourselves. Ah, what sense of satisfaction!

After molesting the rock a couple of times and made some prayers, we visited the temple complex and decided it was time to head down to the hotel. Certainly we would not want to get stranded on top of the mountain with this horde of pilgrims! Fortunately, the trip downhill was less exhausting, and we reached the pickup truck drop zone just within 30 minutes. We hopped onto a pickup truck, waited for 30 minutes for it to be filled with other passengers, and off we went downhill back to Kinpun. The journey downwards was more exciting, and it made me felt like I was on a roller coaster. I swear my hands were tightly clutching onto the sidebars of the pick up truck and onto my seat, while a couple of French ladies were cheering in excitement as in they were on a fun ride. After 30 minutes of drive, we finally reached Kinpun.

We headed back to our hotel, which was just a stone throw from the terminal, and cleaned ourselves from the toil and sweat we had for conquering this little mountain. Kinpun has evolved into a pilgrimage town catering for tourists and pilgrims, hence, there were tons of stalls selling souvenirs and local products, especially fruit jam. Otherwise, there was not really much things to see in this little town at night, so we headed back towards the hotel after our dinner to relax and unwind ourselves.

It was the final night of my trip in Myanmar, and somehow I was soaked in a concoction made up by various emotions. Anyway, I just could not wait to go back to Myanmar, head for the airport straight and hopped onto our flight back to Malaysia!