Day 253 Golden Rock

After a relaxed day in Yangon, where I admittedly didn't do much, my alarm went off at 4 am this morning. I have planned a day trip to the Golden Rock for today. The Golden Rock is one of the most important, if not the most important, pilgrimage sites for Buddhists in Myanmar. The Golden Rock is a rock that legend has it is held in place by a single hair of Buddha.

But to get from Yangon to this rock, I had a 5-hour bus ride ahead of me. So I had to get up early today.

However, the traffic was not as heavy this morning as usual, so I arrived a bit early at the bus terminal by taxi. This gave me some time for a small breakfast at one of the many small food stalls around the bus terminal. I had rice noodles with chili sauce, various spices, and some vegetables. Shortly after I started eating, a young local man sat down next to me and we started talking a bit. His English was quite limited, so the conversation mostly revolved around the same 3 questions. When I wanted to pay, the young man jumped up and insisted on paying for my bill. Gratefully, I accepted the invitation, and shortly after, he said goodbye and I also went to catch my bus.

In the bus, I was once again the only tourist and stood out immediately. After the bus driver showed me my seat, a woman with a huge shopping bag sat down next to me. It turned out that she didn't speak English, so I took a nap after the bus started driving.

As I gazed out the window lost in thought, my neighbor suddenly nudged me in the ribs. When I turned to her, she handed me a bag of crab chips and gestured for me to help myself. So we ate the bag of chips together and each had half a bottle of energy drink. After that, she fell asleep again for a while and I watched the scenery outside the window. About half an hour later, the same thing happened again, this time with a jar of spice paste. I didn't like the taste at all, so after trying it, I politely declined. So she pulled out another bag of crab chips from her bag and handed it to me. This repeated throughout the entire journey. Eventually, she also wanted to know where I was going, and with the help of a map, I was able to show her. She wants to go to the exact same place.

When we arrived, she said goodbye without many words. Instead, I was approached by a white tourist who asked for directions to the Golden Rock. So we set off together to search for it. We quickly found the bus station for the shuttle bus up the hill. Six people were squeezed onto the cargo bed of the pickup truck per row, regardless of the volume certain people took up.

The ride didn't start until every seat was occupied. We were lucky and didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes. Then the roller coaster ride began. My new travel companion complained the whole way while I enjoyed the thrilling ride up the hill.

Once we reached the top, we had a 10-minute walk ahead of us. As the footpath to the rock was part of the temple complex, it was naturally done barefoot.

In the end, the rock itself was not so impressive. It's simply a rock covered in gold leaf and standing on an edge. But the pilgrims make this place something special.

It quickly became apparent that my travel companion and I had quite different views on different cultures and religions. Since she was about 20 years older than me, she wanted to teach me a little bit about everything, and my opinion and experiences were never valued as much as hers. I was annoyed. But I couldn't get rid of her. When I said I was going back down now, she joined me. Another daring ride later, we were back in front of the bus terminal. Unfortunately, she also had to go back to Yangon, and to my misfortune, she was also on the same bus. Despite her alleged extensive travel experience, she complained about everything, and I was relieved when we finally arrived in Yangon and went our separate ways.

It was still an interesting day, even if the journey will be more memorable than the rock itself.