I got invited to a home of a Myanmar family by a girl on the bus named Niilar. She was visiting her family for the first time in over seven years. I think it was 5 or 6AM when we arrived at the home and turned out to be a long day. The home was like a small restaurant and store in the front. They burn wood to cook the food. I got to go down the street to the Aunt’s home which was a little bigger. I got to meet more of the family, like grandmother and more aunts and uncles. Not many foreigners visit here, so it was special.
I got a tour of the new home the family is building. Much more modern. A flush toilet instead of an outhouse, for example. The village has a couple wells where people bring up buckets of water by hand. Some homes are nearly 100 years old, others are brand new.
I tried to visit Kakku, an ancient site with over 2000 stupas of unknown age. We took two motorcycles. One with Niilar and her brother driving. Another with me and her brother’s friend driving. We were stopped at a government checkpoint and couldn’t go any further without a $10 permit which we had to get somewhere in town. I decided not to waste any more time and money with this military government and skip this place.
Then we decide to visit Montawa Cave. The city is on top of a mountain and the road to the cave gave an amazing view of the surrounding country around the mountain. After the road ended, we had to walk to the cave. There is a Buddhist temple at the mouth of the cave and we all met the abbot. I signed the guestbook and was surprised to see I was the only foreigner to ever do so. It was quite a special place on the side of a mountain, a cave, a waterfall, and a great view.
Next we had to take our shoes off to go inside the cave since there are Buddha statues inside. There were at least 100 of various sizes. Next thing I noticed was the sound of bats all over the roof of the cave. I was thinking, maybe this is why it isn’t so popular since you have to walk barefoot through bat guano here. After the area of statues the cave goes further back. It got muddy and slippery in some areas, a little dangerous with bare feet. The cave got smaller, we had to crouch down and walk through some water, then it opened up again. At one point the cave split in two directions. One way you could hear the sound of water flowing, but it was a drop straight down, little too dangerous. Finally, we made it to the end of the cave. Actually it went a little farther, but again went down and it would be better if we had ropes.
Then I suggested we turn off all the flashlights for a few minutes. There is no electricity in this cave, you are totally on your own here. We took about one hour to walk to the end and back. Not sure exactly how long it is, I couldn’t measure. After exiting, we washed off our muddy feet in the stream just above the waterfall.
There was one more stop at one of the more impressive pagodas in the city and then I was dropped off at my hotel. It seems I’m not allowed to stay with any Myanmar family in this country, so that’s why I had to find the hotel.