Today it was another motorcycle trip around the city. This time up to the highest part of the mountain overlooking Taunggyi. We reached one peak and saw some pagodas. I learned some about Nat belief here in Myanmar, which is the spirits or ghosts of old people still around.
Then we came across a hole in the ground which looked like it went down at least 10m (30ft). I used a mirror to try to see the bottom, but it was some kind of natural cave and it wouldn’t be the last I see today. We walk a bit down the mountain and enter a cave with a pretty big room. Outside the cave entrance you can see an excellent view of the city. Inside the cave there are stairs and many statues that have recently been added.
Next we walked to another peak of the mountain, which is supposed to give the best view. A few parts of the path were tricky since there was some mud. At the top it was a good few as promised since this mountain had steep cliffs on most of the sides.
We returned back to near the cave and then walked down some more stairs. There was one middle aged man who was running up and down the stairs, carrying bags of water. He said he was trying to water all the his plants along the stairs within one hour. He seemed to have more energy than us younger people!
Then it was off to the bus station to get a 1 hour truck ride to Inle Lake. We found the truck and I got in to wait for enough people to show up. The driver kept talking to me. Niilar said “The driver is a little drunk.” I said, “Ok, I’ll just put my seatbelt on.” But there were no seatbelts in this truck. Then I was thinking I have no heath insurance if we crash, so maybe I have to draw the line here and keep my mom happy.
I decide to not take the truck to Inle Lake. Even though I’ve been waiting 20 or 30 minutes for the truck to leave, as soon as I get out, tons of people jump on and the truck leaves. I learn they were trying to get me to pay more money to get the truck to leave sooner. They were trying to make it look like there weren’t enough people to go. So instead I find a cheap hotel for tonight and try again in the morning.