The Golden Rock

We took a short bus ride over to the town closest to the Golden Rock or Kyaiktiyo Pagoda. Its a major pilgrimage site because its a massive boulder perched precariously on a strand of Buddha's hair. Our timing was also pretty great in that we visited the temple on a full moon holiday (which we didn't know until we arrived).

To get from the town to the temple, they load as many people as can reasonably fit (this is not the American definition of reasonable) in the back of a massive truck. There were benches to sit on, but they definitely packed us in pretty close. Then the truck went barreling up the mountainside for 45 minutes until we reached the top.

The view from near the truck park.

We were seriously instructed that the trucks only run from 6am to 6pm (meaning we can't see sunrise or sunset unless we pay a ridiculous amount of money to stay at the hotels on the top of the mountain). We noticed a lot of the Myanmar people coming up with big bags and setting up blanket forts essentially. I think a lot of them were staying the night at the temple, and I really wish I had known that was an option.

Laying out tons of kerosene lamps

Filling the bowls with kerosene and taking it very seriously

Ready to light!

The rock is gold plated, and if you're a man you can buy a small piece of gold leaf to press onto the rock. Women aren't even allowed closer than a certain distance from the rock, so there were separate viewing/praying platforms for men and women. If anyone knows what about Buddhist teachings prevent women from coming near or touching an important rock, I would LOVE to know. My frustratingly-slow-internet-search didn't reveal much except a large number of Western tourists who find this to be insulting and incredibly unfair.

Plating the rock (from the womens viewing platform)

Getting close to sunset.

Around 5:30 we started to head back from the temple towards the trucks. There were so many people to look at and photos to take that we didn't make it to the truck stop until 6:15. And it looked like we had missed the last truck down. Except there were several other families (they were definitely not able to make the sketchy walk down the mountain in the dark) waiting. In broken English and lots of gestures we confirmed that we all needed to get down the mountain. They were going to call us a truck. And it was going to cost double what it cost if we had showed up at 6pm. Then after some waiting and discussion in Burmese, they told us a slightly cheaper price. Then a full truck came barreling up, dropped off its people, and turned around and went back down the mountain empty. Apparently we had to wait for one specific truck. Twice more we were told the price had gotten lower. By the time we finally boarded the truck and headed back down, the price was the exact amount we had expected to pay for the truck at 6pm. I have no idea what happened or why we waited while trucks went down empty, but it worked in our favor and we got to watch the sunset from the truck stop on the top of a mountain. Not the worst way for confusion to treat me.

Prayer bells.

She was really excited to ring the bell for me