We were heading to the Shwe Oo Min natural Cave pagoda near Pindaya before catching our plane in the afternoon to Mandalay. It was about an hour and half drive through very beautiful farming country. This is very much the area of fertile farmland, with most of the land covered in some sort of produce. The success of the area is reflected in the large stupas and temples around the hilltops and the quite large houses in the villages. The area almost looks like something out of Northern Europe. This would be helped by the $2 tax the locals are charging foreigners for passing through the area. Road taxes are also charged. We stopped to watch 3 women cutting the wheat and putting it into small bunches by hand. This appears to get pickup later and loaded on to the back of a bullock cart.
Pindaya is a pretty town with a large what looks like a man made lake at the base of the hills where the large cave full of thousands of Buddhas resides. We drove up to near the entrance of the cave rather than walking up the hundreds of steps on the undercover walkway. We did do the final walk though up to the cave rather than take the massive elevator. The cave which has a number of chambers and passages houses over 8000 Buddhas of all shores and sizes( from 1cm to 15m tall) and made from different materials including wood, cement, brick and stone. They create a maze in the main chamber to walk though, covering all the walls. Within the main chamber there is also a small meditation cave which had more Buddhas inside and can fit 2 or 3 people in to meditate. A passage going down takes you into a even bigger chamber with various other chambers off the sides of it. Although there are still many buddhas within them, they are not jammed pack like the first cave, allowing room for alot more Buddhas to be added. The Buddha images are donated by people and associations from all over Myanmar as well as the rest of the world, and presumably will continue to do so.
After exploring the cave for about an hour we followed a walkway on the other side of the cave where there was another massive sitting Buddha being housed above a monastery. We headed back through the monastery, the boys wanting to take the lift down and met back up with our driver. He took us to a paper and umbrella factory where a couple of girls demonstrated how they made paper out of the bark of a mulberry tree adding blossoms for decoration, whilst a very clever man showed us how they made the umbrella handles and mechanisms from bamboo. They really are very innovative. After buying a book of beautiful handmade paper we ate lunch at a posh restaurant by the lake with lots of other tourists. Again the tourist population is older and we have seen very few families or younger people travelling.
We headed to He Ho airport where we were stickered up for our 25 minute flight that left and arrived 15 minutes early. Mandalay international airport was empty on our arrival, so it was surprising it took so long for our bags to arrive. Our driver for the next 5 days named Min was waiting for us as expected with another people mover, which the boys enjoy being in the back of.
It was an hour to get to the centre of Mandalay first through flat farm land before hitting a very dirty polluted looking city with lots of traffic as the sun started setting. The boys enjoyed starting up their game of punch motorbike which involves giving the other one a punch every time you see a motorbike, not to be confused with a scooter of which there are thousands. Our hotel, supposedly quite new was the typical concrete structure that they seem to like to build. But with satellite TV, limited access to wifi and a roof top restaurant, no one was complaining. We headed up to the restaurant from which we could see Mandalay hill and had another large meal. We are definitely eating too much. It was difficult to get the kids away from the TV afterwards.
Location:Inle Lake
