Local Hero Khine heeft een inspectietrip gedaan in Myanmar. Samen met collega's heeft zij gekeken welke plaatsen een bezoek waard zijn tijdens een rondreis Myanmar. Khine maakte een korte trip langs de Irrawaddy rivier. Voor ons heeft zij haar bevindingen omgezet tot een reisverhaal.
Time to for a trip
We headed up to the Yangon Central Rail Station to take a train to Pyay. The train leaves at from Yangon and make stops at several towns. On the way, we enjoyed the sight of different kind of plantations, paddy fields and farmers working with their cows.
The next morning after breakfast, we drove to Htone Bo from where we would take a boat ride to visit Akouk Taung Pagoda- beautiful Buddha statues that are carved in the cliff. Here we saw the best panoramic scenery from the river and we also explored the temples and Buddha’s on top of Akuak Tuang Mountain.
Fishing with a local
The next day we were going to fish with a local fisherman. We soon find ourselves chugging upstream whilst the riverbank, looking magically in the early morning light, glides silently by. Half an hour later it’s time to carefully lay out the nets. Then it’s time to just patiently sit and ‘’kanalay’’ – wait.
For the western society this might sound challenging. But the peaceful river and rhythmic motions of the fisherman have an almost hypnotic effect. An exciting moment happened when the fisherman starts pulling in the net. He is looking for silvery fishes in the net. We are welcome to have a try for ourselves.
Without realizing it we are back at our starting point. Time to say goodbye to the fisherman. The catch of day comes along with us. Our chef will be happy to prepare a tasty dish of it for us.
Adventurous tour
We left for a guided motorbike tour. An adventurous excursion along the riverbanks of the Irrawaddy. This 5 hours during guided motorbike tour gives us an insight into the daily working life of the local population and takes us to Salay.
The route we cross is a sandy track along the river bank, where we encounter a colourful never ending procession of people going to work and children going to school. We just need to tap on the driver’s shoulder whenever we care to stop for photos. :)
The city of a dozen temples
A 15 minute drive brought us to Salay (Sale). Here we are free to roam around the hills and discover the three dozen temples. Unfortunately a few have suffered from the ravages of time. Such temples are usually seen only in Bagan. As a bonus there are no entrance fees and no “do not touch” signs.
We continue the ride on the motorbikes to visit Pakannge village. The village was set-up by people originally from Bagan who didn’t want to follow the strict Buddhist rules. But rather wanted to follow the old animist beliefs.
Wooden monastery
The next day the guide from Magyikan village meet us to visit the beautiful wood-carved monastery, named Yoke Sone Kyaung in Salay. From here we started walking about an hour to explore the old monastery, the temple ruins and colonial buildings. We ended the tour at Salay House.
At 11:00 we had a transfer to pier where we took a private boat towards Bagan. I would last 5 hours before we got there. Our adventure was over. Time to get back to work. ;)
Lijkt jouw een reis door Myanmar ook wel wat? Bekijk dan een van onze Myanmar voorbeeldreizen of neem contact op met onze Myanmar reisspecialist Khine en maak samen met haar jouw ultieme reis door dit mooie land.
