Steintore
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Steintore
Sun, 16.02.2014: Inle Lake −> Pyin Oo Lwin, sunny, 34°C
Kelvin set his alarm for pm instead of am so we had to get someone from reception to knock on his door! We got a taxi back to the airport and our flight was called immediately. There was a large crowd of passengers still in the same and only waiting hall and this time we walked from the airport building to the plane parked in its space at the side of the runway.
We had a 25 minute flight to Mandalay and then had two taxis to take us to Pyin Oo Lwin, one hour away. Cynthia, Nigel and Kelvin were in the first taxi and we followed in the other. On the way up into the hills along many switchbacks, we had a short stop at a roadside café where we found some yummy pizza flavoured crisps.
We set off again driving up more steep switchbacks. But almost immediately the engine cut out! The others were ahead of us so didn't know there was a problem. Our driver got out, opened the bonnet, and seemed to be hand-pumping something. We stayed inside but I said to Kirsten "That looks like the fuel pump!"
We set off again but only made two switchbacks and the engine cut out again. This time another taxi driver stopped to help and there was more hand-pumping going on. We had three more stops like this with the other taxi driver following us and stopping with us each time. At one point they even tried to syphon petrol from the other taxi into ours! So we knew that we had run out of petrol!!
By now Cynthia, Nigel and Kelvin were way ahead of us and may well have already arrived and wondering where on earth we had got to!!
Anyway, we cut out and hand-pumped our way up the switchbacks until we reached a small roadside place that sold petrol out of large gallon tanks. Of course we cut out before we got there and the driver had to walk the last few metres and left the woman of the shop to carry the petrol can to our taxi and put some in!
We set off again but still conked out because the fuel pump had to be primed! We eventually got to our hotel at 12-30pm, only 20 minutes later than the others. We checked into our room, made a cup of tea and then got onto the computer. We forgot to eat lunch and by the time we realised, it was too late to get anything because we were meeting at 3-30pm for a 2.5 hour city tour of Pyin Oo Lwin.
Pyin Oo Lwin was founded by the British in 1896 as a summer retreat to escape the heat of Mandalay. Lonely Planet describes the town as "picturesque" but we didn't agree. This was not the Myanmar we were used to. Up until now everything had been very clean and maintained but here, it was different - dirty and smelly. I thought I had landed back in India and that's when we started seeing a number of Indian restaurants and Indian sweet shops. That would certainly explain the difference we had noticed.
Back in our room we ordered chicken fried rice which arrived almost cold with a tepid fried egg on top and a soup that had a very strong garlic and Ginseng taste that we couldn't eat. We were not really impressed so far and we have two nights here plus the following morning!
Mon, 17.02.2014: Pyin Oo Lwin, cloudy/rain, 20°C
We went down for breakfast at 7am but it was a bit of a disaster. All the food was laid out buffet style. The Burmese eat cold food for breakfast so there was the typical assortment of noodles and stir fried vegetables. There was also a plate of fried eggs but they were stone cold. No juice or fruit and only three in one sachets of tea or coffee. We had out tea bags so we asked for hot water and had some dry toast. The group decision was that we would have to say something for tomorrow.
We left at 8am and went to the National Kandawgyi Gardens, founded in 1915 with 435 acres featuring more than 480 species of flowers, shrubs and trees. Kelvin gave us 1 hour to look around which we immediately extended by thirty minutes to give us more time and, even then, we got back late!
It was a very cloudy and grey day and we walked across the lake to an aviary - toucans, horn-billed birds, a huge grey crane, parakeets and lots of Mina birds. Then on to a butterfly museum. It was very well presented but such a pity we have to kill them to see them. There were also some huge beetles on display.
The Orchid Garden was not yet in bloom so we went on to the Nan Myint Tower that Lonely Planet describes as "bizarre - like a space rocket designed for a medieval Chinese Emperor." It is 12 storeys high and there was a sign on the lift that said "Out of Service" but a man waved us inside, opened a box inside the lift beside the doors, put two wires together, and pressed the up button. He got out as the doors closed on us. Oh God!! Do we really want to go up in this?
We had a nervous but thankfully short ride to the top floor for the views and decided to take the stairs back down!! We walked past teak forests, rock gardens, petrified wood and a garden with concrete shapes covered in flowers - the flowers had just been stuck onto the concrete.
We enjoyed wandering around and got back to the taxi late and then drove to Peik Chin Myaung Cave. Some people were posing for photos standing in the terrace waterfalls in front of the entrance.
The cave was - well - Bizarre! It was full of Buddhas, statues and pagodas. The stalactites at the front of the cave were quite large but they had put in a concrete walkway including steps and had even put in concrete trees that were painted.
It started raining just as we got to Pwe Kauk Falls, a fan of small weirs and splash pools. Some water had been diverted through a pipe to turn a children's merry-go-round. Kelvin bought us drinks and snacks at a café nearby.
It was still raining but we only had one more stop for the day - Aung Htu Kan Tha Paya which was only finished in 2000 and has an interesting story. In April 1997, a 17 ton marble Buddha fell off the back of a lorry used to transport it to China. There were several failed attempts to move it. Part of the Buddhist belief is that if something wants to stay, it does. So they decided that this Buddha wanted to remain in Myanmar. They eventually got it out using cranes and built a dazzling temple for it.
It was extremely slippery walking up the steps and around it in bare feet as the marble was very wet from the rain. Fortunately we were all very careful and managed to get back to the taxi in one piece.
Peik Chin Myaung Buddha Cave & Aung Htu Kan Tha Pagoda
We had a quick stop in town for supplies and then had a meeting at our hotel. We asked if we could get an earlier bus to Hsipaw - namely the next morning - and for hot eggs for breakfast or at least eggs to order plus maybe some juice and fruit. We'd never had to ask before because it had always been provided for us, but this hotel seemed to be below the standard we had become accustomed to. Kelvin said he would arrange it and we were to meet up again at 6pm so he could let us know about the bus.
We asked for a heater for our room, not just because it was cold - it was now pouring with rain outside - but also because we had all our washing hanging out from last night that still hadn't dried and probably wouldn't! There was no heater but a man came up to our room to switch on the air con which also had a heat mode.
We turned it up to 32°C and hung our washing line from the curtain rail to a cupboard and nearly brought the cupboard down! I held the washing above ground whilst Kirsten put a rucksack into the cupboard to stop it from toppling over again!
Kelvin phoned our room to tell us he had changed our bus tickets to tomorrow morning and had organised breakfast for us. It continued raining all night.
