Mount Popa and Pindaya Caves.

Mount Popa and Pindaya Caves:

Leaving the heat of the Bagan plains we head into the hills, on our journey we pass a small farm scratching a living by harvesting Palm Oil, Peanuts, Sesame and an assortment of local goodies ( there you go Nick FOOD ! ) . So we stop to see how all this works. The Palm oil is collected from the top of the tree via a cut limb which oozes oil into a hanging pot, how do the pots get there? a man climbs a very dodgy ladder which he lashes to the Palm tree as he climbs, then hacks into a branch with a very subtle hatchet and hangs the pot below. These are emptied about every 12 hours. The oil is then Boiled down to make a sugar confectionery. Palm seeds are also harvested these are ground down using a cow powered mill ( see pic ) Nothing seems to go to waste. We are offered a sample of fermented stuff which I am sure would need an explosives licence in the UK .

After a short while we arrive at Mount Popa an extinct Volcanic core with an impressive Monastery on top, The climb to the Temple is via a long flight of steps, the walk up is ok so long as you don't get mugged by the hordes of rhesus Macaques on the way. The view is as expected pretty impressive.

After a further 6 hours we stop overnight at Kalaw where we are hoping to do a short trek into the hills. Next morning the sun is up early and it's once again very quickly into the 40's so we decide against a trek as we are not sure we could carry enough water !! So we decide to make it to Pindaya as quickly as possible.

We arrive in Pindaya, a place famous for its Buddha caves. The caves are once again Impressive, where Bagan was full of Temples the Pindaya caves are crammed with Buddha statues. ( yes a lot of Buddha pictures on this blog ) It takes a good hour to explore the caves and was well worth the long journey to see them.

Pindaya also has some rather impressive ancient Banyan Trees as well as a tidy collection of Stupa's which we explored as the evening came.

Palm Trees

Lashing the ladder as you climb.


And what keeps you safe? your right foot obviously, this is simply hooked around the top of the ladder.

Palm seed Mill.

Oil seed mill in action.

The juice from the palm tree is boiled down to make a sweet confectionery.

Bubbling sugary stuff. ( could be classified as food maybe ? eh Nick ? )

Just for Nick.. or should that be Nik-Naks ??

The green stuff in the middle is fermented tea.

The engine is rested for a maintenance break.

Mount Popa.

Temple on the top of Mount Popa.

Mount Popa

Mount Popa guardians ( Nats ) protect the Mountain and the Temple.

Chief Nat and her two sons.

View from the top.

Golden pillar with Buddha images.

Pagoda, Mount Popa temple.

Frangipan ( I think )

Umbrella making Pindaya.

Banyan Tree.

Local Stupa's Pindaya.

This was our home for one night !

Stairs at the Pindaya Caves.

Buddha images Pindaya Caves.

There are thousands of Buddha statue's here, all shapes and sizes.

Another Myanmar surprise.

The different lighting types make for some interesting colour casts.

Another stair case.

Pindaya Countryside.

Pagoda.

The Archer who killed the nasty spider who lived in the
caves..

The poor little spider..

Cave entrance.

Our Lodgings.

Spotted, the new season Chelsea team transport, Abramovich splashes out after the league and cup double, the eco credentials are only marred by the Methane excess.

End of Blog.

Next blog Inle Lake.