Monywa, Myanmar

The overnight bus from Lashio to Monywa (6,000 Kyat) was ridiculous! We stopped at a usual restaurant at midnight and everyone deserted the bus to get some food. Half an hour passed and most people had finished eating and were watching some bad Burmese karaoke TV. By 1am a few people got back on the bus and went to sleep, I couldn't sleep. At 1:30am I had a look for the driver but couldn't find him anywhere. 2am came and I tried to ask people what was happening but no-one could explain what was happening, or if they even cared! 3am came and went - no driver still. People either eating again, watching TV or sleeping on the bus. I tried to get some sleep but still couldn't. I was bored of this restaurant now, and bored of not being able to sleep so I sat outside, watching other coaches come and go. 4am - still nothing. It wasn't until 5am when the driver appeared from nowhere, started the engine and sounded the horn several times like he'd been waiting for us all along!! Everyone got on without question and off we went. I still, to this day, have no idea what happened there. I've since explained it to people I'd met and they said it was odd, but maybe the driver was sleeping.

Now I had to catch a local bus to get into Monywa town. With 30 minutes to go a Burmese girl got on and sat next to me. She immediately put her head on my shoulder and seemed to sleep. Wired from lack of sleep and hyper-aware of all the locals that had now turned around to look I smiled and looked out of the window, accepting that I was now a headrest - although I can't imagine my bony shoulder being particularly comfortable. At journeys end the girl woke up on cue, smiled at me and left the bus. I asked a tuk-tuk driver to take me to the cheapest place in town. I knew there weren't many options, few tourists come here. He took me to hotel Shwe Taung Tarn which was a lofty $13 a night for a big double room with balcony overlooking a smelly, man-made, mosquito infested swamp!

My own swamp

Bags dumped I wanted a look around and left the hotel. Within one minute a local student came up to me on his motorbike and asked if we might have some food together so he can learn about England and practice his English. His name is Zeya and took me to a delicious local noodle joint. He wanted to know everything about anything that was happening in England, especially business and banking - the two things I'd rather forget about when travelling! He was fully preparing for the coming fortunes of Myanmar.

After another sleepless night, this time from being a mosquitos pincushion. Zeya picked me up on his bike and we drove out to the Moenyinsambuddhae temple, containing no less than 600,000 Buddhas of various sizes. Visitors can replace broken or stolen images with newly cast ones for 200 Kyat - I chose one and chose a nice place to put him.

1..2..3..4..5..6..7.. (five years later) ..599,999... 600,000! Yep, you're right.

My Buddha

Norris McWhirter would be proud as we then rode past the worlds largest reclining Buddha and up to the worlds largest standing Buddha (470ft high!) - you can see it from a LONG way away! Inside the standing Buddha is pretty much a thirty-storey building, containing seven levels of Buddhist hell, some earthly levels, some heavenly levels then, in the head, there's Nirvana - but ironically you can't go there as it's not complete. Each level contains paintings related to that scene and are designed to teach lessons of life. The hell paintings are gruesome and fascinating; watching families tell their kids the stories behind the picture maybe even more fascinating.

...rumble...

...clang...clang...

...doof...doof...

...Sssssss...