Monywa

Monywa is about 4 hours northwest of Mandalay by bus and thankfully, there are buses almost every hour, so no need to leave at 5am. Last night in Mandalay I met Thida, a 24 year old Burmese local. She started chatting me up as I went to the internet cafe. I wasn't sure what her motives were but it turned out she was genuine and just wanted to talk. We hung out for a few hours and she said she wanted to travel with me as an unofficial guide/friend, for no money. I could use the company since I've hardly met anyone after leaving Bagan.It's also nice to have someone who can speak english and Burmese.
I kind of feel like I'm in Africa, where I would travel for weeks on my own not really meeting anyone. You get that feeling that you're an old colonial travelling around unseen territory for the first time. The traveller crowd here is slim. Even at places I thought it would have been busy, it wasn't. Also Myanmar seems to be more of a 'mature' traveller's destination. Most of the travellers I've seen are over 30.
Thida and I met in the morning and took the 12.30 bus to Monywa. The bus was medium size and the seats were pretty tight. We got a hotel in Monywa and relaxed before going out to eat. We were both thinking the same thing at the Schwe Tang Tarn restaurant/guesthouse - chicken, veggies, rice and a glass of beer. It was the cheapest thing on the menu. We had a TV in our room but it only had news stations and sometimes chinese movies with English subtitles.



Thanboddhay Paya
I came to Monya to see the sites in the area and this pagoda was our first stop. It's a massive pogada which took almost 20 years to build. What sets it apart from any other temple I've seen is the mind blowing amount of buddha statues it contains. The guidebook says it has 582,363! Some of these are large but most of them are small and line the upper walls to the ceiling.


Bodhi Tataung
5km from Thanboddhay Paya was the highlight for me of our trip to Monywa. On the site of Bodhi Tataung are a gold temple and 2 massive buddhas. The gold standing buddha is 425' tall with a 312' reclining buddha at his feet. The standing buddha is over two times the height of Niagara Falls! I could see it in the distance when we were coming on the bus. I wonder why they put something this amazing way out in the middle of nowhere. Thida and I hired a motorickshaw to get to these two sites. The area around the buddha was pratically empty except for a few vendors. I'm guessing they didn't speak english because only Thida was asked to buy stuff. There are about 26 floors inside the standing buddha, all accessible by stairs. An elevator was there but not working. The standing buddha was cool and like nothing I've ever seen but what really got my attention were the paintings inside.
Extremely graphic, violent,bloody,realistic and disturbing images lined the walls. Vivid portraits of humans being butchered by huge ogre like creatures. Humans were being skewered on a stick, boiled in stew, heads bashed in, limbs cut off....etc,I think you get the picture! It was getting late in the afternoon as Thida and I began to go up inside the buddha but I kept wanting to go just one more floor. I wanted to see what ghastly paintings were in store on the next floor. We made it up about seven floors. The inscriptions surrounding the paintings are all in Burmese but say something about this happening to you when you die. Thida says " I never want to die!' and "Will this happen to me?" I reassure her it won't. This isn't a place for children but as we left young kids were ascending the stairs. Apparently it is a place for children! The paintings were somewhat cartoonish but there was no denying their brutality. I had not expected this at all.
Back in Monywa, Thida and I ate really cheap and delicious street food.



Hpo Win Daung Caves
Thida only stayed 2 nights and went back to Mandalay. I stayed one more day to visit the man made temple caves of Hpo Win Daung. Thida has seen them before and doesn't like the aggressive monkeys hanging around the caves. I hired a mototaxi to get there, the cheapest way. The caves were about 70 minutes west from Monywa. The road out of Monywa wasn't bad at all but then we turned on to a unpaved road for a while. On both sides of the road were copper mining villages. Thankfully the road became sealed again before we reached the caves. There was hardly anybody around the caves. The monkeys quickly gathered around me in search of food as I opened up my pack to get my camera out. A local guide kept them away. I grabbed a stick to keep them away. Not far from the entrance though there were no more monkeys and I could walk in peace and eat my bananas.
These caves were all carved from a giant sandstone mountain between the 14th and 18th centuries. A local unofficial guide offered his services for whatever I wanted to pay. Seemed like a good deal to me, so he led me around the site and had some information. I could clearly see the difference between the newer and older caves. Some caves would have many small entrances to one larger chamber. Of course, inside most of the caves were statues of buddha. Some had elaborate and colorful frescoes on the walls still in good condition. Many of the caves are blocked with wire gates to keep the monkeys from living in them and smelling them up. Back in Monywa I ate the same meal Thida and I had a few days ago at the same place. I went to bed feeling fine.

I woke up at about 5am and felt sick. I vomited a few times and felt a lot better right away. I went back to bed. At 6am I was awoken again feeling sick. I thought I got it all out the first time but I guess not! I vomited some more and went back to bed. Breakfast at the hotel was from 7-9am but I didn't care if I missed it. I had a slight fever and felt like crap. I didn't think it was malaria though. I didn't have any hot/cold sweats and I didn't vomit when I got malaria (though this is possible, it was the treatment of malaria that made me vomit). This sickness came as a big surprise and totally unexpected. I had done nothing different.
At 8.30 I got a knock on my door from the hotel manager asking if I'm coming for breakfast. I told him I was sick and only wanted some juice and fruit. He came back with exactly what I needed. A glass of cold lime juice and a big platter of fruit - orange, apple, papaya, banana and watermelon. I ate most of it and then went back to sleep till 11. I wanted to check out by 12 and go back to Mandalay. If I was going to be sick, I wanted to be in a bigger city. I wasn't feeling too terrible and picked up some paracetamol on the way to the bus station.
I got a room at Nylon hotel and went to the chapatti stand for dinner. I could only eat one chapatti. I relaxed and watched movies and felt a bit better. I had taken 2 paracetamols and my slight fever was stable and not rising. I was going to make a judgement in the morning, if my fever was higher, I was going to go to the Doctor. Thankfully when I got up I felt a lot better, no fever. I was able to eat all of the hotel breakfast. I even got caught up on some blog writing.