At last we reach Kayah State

We decide to leave Pin Aung early next morning in case there are another few mountain ranges that our informants had not factored into the two-hour drive.

We shall see… 

The drive starts in Pin Aung where the roads are bordered with flowering plants. Pointsettias are covered with red bracts and Canna Lillies with red flowers. We are still in Southern Shan State. We notice some of the women wearing black outfits with bright orange turbans. They are Pa O. However, all the men are not wearing Shan Pants but longyis, as indeed are most of the women. 

I know I’m getting old when I find myself asking the manager of Wine Wine Le Motel if there are mountains between Pin Aung and Loikaw and am delighted when I hear there are not! I did appreciate yesterday's mountain tops because however high they were, they still had forests right to the top. Most mountainous countries no longer have that.

The red flowering plants end as we leave the little town and fields of arable land take their place. Row upon row of vegetables are hemmed in with corn on the cob growing profusely. Then come acres of padi turning the landscape a luminous green.

A huge sign in red and gold informs us in Burmese that we are leaving Southern Shan State and entering Kayar State.

From Pyay to Pin Aung in Southern Shan State

From Pyay  (also noted on the map as Pyu). We set off early, intending to reach Loikaw the capital of Kayar State that afternoon. “You’ll be there by midnight or anyway by 10 o’clock” said a helpful man. As by 8.00pm it is dark, we thought we might not make it that night after all. We would stay somewhere en route. But there are very few hotels on that route let alone hotels that have a license to take foreigners.

Another helpful man told us that the shortest route we could take, is not allowed to be taken, because due to ‘misunderstandings’ there is often fighting between the armies.

It didn’t look far on the map and we were in good spirits as we climbed the Bago Yoma. Little did we know what was to come. 

The map gave no hint of a mountain, let alone a mountain range, let alone several mountain ranges. The view was magnificent and terrifying in equal portions.

After Win Kyaing had driven for more than 11 hours we descended the last range and reached Pin Aung in Southern Shan State. Although it was only a two-hour drive (so we were told and we wait to confirm this) we decided to be ‘sensible’ and stay the night. The fact that Wine Wine Hotel had no air conditioning, we guessed it was cool all year round: indeed I wore a cardigan to go out to dinner, unimaginable only a few hours before

We agreed to leave Pin Aung early in case there were another few mountain ranges that our informants had not factored into the two-hour drive. We shall see.

Tooth Relic Festival at Paung-de near Pyay, Full moon day of Tawthalin

Tooth Relic Festival at Paung-de near Pyay, Full moon day of Tawthalin

Next day we leave earlier on the one-hour drive from Pyay to Paung-de and fortunately we are able to park closer to the Buddha Tooth Relic Pagoda than yesterday. Once inside we find a stunning display of the Relic. It is floodlit and around the base is a mass of flowers.

We learn that the Relic arrived relatively recently in Myanmar (Burma) on 8 September 1897. The then Sayadaw (Abbot) of the Paya (Pagoda) U Wimala, asked U Pho Mya and his wife Daw Nu and some other chosen people to journey to Sri Lanka, then called in Burmese Thi Ho, where the original and true Tooth Relic had been preserved by more than 100 kings down through the ages in that country. Once there and having paid their respects, the group supervised the making of a copy of the Tooth using the inner part of an elephant’s left tusk. This ivory replica was then placed beside the original Tooth and left for 15 days. After this, the Tooth Relic was transported to Myanmar, doubtless with much ceremony. Now, every year, there is the Tooth Relic Procession in the Buddha Tooth Relic Pagoda in Paung-de. The Relic is shown around the town carried on an elephant and escorted by suitably attired soldiers of older times.

The festival is on the Full Moon Day of Tawthalin. This year it falls on 28 September with two days prior festival days. An hour’s drive away, not far from Pyay and the Ayeyawady River, is Golden Guest Hotel, which is reasonably priced and has attentive and helpful staff.

The Road from Mandalay

26.09.15

The Road from Mandalay

We are traveling on an excellent road that runs 365 miles from Mandalay to Yangon. Pyay, where we are headed, is well before Yangon. So far the road is duel carriageway with a broad nature strip illustrated by pinkish-mauve bougainvillea separating both sides. Tomorrow is the start of the Buddhist Tooth Relic Procession in Paung-de, which is about an hour from Pyay.

The easy travelling ends abruptly when, after four hours, we turn right. Here the road is nothing to write home about, but the scenery is. Either side there are forests of teak and bamboo with splashes of scarlet from the Flame of the Forest. Small villages appear with houses of woven mat walls. The only traffic is a pair of buffalo, encouraged by their driver with a stick, hauling 15-foot lengths of dark green bamboo and young boys are herding cattle along with their bells clanging.

 The best that can be said for the road now is that it is hugging the contours of the land. We are climbing, climbing and climbing up and down round tight u-bends, not once but many times. This may be the Bago Yoma, a ridge of mountains separating Magwe Division from Bago Division in the middle of Myanmar.

Chaung Nat is a village where we hear a loud voice coming from a teashop and we’re reminded that on 8^th November the election will be held and hopefully the National League for Democracy will get in.

Tomorrow and for two more days we will be attending the Buddha Tooth Festival after which we are travelling on to Kayah State where neither Win Kyaing nor I have been before. Do we have to climb back over the mountain range, I ask, or is there a way to reach it without retracing our steps – I say hopefully. His response is not encouraging: Only if we can take provisions – so I assume there is no road across. Time alone will tell.

We arrive at a traffic light, the first we have seen after nine hours driving!

We have arrived in Pyay.

Pyay’s claim to fame is primarily for trade. It runs alongside the Ayeyawady River. It is near Napidaw the new capital and Yangon, the old one, and it is the nearest town to the World Heritage site of Sri Ketstra.

We go to our first choice of place to stay only to find it is full. So are the second, third and fourth places. Fortunately Golden Guesthouse, a little way out of town, has room for us and turns out to be a great place to stay.

Though information on the Tooth Relic Festival in Paung-de has been very hard to find – some must know of it and it promises to be very well attended.

Little did we know...

Usually, the first day of a festival is quiet with stallholders setting out their wares and photography is easy. Nothing could be further from the truth at Paung-de’s Tooth Relic Procession. Thousands, not hundreds of festival-goers, are jostling together and the sun is scorching down. We are carried around with the crowd and up into the main hall where, we hear, elephants will deliver the precious relic in about two hours. We decide waiting outside might be preferable and as we step out of the hall the jostling crowds divide and two elephants appear. We could hardly believe our good fortune. And, better yet, the elephants are standing waiting so we have time to admire their trappings and the costumes of the sin oozie who are elephant handlers and the group of young soldiers in spectacular royal court attire.

I wondered where the elephants came from. Did they live in Pyay, or did they go from one festival to another? I was partly right. The elephants are owned by the Forestry Department and the sin oozie are allowed to supplement their salary by taking part in this kind of event.

Tooth Relic Procession at Paungde near Pyay

Today we leave for Paunde near Pyay about ten hours away. The day after the full-moon next Monday we should have been going to Amarapura for Bo Bo Gyi nat festival - but by all accounts it is over! So we won't backtrack but will drive on to Loikaw in Kayah State where neither of us has been before: exciting!