Myanmar 2001: Mingun

Mingun – Saturday, February 17

When I stepped out in the morning, Mg Aye Lay was waiting for me. Our first stop was the pharmacy – again. I was making some kind of strange progress with my cold: the running nose was gone and now I had a cough. This being my third visit, the pharmacist greeted me like an old friend. The ancient fellow handed me several boxes and I read the outside of each – luckily they were in English. Finally, I found some cough drops and we left. It was only when I got back to Thailand and bought some more of the same cough drops that I realized how mercilessly he was overcharging me. No wonder he was so happy to see me.

We drove over to the river and Mg Aye Lay showed me where to get a ticket for the boat to Mingun. He pointed out the ferry and said he would meet me when I got back.

I was on my way up the Ayeyarwady river to see what the guidebooks called, “the world’s largest pile of bricks.” It stands 50 meters (150 feet) tall and was just the bottom third of what had been planned. When the king who was building it died, the construction was abandoned. Later an earthquake left a huge crack in one end.

Brightly colored boats lined the bank of the river. Some were passenger ferries, but most carried cargo. As I was walking around taking pictures, I met a guy from Holland named Sake. He was a photographer on a shoot in Asia – he had already been to India and was heading to Laos. We compared travel notes while we waited to depart.

The ride up the river was quite interesting: we passed a small boat that two men were pulling upstream. They walked along the bank tugging a rope that was attached to the mast. On the bank there were also little settlements and I saw kids splashing in the water. The sun was bright and the day hazy.

In Mingun, Sake and I toured the sights together. First, we visited the Pondaw Paya and then the Mingun Bell. Finally, we climbed the Mingun Paya – the brick pile. Because there is a Buddha inside Mingun Paya you must climb barefoot – an excruciating experience as you only walk part way on concrete stairs. The rest of the time you must walk over brick rubble. That made for slow going but the sense of accomplishment and the view from the top made the effort worthwhile.

We continued further into the village and then down by the river before heading back to the boat. We decided to stop at a little stand to have a drink and were immediately surrounded by postcard and souvenir vendors. As we sat and drank, they tried to interest us in their goods. They were insistent, but not pushy – after a while they wandered off to pester other tourists.

We got back to Mandalay about 1:30pm and I saw Mg Aye Lay waving from the top of the bank. He drove me, as Sake rode his own bike, to the Emerald Green restaurant where we had a great Chinese dinner. I certainly enjoyed Sake’s company: he was widely traveled and a very perceptive individual. He told me about a book of photographs he put together of the homeless in Amsterdam.

After lunch, Mg Aye Lay drove me to a place where they hammered out the gold leaf. There in a shed were two lean, young men, bare to the waist. They rhythmically swung heavy hammers against small packages of the gold leaf that were placed against large stones set in the floor.

In the next room several young women sat at a table cutting and fitting these incredibly thin pieces of gold into squares. They then placed pieces of paper on either side of the gold and tied the whole thing together with a thread. I bought several packs to give to my friends back home.

Back at the hotel, I took the night off – my pride couldn’t stand getting lost again.