Our mission today was to cycle from our comfortable base in the Bagan River View Hotel all the way up to Mt. Popa, a distance of about 55km if one travels on the usual roads. However, Grasshopper in their wisdom had decided that this would be just too easy and had therefore tacked on a special cross-country section, just to make things more interesting. This involved negotiating a 11km track, which was predominantly surfaced with soft sand. Consequently, our party was continually grinding to a halt or even in some cases doing interesting acrobatics when encountering a bullock cart travelling in the opposite direction. Very frustrating and exhausting, but at least you don't get hurt if you fall over in the sand when stationary.
Thins went more smoothly once we emerged onto the main road, and as we progressed, the distant silhouette of Mt. Popa grew ever larger until it was filling our entire field of view. Our guide told us that we would be heading right to the top of the mountain, which would entail about 4km of steep hill clime followed by another 4km of very steep hill to take us to the top. By this stage, what with various aches and ailments affecting our party, there were only four out of the seven of us riding at this point, so I felt some pressure not to give up and take the easy option of going up the mountain in the bus. However, after struggling up what I took to be the first, merely steep, 4km I looked up to see the summit of Mt. Popa still far above me, and I knew I was not going to be able to make it all that way. Reluctantly I flagged down the mini bus that had been following discretely behind me and informed the driver that I was going to have to join him for the remainder of the journey to the top. He gave me a rather strange look but nevertheless loaded my bike on board and we set off. After about 400m we rounded a bend in the road and there in front of us was our final destination, the Popa Mountain Resort Hotel! Turns out that our guide had not been entirely accurate in saying that the hotel was at the very top of the mountain. If I had just persevered another 500m I could have made it all the way unaided.
The main tourist attraction at Mt. Popa is the monastery, which stands on a separate pinnacle of sheer rock, looking from a distance like a Disney fairytale castle. Close up it looks rather less impressive, and once inside it is decidedly scummy, being badly maintained and crumbling, and overrun with monkeys. The Mt. Popa region is noted for the worship of Nats: the spirits of real, or more probably fictitious, people who have met untimely and violent deaths and are now immortalised as waxwork-like figures in a series of shrines dotted throughout the Mt. Popa temple complex.
Time then to relax on the balcony of our wonderful lodge, overlooking the dense jungle that covers Mt. Popa, stretched out in my plantation chair with a cool G&T in hand. Oh, better make that a Coke as, of course, no tonic in Myanmar! Next on the agenda was a very relaxing Burmese massage, which really helped to unwind the muscles that had been tortured during the ride up.
View Bagan-Mt Popa in a larger map
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