"Donation for the cleaning?" We are climbing the 777 stairs to the Taung kalat hilltop Buddhist temple officially now called Mt. Popa. This is the most popular pilgrimage site for Burmese people to Nat (spirit being) worship. Men at different parts of the stairs are sweeping or mopping asking for donations, not totally clean but better than nothing since we had to leave our socks and shoes before starting the climb.
Merry Christmas! We are up early and had arranged for breakfast to be ready at 630am. We were downstairs and bikes loaded when there were no lights on, Rachel heard a noise in the back and explores and sees that a guy is cooking. We sit at one of the tables when the owner comes in, turns lights on, gets the hot water going for coffee and after the eggs are brought to us, and the bread toasted, he stands nearby and watches us eat. There also was rice and noodles...but we just can't eat that this early in the morning.
A friendly wave from the owner, and we start the climb. It's a relatively gentle climb. The road surface continues to be fairly good, the road wider, though still with sandy tracks for carts instead of a shoulder. Some sections are lined with big trees, other sections not. We pass by the area where jars of toddy are being sold. We stop at a tea shop for a cold drink. We see others eating a long shaped donut and we get 4 and spread them with nutella. There were also samosas in the hot grease, but we didn't try those.
With another 18km to go, we stop a second time for a break before the final push to Mt. Popa. The last few km we know are going to be steeper. We get our first glimpse of the Mt. Popa Temple, and stop often for pictures. Patrick had booked accommodations and we find Wut Hmone Thit Guesthouse. After cleaning up, we walk a couple hundred meters to a restaurant for a Christmas dinner. Then a motorcycle ride up to the temple. We had very sensible motorcycle drivers going and returning, each of us on one motorcycle.
Tomorrow a short ride to Bagan, and a few days off the bikes to check out all the temples in the area.
Smoke between the palmtrees. People like to burn leaves and garbage in the mornings.
Starting the 777 steps to the summit of Mount Popa. We did not count them and Patrick is sure the number is bogus since there are many different paths one can take.
