HPA-AN

Another tuk-tuk ride to the hotel. We shared it with a couple of American women who didn’t have a reservation but thought they would try our hotel first. The hotel was full so we left them deciding where else to try. 

Probably something we had eaten but we were both totally out of energy for the rest of that day – we snoozed most of the afternoon and then later we went out for a look around. Hpa-An is a grubby little place with not much to recommend it – we went to Soe Brothers guest house (the local fixers) to arrange for a tour the following day. As usual, no problem with doing this – the guy there had even drawn his own rough map of the surrounding area so that he could show what the tour would include. We were still under-powered and couldn’t be bothered with dinner (didn’t see anywhere we would fancy eating anyway) so we bought some bananas and a large packet of biscuits and went back to the hotel and slept for about 14 hours, woken periodically by the chanting being broadcast from a nearby monastery, which seemed to go on most of the night.

Next day we were back on form and set off in a tuk-tuk at around 8.30. 

We thought it would just be the two of us but there was also a french guy staying at Soe Bros who wanted the tour so he came along and we split the cost 3 ways. He was about our age and travelling alone and we got along OK.

The scenery around Hpa-An is in total contrast to the town itself – it’s wonderful karst hills rising sharply out of the rice-fields, and we had a fantastic day wandering about. We were shown caves with buddhas and old wall paintings.

And Pam really liked these elephants with the painted nails.........

Late morning we arrived at a lake with a huge narrow pinnacle of rock rising in the middle - with,of course, a stupa on top. 

And in the afternoon, another cave where the guide took us past all the buddhas into complete darkness – we had torches – where we could hear the squeaking of thousands of bats and, yes, the ground was a bit squelchy underfoot.

We kept going deeper until finally we emerged on the other side of the mountain with an unexpected view over a lake and rice-fields. 

Following the path down to the lake, we were offered a boat trip which, we had no idea, took us back under the mountain which was a strange experience. 

We're going under here.............

And then we could walk through the fields back to the tuk-tuk, with lovely scenery all around.

Another stop was at a place where either side of the path were ranks upon ranks of buddhas sitting on pedestals – the whole area was encroached upon by vegetation so it was difficult to see how far the lines extended, but there were thousands. 

Our guide’s English wasn’t good enough for us to understand why they were there – but, to be honest, I don’t think they need a good reason………

The final stop was another cave – by now ho-hum – but the feature of this one was that the access road was lined with a long row of painted concrete monks, all robed and carrying the offering bowls.

All together a great day which totally exceeded our expectations.

When we got back to Hpa-An we organised our bus tickets for the next day, but despite feeling much more perky we still didn’t fancy the local restaurants so polished off the bananas and biscuits and called it a day.