Pyin Oo Lwin (May Myo) Part II

by Nan Mya Han

Hilux pickup for sightseeing with a lot of people

As Buddhists, we first visited Ahnt Htoo Kan Tha Image, which has interesting background history. The story goes like this. An order was placed for an alabaster Buddha image by the people in Mainland China at a sculptor in Mandalay. On completion of the image, it was transported to China via Shweli. The transporter crashed and the image fell to the ground on its way to China. Fortunately, nobody was injured. Nothing happened to the image. Every effort made to continue transporting the image to China was a failure. At last, people gave up and they had to put up the image for worshipping on a hill near the place, where the image fell off.

Maha Ant Htoo Kan Thar Image

Then, we visited Peikchinmyaung Cave, 20 kilometres away from the town. The cave was named after Peik Chin plants (long pepper) thickly grown covering the cave in the past. The cave is 600 metres long and 12 metres wide. At some places, the width is about 36 metres. Several pagodas and images are built in the cave. There are streams with swift current and stalactites in the cave. I visited the cave eight years ago. Wood planks were laid on the floor of the cave then. It was inconvenient to walk on the wood planks. The floor has become neater with concrete pavement. We had lunch at the rows of stalls near the cave.

A lot of people take a photo infront of cave

Later, we headed for Pway Kauk fall, eight kilometre away from downtown. There are small and big water falls there. Normally, the falls become dry in or around May. But, water was flowing when we visited there because the rain came in previous nights. The fall was packed with holidaymakers from various regions. They all carried food in Tiffin carriers. Children as well as adults played in the water with the tubes from car tyres. They all went into the water in full dress. A hut was put up for changing clothes. At the stalls near the fall, various local products such as fresh vegetables, bottled wine, eateries, etc are available. We took a lot of interest in beetroots. It is impossible to find such fresh tasty beetroots with wet green leaves in Yangon. Moreover, they were far cheaper than in Yangon.

Pway Kauk fall

The next place we visited was the Chinese temple. There, we came across local elderly Chinese people who could not speak Myanmar language. Chinese tea and medicines were on sale in the temple. There was a Chinese traditional acupuncture clinic in the temple. All the places in Pyin Oo Lwin interesting to visit except for the market in which only clothes were on sale.Although there were a lot of Chinese and Indian restaurants in the town, the shops rarely served with tasty food. We tried Chinese food at an Indian restaurant. We could hardly eat fried noodles and fried rice served with spices. Then, we went to a coffee shop called Golden Triangle. Actually, we had been looking forward to visit the shop because we once read in a newspaper that the shop was managed by a foreigner. Interior decoration was fine and puddings and other cakes were not so bad. But, cappuccino gave a watery taste.

Only one coffee shop in Maymyo.

We stayed for the night at a hotel in downtown for easy transportation.

May 3, 2004

We were worried about the weather because it rained cats and dogs last night. But, the weather was fine in the morning. We went to a famous Shan noodles shop to have breakfast. Shan noodles were really tasty but gravy of Mohinga was quite different from the taste we knew. We, as Yangonites, did not like Mohinga much. Then, we went for a walk in downtown. Pyin Oo Lwin is also figuratively called Pan Myodaw (the city of flowers). Deserving enough to get this name, lilies and roses grew naturally on the either side of the road. Other small flowers were also blooming.

We were going back to Yangon today. So we tried seasonal strawberry drink served with milk, which was available only here at this season. The taste was wonderful. I think I would remember the taste all my life.

Flower shops, the way to Mandalay

We left Pyin Oo Lwin for Mandalay at 13:00 hours. On our way to Mandalay, we stopped over for a while at the stalls where mangoes were on sale. In this season, people from environs came here to sell famous Seintalone mangoes. We arrived in Mandalay at 15:00 hours. We left Mandalay for Yangon in the evening and we arrived in Yangon at 7 o'clock the next morning.