Golden Rock

The incredible “balancing boulder” stupa is an important Buddhist shrine at Kyaiktiyo, about 20 KM from the small town of Kyaikto. The stupa, about 7.3 meters high, sits on top of an enormous gold-leafed bolder balanced on top of a cliff on top of Mt. Kyaikto.

Each of the times we have been there we proceeded via Bago and stayed overnight near Golden Rock. Thus, we were able to see the amazing Golden Rock at both sunset and, next morning, at sunrise with the almost purple, misty dawn light.

Cars cannot travel further than the village of Kinpun where one then takes a truck up the winding mountain road to the start of what is claimed to be only a forty-five minute walk to the Rock.

On Derek’s first visit he had reservations at the Kyaiktiyo Hotel at the very top of the mountain. This has the advantage of location but was not a very good place. He and his EPG guide had started the walk up the steep track but about half way up, with a pulse rate of more than one hundred and thirty per minute, Derek was tempted by Kaga-men who, for a small fee will carry visitors or devotees to the top of the mountain. And here he was, carried like a very old person in a sling borne by four strong young men.

At the shrine itself there were many people including many monks and other pilgrims placing small twenty-four carat gold leaves on the rock itself.

For our second visit, this time together we stayed at the new and excellent Golden Rock Hotel near the final truck stop. We were fortunate to meet Mr. Joe Schein, a Burmese entrepreneur who owns the Golden Rock Hotel and several other hotels in Myanmar. His wife is a medical doctor with practices in both Yangon and in California. We had a long conversation over dinner and talked about the “Benefits and Features” of Myanmar from the viewpoint of visitors from America. Joe is pleased with the increasing numbers of visitors from Europe but would like to have more guests from North America.

He schedules for eight Kaga-men to be at the hotel at 4:30 AM next morning to carry both me and Leona to Golden Rock to see the sunrise.

Here are notes from Leona’s diary.

“ I had not been able to accompany Derek on his first trip to Golden Rock, a great disappointment since Kyaiktiyo was on the list of places to add to my “Stones I have known” saga. Unfortunately his trip, designed primarily to donate a Gestetner to the village school in Geik Taw, was during my own school year before my retirement.

We agreed that Golden Rock would be on our itinerary for our very next journey to Myanmar. Derek’s story about being carried up the mountain by four Kaga-men “like a sack of potatoes” intrigued me. My only knowledge of Kaga-men was limited at that time to those in Japanese woodblock prints!

We combined the Golden Rock experience with stops at Teak and Betel Nut farms as well as at pottery kilns and, as described elsewhere in Bago to take our gift of antibiotics to the Monastery.

I found the truck ride up the mountain rather disconcerting. The road is winding, steep and stone-ridden with no crash barriers. It is only wide enough for single lane traffic so the trucks go up the mountain in a convoy with no traffic coming down. For the return trip the truck convoy hopefully meets no other vehicles! Not a ride for the faint hearted. The beautiful mountain scenery and flora along the way helped take my mind off the thought of rolling backwards down the precipitous road. It helped too to look over the valley and see no signs of crashed trucks below us.

The Golden Rock Hotel is highly recommended. We arrived at Golden Rock, carried by Kaga-men, before sunrise. A photographers dream place with serene worshippers by the score. We hope to go there again”.

Derek and Leona Law