Pyay     

(2001)

From Bagan we drove again in an interesting long distance trip, to Pyay one of the ancient cities of Myanmar. On our way we saw always the burmesian street live at its best. One photo motive was better than the other one.

At the first time we saw Cashew trees with its nuts. We passed small villages with beautiful markets.

The largest object of interest in Pyay, is the Shwesandaw -Pagoda, with its golden shining 60 m high Stupa. You can see it right from the distance over the Ayeyarwady river. We visit the pagoda by night and it was very impressive, because there were no tourists, but only a lot of burmesian people. The Stupa with their small 83 golden pagodas was fully illuminated and sparkled in the dark night sky. Surprisingly a young Burmese was speaking to us, because his uncle lives many years in Cologne/Germany. It was a nice and interesting small talk and many people were listening us fascinated.

On the next day we took a boat trip to the Buddha statues, cutting into the rocks. The figures were made in most different sizes and illustrations. They are very special for Myanmar. 

An unusual, strange Buddha statue is in Shwedaung, a ½ hour trip by car from Pyay. The approximately 5 m high sitting Buddha carries oversized golden eyeglasses and was donated by an aristocrat, who was suffered on an eye disease. 

On our way to Sri Ksetra, an excavation place of the ancient royal city, we visited a typically burmesian village, where we got an impression of the normal village life. Many curiously children were around us immediately.

The visit of the excavation place was less interesting, but “the way was the goal”, because we went approx. 2 hours by “ox truck” over bumpy dirt roads. It was a great experience.