And then came the rain...

Even with living in Jakarta, through two rainy seasons, I have never seen it rain so much as what it did when we visited Golden Rock in Kyaiktiyo. A local summed it up perfectly when he said, "Sometimes it rains cats and dogs and other times it rains dogs and pigs." As funny as the statement sounds, there were times when the raining cats and dogs phrase just didn't fit what was happening.

After a super wet arrival to our hotel, we had to change our original plan and skip going up to Golden Rock that afternoon. Instead, we blogged, journaled and made a new friend.

The next morning, we got up bright and early in hopes that it would not be raining and we could make it to Golden Rock. What an adventure getting to the top turned out to be!We went to the truck stop and climbed into the back of a large truck filled with benches. We sat there for about 45 minutes until the truck was full. A full truck is just over 40 people with 6 to a bench. The driver was not very happy with our row because we could only fit 5 even with squishing together as much as humanly possible. Our three white butts were a little bigger than the locals! This ride really brought new meaning to the idea of being squished.

The ride up contained a few random stops for no apparent reason. Nobody but the driver got out. In the last spot we randomly stopped, it started to rain. At first it was just sprinkling, but it quickly turned into a downpour. Even with my rain jacket, I was completely soaked once we arrived at the top.

Unfortunately because of the weather, the view was pretty dismal. Instead of getting a really awesome view of the mountains, all I could see were clouds. I bought a postcard to send home and the joke became I should paint the background white so that my grandparents would have an accurate account of what I saw.

In the end, the Golden Rock was pretty awesome. It is an extremely important site to the Burmese. I really wish that we had had better weather to really get an idea of what the area has to offer. Now I guess I have the perfect excuse of why I need to return to Myanmar in the future!