Mount Popa

View of the temple from the bottom of the mountain.

Our last day in Bagan was spent venturing to Mount Popa in a nearby town and back. Mount Popa is a huge temple area set atop a large, extinct volcano. It advertises as having just over 700 steps to the top but I'm a little skeptical about that number. I had mentally preped for a long, difficult climb to the top and was shocked when I arrived at the top a little hot and sweaty but not nearly hot and sweaty enough for 700 steps. (Maybe I'm just in great shape and 700 steps feels like child's play!)

To get to Mount Popa, Danna and I rode in a shared taxi with a French couple (who we now see everywhere), a Japanese duo and Dutch man. Along the way to Mount Popa, we stopped at a roadside distillary/ oil/ palm sugar making shop. Right out front was a man using a cow to turn a grindstone to grind peanuts and make peanut oil. They use this method to make a variety of oils and it really opened my eyes to just how far behind Myanmar seems to be when it comes to using modern machinery to make things we take for granted.

Inside the hut there were two different sections: the palm sugar section and the palm whiskey section. Of course, we were given samples of everything in hopes of enticing us to buy the different products. The palm sugar is a dentist's nightmare and they used it to coat a variety of fruits and nuts. The taste is much different from the sugar we have in the States but is delicious! The palm whiskey is very similar to the palm alcohol of Flores, and is just as horrid as I remember it to be. We were able to sample the original whiskey as well as the whiskey with palm sugar added to it. This time around I resisted the urge to buy any palm whiskey even though the sales girl insisted it was good for our health and would give us energy.

Shortly after this side venture, we arrived at the base of Mount Popa. As I stated earlier, the climb was not as difficult as what I had anticipated. Unfortunately, the place was swarming with my least favourite type of monkeys, the macaques. I really do dislike the little boogers and do an internal freak out whenever they get to close!

Mount Popa was an interesting place to visit but I can say that I did not find it nearly as awesome as the temples of Bagan. The views from the top were beautiful but in true Myanmar fashion (at least while I've been here), it was a bit cloudy and overcast. I also feel that I don't have enough information on the importance of Mount Popa to fully appreciate it. I do know that it is an important place for those who still worship the Nats, or animal spirits the Burmese used to worship before the spread of Buddhism. Some of the villages still worship the Nats even though they also practice Buddhism, or at least, that is my understanding.

In all, Mount Popa was an interesting, yet enigmatic place. The monkeys are everywhere and the shopkeepers alternate between chasing them away and throwing them scraps of food. There are odd little palettes set up in different rooms/ alter areas at the top of the mountain with no explanation for why they are there. Either monks live up there as keepers of the mountain or people have set them up for the spirit of Buddha to sleep on. Also, plaques line the walls naming those that have donated to the upkeep of the temple and I found a surprising number of people from America on the wall.