Myanmar 2015: Day 35 - Fantastic Cave Day

We started a fine day with breakfast on the terrace.

Dana's talking about the dried fish included in the buffet.

We trekked down to a spiritual site (involving another dragon lady/alchemist thing too complex to relate here). Most noteworthy for me was the many stands on the way down and up selling illegal animal parts cures.

The folk medicine, like the nats (this one at the bottom of our descent), are apparently too deeply rooted in the culture to be eliminated by Buddhism.

We climbed back up, checked out, and trekked to the shuttle station - along the way passing several of these hermits, who apparently survive on more than roots and berries, since they were collecting alms, one of them lingering in front of a hotel to receive alms from the tourists taking pictures of him.

We boarded a shuttle and headed down the mountain.

Our destination for the day was Hpa An (silent "h", unaspirated "p")...

but we had several stops on the way, the first being an impressive pagoda with some tile patterns I really liked.

The next stop was Bayintyi Cave, where, although we were now in Kayin (aka Karen) state, a Mon King built a pagoda 1000 yrs ago. It was fronted by a hot spring, with some structures that gave it a Disney appearance...

but the interior was impressive.

It is a real limestone cave that continues on for a mile, with stalactites, stalagmites and columns...

like the other caves we visited this day, in this beautiful karst region of Kayin state.

The second, was Kawkon Cave, where thousands of small Buddha images have been carved since the cave became a pilgrimage site in the 7th century.

Benefactors are still adding images today. It is a very serious contender for the most impressive site we have visited in Myanmar.

Our final stop before heading on to Hpa An was the Yathaebyan (flying hermit) cave pagoda, built by the same Mon king who built Bayintyi.