Yangon To The Golden Rock: A Two-Day Adventure

Our journey into the enchanted Myanmar continues outside Yangon. Not far from the city, there is a sacred place called The Golden Rock, where tourists and pilgrims from all over the world gather to admire the site and the beautiful views. Its original name is Kyaiktiyo Pagoda, one of the most sacred places in the whole Myanmar and its beauty is beyond belief!

If you start from Yangon, two days will be enough to reach the temple and back. You will also have plenty of time to do a quick stop at Bago, a town in-between Yangon and the Golden Rock.

YANGON - BAGO

We leave the hotel at around 8am, after eating a good breakfast to charge our batteries.

To reach Bago, you have two options: you can either take the train, but there is a limited number of departures ( only one or two in the morning, then departures start again in the afternoon), or you can take the bus, which departs every 30 minutes or less.

After horribly missing our train, we decide to catch a bus. Yangon bus station is located outside the city so you will need a taxi to get there - this taxi ride shouldn’t cost more than 10,000 MMK so beware of scams!

Once arrived at the station, we are assaulted by drivers and conductors who try to convince us to get on their bus at any cost. We are forced to follow two young boys that “stole” our backpacks and put them onto their bus. Even if it sounds a bit harsh, the whole situation was hilarious and we didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, that’s just their way of doing things! The bus, if we can call it so, is actually a small old banger on four wheels, with dusty seats and rusty finishes and the only thing you can think of once you sit down is if you will get to the final destination all safe and sound. Joking apart, he ride was very fun and we enjoyed being in the company of the driver and the two conductors! The ticket was very cheap: only 2,500 MMK!

We arrive in Bago after an hour and thirty minutes. This is an optional stop if you want to visit the town, but if you prefer you can take a direct bus to Kinpun, the basecamp underneath the Golden Rock’s mountain.

In Bago, you can visit the big Shwemawdaw Pagoda, Kanbawzathadi Palace, Shwethalyaung Buddha and Kyaik Pun Pagoda, all included in a combo ticket of 10,000 MMK. Because it was getting late, we only visited the first pagoda and palace and then took a final bus to Kinpun.

Kanbawzathadi Palace in Bago

BAGO - KINPUN

It takes a two-hour drive and 4,000 MMK to get to Kinpun, but this is a mandatory stop if you want to visit the Golden Rock. The town is situated at the feet of the mountain where the sacred pagoda is located, so I recommend spending the night there and head to the pagoda early the next morning. The bus station is located 20 minutes away from the town so once you get there you can either take another bus or you can jump on a motorcycle taxi. We opted for the second one and the taxi drivers took us right to the hotel.

This is not a promotional message, but if you are staying in Kinpun I would definitely recommend spending the night at Golden Sunrise Hotel. This hotel is a quiet oasis right outside the town and rooms are tiny and private villas finely decorated. We really enjoyed breathing some fresh air in the gardens and just relaxing before the next day!

THE GOLDEN ROCK

As I mentioned, the Golden Rock is located on top of a mountain and the site can be reached either on foot or by trucks.

The roofless trucks can carry 30/40 passengers at a time and seats are located in the back. The ride itself is not really for the faint-hearted as the truck speeds up on steep hills with frequent sharp turns right on the edge of the cliff. It lasts 1 hour and costs 2,000 MMK, but it’s totally worth it!

Once we reach the top of the mountain with the truck, we immediately access the sacred area of the pagoda so we walk the last few hundred meters barefoot. Even here, there is a fee of 10,000 MMK to pay at the entrance and you have to wear appropriate clothes - this rule is valid in every temple or pagoda in Myanmar so make sure you always wear long trousers and avoid tops or you won’t be able to get in!

The view from the pagoda is breathetaking: we are 1,100 mt above the sea level and surrounded by other mountains so we enjoy the view while walking towards the rock.

The Golden Rock precariously balanced on the edge of the mountain

The Golden Rock itself is not majestic (7 meter high) but it’s the location and the legend behind it that make this place magical: the rock is precariously balanced on the edge of the cliff and, according to the legend, it is perched on a strand of Buddha’s hair donated by Buddha himself to the hermit Thaik Tha. It is completely covered in gold leaf, which male pilgrims can buy and attach to the rock by accessing a specific area - it is interesting to notice that female believers are not allowed to enter such area immediately under the rock (as seen in the above picture).

One or two hours are enough to visit the whole site, which consists of the pagoda and the surrounding small town, mostly full of restaurants and shops for tourists. The site is not as great as I expected it, but we really enjoyed the view from the top of the mountain.

Young monks visiting the Kyaiktiyo Pagoda

The villages surrounding the pagoda

THE WAY BACK

To return to Kinpun, you can either take the truck back to the basecamp or opt for that path I briefly mentioned before. Many blogs suggested to use this path to reach the Golden Rock but I am glad we didn’t follow this tip and decided to take it to climb down instead. The path is a never-ending 4-hour trek with slopes and stairs in-between villages and I don’t really know if I would have ever managed to do it the other way around because it’s damn steep! Even after choosing the “easier” way, our calves and feet were completely destroyed in the end, but we had a lot of fun! Also, you quickly learn how to say “hello” in Burmese because it’s a word you hear very often when passing by the villages - MINGLARBAR!

Once we reached Kinpun, we took a bus that brought us back to Yangon. The traffic was insane so we arrived extremely late: a good excuse to take a quick shower and go straight to sleep! ZZZ…

A typical village selling refreshments on the path to Kinpun