[Day 2 Yangon Trip] Rent Car & Kyaiktiyo Pagoda

Here comes the second day!

We planned to go to Kyaiktiyo Pagoda and Bago for this day. Weeks before this trip, I reached out some travel agents (searching on google) to find out the best deal for a rent car to those two places.  I came across some blogs and found out that it usually takes around 2 days 1 night trip if you want to visit Kyaiktiyo Pagoda and Bago. However, from Yangon to Kyaiktiyo Pagoda, we will pass through Bago so I came up with decision that I wanted to go for 1 day trip only to visit Kyaiktiyo Pagoda and Bago at the same time.

Kyaiktiyo Pagoda

Luckily, I got an email from Gandawun Shwe Bagan Travel & Tours (myanmartravel.org) giving us out the best deal ever among other travel agents I sent emails to. They offered us rental fee for a 3 seater sedan for USD 135 (inc. driver, fuel, toll fee, mineral water). They also said to us that it is possible to go for a Kyaiktiyo Pagoda and Bago for 1 day trip only and the price does not change with or without a stop in Bago. So, we took the deal!

We departed from our hotel at 6 AM and the journey was 3.5 hours long from Yangon to the point of embark/disembark for Kyaiktiyo Pagoda. The road trip was fascinating as we gazed out to scenery I am not so often to see. Along the journey, most of things we saw were ricefields, deserted landscapes, rivers, swamps, and so on. We arrived on 9.30 AM at the terminal where people are getting on a semi open-air truck. This is compulsory for everyone who wants to head up to Kyaiktiyo Pagoda to take a ride by the semi open-air truck. This way is conducted because Kyaiktiyo Pagoda is located at the top of the mountain and the terminal is in the bottom of the mountain. So, the semi open-air truck is the transportation mode.

The transport fee is 2,000 kyat/one way, that means we have to pay as much as 4,000 kyat for a round trip. But, I noticed in the terminal that there is a signboard saying that it costs 2,000 kyat (front seat) and 1,5000 kyat (back seat). For your information, one truck has about 6-8 rows, in which each row can be occupied by 6 people. We were going up from bottom to the top of mountain, it was a 45 minutes of bumpy and speedy ride with some turns (way down is faster than way up). Everyone in the truck was squeezing around slightly, but we arrived at our destination safe and sound. We disembarked the truck and walked down our way to Kyaiktiyo Pagoda. We stopped by at the ticket office an paid 6,000 kyat for entrance fee (per person).

Ticket Card

It took us around 10 minutes to arrive at Kyaiktiyo Pagoda from parking areas. It is also necessary to take off our shoes or sandals (barefoot mode on) and wear Longyi or long fabric. It was packed of people! There were not so many tourists there at the time of my visit. As I made my way closer to Kyaiktiyo Pagoda, I got amazed. I could not believe how a big rock like that could hang onto a cliff, stand still, seems like it goes against gravity. It was absolutely unbelievable. If you want, you can go down closer to the rock, pray, and touch it. That is how most of local people do it way. There is also something like viewing deck below the pagoda and we definitely can overlook green sceneries from it.

We did not spend so much time there, probably just 1.5 hours. Then, we headed back down to the terminal. Before that, the struggle was real. We had to compete with others to get onto the truck, squeezed in a crowd. We missed 3 trucks before we could really have a seat in another truck. At the end of the day, it was all worth it. We could really immerse ourself with locals and also act like the way they do. Well, as soon as we got back at the bottom of the mountain, we stopped at a restaurant nearby the terminal. We had 2 fried rice(s) and also 2 soft drink(s) for 8,000 kyats. We were so starving at that point! Then, we continued our trip to Bago.

There are some binoculars on the spot

That’s all for this post! I will see you on the next article.

Have a good reading!

Thanks for stopping by! Cheers.