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Kyaiktiyo (Golden Rock) Myanmar The sublime balancing boulder stupa called Kyaiktiyo (Golden Rock) is a major pilgrim age site for Myanmar Burmese Buddhists and tourists alike in Myanmar Mon State. A visit shouldn't be undertaken lightly as a day trip, which in theory could involve a taxi, long-distance bus, truck, human porters and your own foot power, but it's well wroth the hassles as much for the inspiring views from the top as for the gravity-defying boulder itself. The manmade plaza around the Golden Rock is the typical Myanmar mix of religious iconography and commercial development, monks and laypeople meditating in front of golden Buddha status while several meters away rosary beads and toy wooden rifles are for sale. All but the fittest will probably have to take a breather at one of the drink stands clinging to the cliff sides on the road from the truck stop to the stupa area.

The small stupa, just 7.3m high, sit atop the Golden Rock, a massive, gold-leafed boulder delicately balanced on the edge of a cliff at the top of Mt Kyaikto. Like Shwedagon Paya in Yangon or Mahamuni Paya in Mandalay, the Kyaiktiyo Stupa is one of the most sacred Buddhist sites in Myanmar and Mon State.

Myanmar legend states that the boulder maintains its precarious balance due to a precisely placed Buddha hair in the stupa. Apparently Myanmar King Tissa received the Buddha hair in the 11th century from a hermit who had secreted the hair in his own topknot. The hermit instructed the king to search for a boulder whose shape resembled the hermit's head, and then enshrine the hair birth to a zawgyi (an accomplished alchemist) father and naga (dragon serpent) princess, found the rock at the bottom of the sea. Upon its miraculous arrival on the mountain top, the boat used to transport the rock then turned to stone. This stone can be seen approximately 300m from the main boulder it's known as the Kyaukthanban (Stone Boat Stupa).

The atmosphere surrounding Kyaiktiyo during the height of the pilgrimage season (from November to March) is charged with magic and devotion, especially when the glinting boulder id bathed in the purple, sometimes mist, light of dawn. Pilgrims chant, light candles and meditate all through the night. Men are permitted to walk along a short causeway and over a bridge spanning a chasm to the boulder and affix gold-leaf squares on the rock's surface.

A new terrace allows devotees to view the boulder from below. There are several other stupas and shrines scattered on the ridge at the top of Mt Kyaiktiyo in Myanmar. The interconnecting trails, however, sometimes lead to unexpected views of the valleys below.

Further behind the Myanmar pagoda plaza area, down a stairway, there is a Potemkin village of restaurants, souvenir shops and guesthouses for locals Burmese (Myanmar).

Thaton Myanmar Long before the rise of Bagan, Thaton was an important centre for a Mon kingdom that stretched from the Ayeyarwady River delta to similar river deltas in Thailand, and possibly as far east as Cambodia. Early on, Thaton may have been known as Suvannabhumi, the "Golden Land" legend says Asoka, the great Indian Buddhist emperor, sent a mission here in the 3rd century BC. Later it was called Dvaravati when it reached its dynastic peak between the 6th and 10th centuries AD. Shin Aran, a Myanmar monk from Thaton, carried Theravada Buddhism north to the Burmese Kingdom of Bagan Myanmar, and in 1057 Thaton was conquered by Myanmar King Anawrahta of Bagan.

Today Thaton sits on the main road and Myanmar rail line that stretches from Bago to Mottama. Little of Myanmar ancient Thaton is visible, as the modern town has been built over the old sites in Myanmar. The town's core is a leafy place, lining each side of the highway with colonial mansions and thatched-roof homes. A few older Myanmar stupas dot the hillsides surrounding the town and a picturesque canal network irrigates rice paddies and fruit orchards in Myanmar.

Motama ( Martaban ) The recent completion of a two-lane bride over the Myanmar Thainlwin river connection the nondescript town of Mottama with Mawlamyine makes the double-decker Myanmar passenger ferries obsolete except for the most devoted boat enthusiast. Despite the expected decrease in ridership, Myanmar ferries are still scheduled to leave the Mottama landing every half hour from 7.15am to 6.45pm. The foreigner fare is US$1 and the trip takes 20 to 30 minutes depending on the tides in Myanmar. If you don't feel like waiting, there's a much faster 25 seat outboard across the river for K200, or you can always charter a Myanmar boat across the river for about Myanmar K3000 to 5000K.

Less frequent Myanmar vehicle ferries from Motama to Mawlamyine depart depending on the tides in the river, the last boat leaves just before sunset and the crossing takes about 30 minutes.

Mawlamyine (Moulmein) Myanmar The Myanmar impression one has of Mawlamyine from Mottama, on the other side of the ThanLwin River, is of a big, busy city. Myanmar Thanlwin Bridge is the longest bridge in Myanmar connects Yangon and Mawlamyine from Mottama. But wander the streetlight-free streets after sunset and it seems quaint and startlingly undeveloped, especially for the Myanmar country's third-largest city. Completed only in 2004, a 3km bridge over the Thanlwin River the longest in Myanmar-brings this leafy, tropical town, 45km from the sea, closer to the north.

With a ride of stupa-capped hills on one side and the sea on the other, the stage is set for an attractive urban setting. Unfortunately, though, an unsightly row of modern Chinese style buildings along the waterfront and a general air of decay though this may seem atmospheric to colonial architecture buffs-make the city seem neglected and forgotten. But it's this very melancholy, so evident in the ornate and decrepit mosques that captivate visitors. One was George Orwell (author of Burmese Myanmar Days), who was stationed here for a time in the 1920s during his service with the Indian Imperial Police.

Mawlamyine (some maps show it as Mawlamyaing) served as the capital of British Burma from 1827 to 1852, during which time it developed as a major teak port. A great deal of coastal shipping still goes on, although Pathein and Yangon have superseded it as Myanmar's most important ports. A great deal of coastal shipping still goes on, although Pathein and Yangon have superseded it as Myanmar's most important ports. The city is composed roughly of 75% Mon or some mixture of Mon, plus Kayin, Bamar, Indian, Chinese and other ethnic groups. A look around the old Christian cemetery gives a hint of how cosmopolitan Mawlamyine was during the 18th and 19th centuries in Myanmar.