Along the road to Mawtinsoun Pagoda

We spent one day of our trip to Pathein visiting Mawtinsoun Pagoda on the southwestern tip of Ayeyarwady Region.

It’s possible to get there by boat along the Pathein River at a cost of only K3500 for locals and foreigners alike. Such a trip requires an overnight stay near the seaside pagoda before returning to Pathein the following day, and local authorities will call ahead to arrange basic monastic accommodation for travellers.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for an overnight trip, so we took our minivan instead. I had imagined this to involve a simple drive on a straight road through deltaic flatlands, but the outbound trip turned into a five-and-a-half-hour odyssey on a surprisingly twisty, hilly and increasingly bumpy road through farmland and the southern reaches of the Rakhine Yoma.

Along the way we saw rice farmers working in the fields, as well as local entrepreneurs transporting bamboo down tributaries to the Pathein River.