During winter break a couple of months ago, I returned to Myanmar, which was a totally different journey. Normally, when travelers go to a country and need a tour guide, they hire a person who with take them around to see the various sites. This trip was vastly different. I had two tour guides who had been my tour guides before on my two earlier trips. Moh Moh was my guide on my first trip, and Ko Ko, her husband, was my guide on my second trip. This time, they both were my guides. While that was nice, the best thing about this trip was that my family went on the trip.

Months prior to our family excursion, I would email Moh Moh about things that I wanted to do or see. I wanted to return to Inle Lake, which wasn’t difficult to do, since they live within walking distance of the lake. I wanted to see Mt. Popa, Yangon, and Bagan again. Having been to those places before, Moh Moh and Ko Ko built the trip around those destinations.

They know me well enough to know what interests me the most. Several months before I flew to Myanmar, Moh Moh emailed me about Loikaw. She said that she was sure that I hadn’t been there, but I would love to visit that town. Loikaw is a lovely town with one overarching tourist venue, the Taung Kwe Pagoda.

The words, Taung Kwe, mean broken mountain. The full name is Thiri-Mingalar Taung Kwe Pagoda. The pagoda is nearly 400 feet high.

Taung Kwe Pagoda

Imagine climbing up the mountain with pagodas and stupas atop each part of the broken mountain. Moh Moh obviously knew that the Taung Kwe Pagoda would fascinate me.

The history of Taung Kwe is equally intriguing. Centuries ago, there was a Buddhist prophecy regarding this pagoda and eight other ones scattered on the mountains near the Loikaw’s pagoda.

Taung Kwe

It was believed that sometime, in the future, that all nine pagodas would be miraculously transformed into one pagoda. If you look closely, you can see some of the nine pagodas that are believed to come together into an all-knowing pagoda.

While we wait for the merging of all the pagodas, my family climbed to the top of Taung Kwe. This is Ti Ti, who is my web administrator in Myanmar. She is labeling all the photos of my third trip as she did for my second trip. My granddaughter has already labeled Inle Lake and Taung Kwe.

This is a picture of the legend of a ship docked in between the broken mountain.

My granddaughters think they are on the Myanmar version of the movie, Titanic.

My granddaughters’ version has three charming young ladies.

I think that my family is sending me signals that the iceberg has melted, and all is well.