By Bino 7 Comments 354 14 0 3 0 0 The alarm rang. At 5:30 in the morning, my mind was still in a murky haze having arrived in Mrauk U just a few hours before. The entirety of the previous day was spent traveling by plane, boat and jeep and yet there I was, up and on the go once more. in a dreamlike state… Burma’s Rakhine state, where Mrauk U is located, is closer to Bangladesh than to Yangon . The roads here are so underdeveloped that an 80 km road trip between two points in the state takes almost 5 hours. We decided to take a longer but less bumpy route, and went on a 6-hour journey by boat after we arrived in Sittwe, the administrative center of Rakhine state. Sunrise At 5:30 in the morning, I found myself scaling some unknown peak in utter darkness, with the faint luminance of a flashlight guiding the way. A closer peek revealed a golden pagoda at the top – the Shwetaung Paya , from where the sunrise views of Mrauk U are said to be...

The Author Tun Shwe Khine was born in Rambyae, Rakhine State in 1949; graduated from Yangon University in 1972 and obtained master degree in Geography in 1976. He has served as a tutor in Yangon Worker's College; assistant lecturer and registrar (2) in Sittway Degree College. Now he is the Registrar (1) of Sittway Degree College. He has written several research articles and books, and edited some books, magazines and journals. Some of his works excluding articles are as follows: (1) Rakhine State Regional Geography (in Myanmar), (2) Ancient Cities of Rakhine (in Myanmar), (3) The History of Rakhine Dynasty (in Myanmar), (4) The Thet Tribe in Northern Rakhine (in Myanmar), (5) Rakhine Buddhist Art in Vesali Period (in Myanmar), (6) Rakhine Folk-Tales (in Myanmar), (7) Earlier Writers in Rakhine (in Myanmar), (8). 4 Study of Rakhine Minthami Aye-gyin (in Myanmar), (9)The History of Rakhine Mahamuni (in My anmar and English) and (10) Historical Sites in Rakhine (in Engli...