Another popular excursion out of Pyay is the day trip to Akauk Taung, a sandstone cliff on the Ayeyarwady where hundreds of Buddhas have been carved into niches in the rock. The figures  were the handiwork of long- distance boatmen, who used  to pause here to pay tolls, or to wait for whirlpools in the river to abate. Viewed from the water,  the shrines, with their white- washed surrounds and fringe  of tropical foliage straggling above them, rank among the most photogenic sights on the Ayeyarwady River.