I received a text message from a friend today who's heading to Myanmar next month – which reminded me to post the rest of our adventure in Myanmar!
First, a summary of our entire itinerary, followed by highlights from the Inle Lake portion of our trip.
Dec. 27: Bangkok to Yangon (1 night)
Dec. 28-30: Bagan (3 nights)
Dec. 30-Jan. 5: Nyaung Shwe, Inle Lake (6 nights, including 1 in a monastery)
Jan. 5-6: Yangon (1 night)
Jan. 6: return to Bangkok
To get to Inle Lake, we took an overnight bus from Nyaung U. While this is a much cheaper option than flying, I definitely do NOT recommend it! There are two bus departure times; both are 'red-eye' options, which may seem like a blessing (less time wasted in transit) until you arrive near Inle Lake around at 3am and realize that in Myanmar, this means all the hotels are closed and locked until the morning!
Basically, from the bus stop, we shared a cab with a couple of fellow travellers (the guy was from Japan; his girlfriend was Japanese American) and directed our driver to the November Hotel, which we had booked from Nyaung U the day before. However, when we arrived, it was locked and there wasn't an intercom, buzzer, or person in sight!
We proceeded to bang and rattle the hotel gate for 20 minutes until finally, a sleepy innkeeper came outside and we begged him to let us in. But our bad luck didn't end there. Although our booking was for December 31, check-in time was still hours away and the manager insisted the hotel was full. When he finally realized we weren't going to leave (we asked if we could sleep on the wooden benches in the lobby), he looked through his handwritten book (which was basically a hand drawn grid in a notebook) and found us a room that had not yet been changed or cleaned – but was empty. Phew! We were so exhausted that we managed to sleep, despite staying in our clothes and not getting under the covers, for fear of bedbugs.
(The couple we cabbed into town with had left to find some accommodation of their own - we later learned that they slept in the foyer of another hotel that had taken pity on them and about 10 other wandering, weary travellers!)
Not so sure about this – at least not at 3am!
And yet, despite a less-than-wonderful way to begin our time at Inle Lake, our 6 nights in the area made up my favourite part of our time in Myanmar.
In the morning, we headed out and started exploring the area.
The busy main street. The ladies are wearing long skirts called longyi, but in fact, both men and women wear them and they are part of the traditional wardrobe in Myanmar. From what I gathered, there are two main varieties: men's tend to be cylindrical and worn knotted in front (they can be hiked up into shorts in hot weather), while women's tend to be more like a sarong or wrap skirt.
We walked about 10 minutes through town before landing at the main docks, where you can rent a boat + driver to explore Inle Lake.
I bought myself a woven hat...
And then we made our way onto a boat!
This photo is taken by turning around - the boat driver stands at the back, next to the (very loud) engine. As you can see, the water is very dirty.
Locals use very shallow canoes to get around the lake
Our co-pilot (a.k.a. our captain's son, who couldn't have been more than 6 years old)
Houses and villages built entirely on stilts!
We made our way to the
Khaung Daing Hot Springs, where we spent about an hour. There are three pools in the area pictured, as well as a larger pool where men are not allowed, just women and children. Skeptical as ever, Elliot wasn't entirely convinced these are natural hot springs, but nevertheless, it was a good pit stop during our first boat trip.
After a few hours, and with plans in place to explore Inle Lake and some of its towns the next day, we headed back to Nyaung Shwe to make plans for New Year's Eve...
Which we celebrated at the Golden Kite Italian restaurant!
We had basically been wandering up and down the main street for some time, trying to see what looked the busiest and had the most 'celebratory' ambience, and eventually settled on this random place.
Their pizza and pasta was surprisingly good (and homemade – apparently the owner had somehow lived in Italy for awhile!), and we even got to try a local red wine! It was... OK.
Best of all, however, we ran into some friends - the Japanese/Japanese American couple we had cabbed into Nyaung Shwe with!
Turns out, he's a recreational DJ in Japan (and also studying for his PhD in physics) and with a little sound system setup help from Elliot and a tour group of about 20 super-enthusiastic Slovenians, we managed to get a NYE dance party going. Happy 2013!
We also found a Kiwi girl we'd met back in Bagan, who proceeded to fall in love with a cool Myanmar kid.
The next day, slightly hung over, we embarked on a full-day boat trip around Inle Lake.
Almost immediately after passing the "Welcome to Innlay Lake" sign, you see men fishing using a traditional drop-net that is unique to Myanmar. They also employ an interesting one-legged paddle technique, which keeps both hands free for casting and pulling their nets.
Unfortunately, the cover of the latest edition of the Lonely Planet country guide shows a fisherman on Inle Lake using his net – which means that recreating this scene for tourists has become a source of income in itself for some.
Before we knew what was happening, our boat driver had taken us over to this gentleman's canoe and, as much as I would have preferred avoiding a staged fishing scene, we felt obligated to hand over a bit of cash (though Elliot felt more cheated than me and basically gave about £0.20, which even by Myanmar standards, is not much!). The lucky fisherman even actually managed to catch a fish, which he proudly displayed.
We then stopped by a weaving house, where men and women were making longyi out of silk and lotus. I have never seen this before, but when two segments of a lotus root are sliced and separated slowly, they produce a slightly sticky, stringy substance that can be accumulated and eventually woven into a thread of sorts. Complex flying shuttle looms constructed from bamboo are then used to weave these threads into lotus shawls, which are delicate but incredibly soft.
Elliot bought a woven silk longyi for his father for USD$15.
We then went on to an itinerant market, which moves to one of five different sites depending on the day of the week and sells a variety of ornaments, souvenirs, jewellery, and other collectible knick knacks.
We also stopped by a cigar-making factory, where women and teenage girls sat on the floor of a building on stilts, rolling the 'cheroot' (cigars) by hand.
Later, we realized we had been seeing these dried tobacco leaves at the local markets; they're filled with a fragrant mixture of dried fruit, star anise, honey, rice wine, and other natural ingredients. Each woman rolls up to 500 per day, and the factory sells packs of 10 to tourists for approximately 1000 kyat (about USD$1). We didn't buy any, but they did smell quite nice.
Our second-last stop (we also had a lunch break, and stopped at the "jumping cat monastery", though the cats no longer really jump) was at an umbrella-making workshop.
This was also a place where tourists were invited to see the long-necked "giraffe" women of Padaung, whose necks have been elongated from dozens of heavy brass coils worn for years. It is an incredible sight, but as is the case in northern Thailand, it has become a tradition practiced not for its historic significance as a beauty ideal, but for the tourist revenue it is known to draw. The Lonely Planet suggests avoiding these workshops if possible.
A floating garden – we saw tomatoes growing among the reeds and tried a few our boat driver picked for us, although we weren't sure they were safe to eat as tourists are advised not to drink the tap water in Myanmar and the lake was pretty murky around the villages.
Our last stop of the day: the Phaung Daw U Pagoda, which contains five Buddha statues that have been covered with so much gold leaf that they now appear just as blobs!
Each October, the local people celebrate the full moon festival by gathering here to watch a procession of the Buddhas as they're boarded onto an enormous dragon boat and carried from village to village to drive away evil spirits.
Women aren't allowed up the altar step, which apparently is the case at most Buddhist temples.
