Myanmar, Part 2: Inle Lake

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. 

Myanmar, Part 1: the journey there, plus Bagan

I've been meaning to do a post on our trip to Myanmar at Christmas since, well, the moment we got back. And here I am, finally getting to it seven months later...

In any case, I've had a handful of people ask after our itinerary, so I'll start there and include the highlights along the way. Most of my trips to Asia start in Singapore, where most of my relatives live, and this time, we also stopped off in Thailand to spend Christmas with one of Elliot's best friends who lives in Phuket. Below is just the Myanmar portion of our trip.

December 27 - Bangkok (DMK) to Yangon (RGN) on Air Asia
Our flight from Phuket to Bangkok was so delayed we very nearly missed our flight to Yangon, despite having allowed ourself four hours for the connection! However, we convinced them to let us carry our bags on, made a mad dash through the airport and, yes, were the very last ones onto the plane. There was an American couple that were making the same connections as us, and we later found out they had placed fifth in the CBS TV show The Amazing Race!

Our plan in Myanmar was to 'wing it' where possible, travelling like backpackers, but as Yangon is the former capital of Myanmar and its largets city, we thought we'd book our hotel there in advance. We arrived in the city at around 7pm and after checking in to our hotel (the May Shan, which was fine but nothing special, though the wifi in the lobby was a treat), we headed out to explore.

We discovered we were moments away from the Sule Paya (or Sule Pagoda), which is more than 2500 years old – older than the Shwedagon Pagoda!

We then headed to the night market, where there were lots of interesting fruits that I didn't recognize – including these, which I believe are wax apples

Our first trip on a bicycle rickshaw, which are common in Myanmar and seat 2 passengers, back-to-back. 

December 28 - We had opted early on to only spend one night in Yangon, at least at the beginning of our time in Myanmar. Having been in Singapore, Bangkok and Phuket, we thought we'd be more eager to get out of the big cities and onto the more adventurous portion of our trip.

Early on the morning of the 28th, then, we boarded an Air Mandalay flight to Nyaung U (also spelled Nyaung Oo), the nearest town to Bagan, an area renowned for its thousands of Buddhist temples. A Christmas Day flight from Yangon to Heho (another city in the Shan State, where Bagan is) that had crashed and killed two and injured 11 left us feeling a bit worried; the tiny airport where almost everything was done manually (not a computer or conveyor belt in sight) didn't really help.

Nevertheless, we got to Nyaung U in one piece!

Nyaung U, Old Bagan, and New Bagan are the three towns where travellers to the area normally stay. We decided to look for a hotel in Nyaung U based on the advice of a few blogs we had read that identified it as the busiest town of the trio. Definitely good advice - it was already pretty small and dusty!

We arrived mid-morning and wandered around until we found a hotel. We had started hearing rumours in Yangon about difficulties finding accommodation (given the peak season and rising popularity of Myanmar as a tourist destination in general) and had already met quite a few single travellers who confirmed this. However, of the five hotels we stopped in at, three could accommodate us and one had room but turned us away as foreigners! Apparently, there was a religious festival happening that weekend so hundreds of Myanmar people were expected to travel to the area, with all its thousands of temples!

In any case, we ended up staying at the Eden Motel for three nights, at a cost of USD $25 per night. Not cheap – but accommodation in Myanmar generally isn't (at least not yet).

We did have an enormous room, though!

Our first view of Nyaung U, from the front steps of our hotel

Initially, we had planned to spend New Year's Eve in Bagan, based on the following Lonely Planet description:

A bustling river town with more happening than you’ll find elsewhere in Bagan, Nyaung U is where most independent travellers hang their hat (or backpack). Roaming the back roads towards the jetty or stopping at scrappy teashops will attract friendly wide-eyed looks. There are a handful of temples to see, including the Shwezigon Paya, and a lively market. Visitors staying in New or Old Bagan tend to make it here, if not for the restaurant scene (the closest the Bagan area gets to nightlife) then for the transport links.

Don't get me wrong – we loved Bagan and had an amazing time exploring the temples by horse cart and going on a cruise of the Ayerwaddy River – but Nyaung U was hardly "bustling"!

We weren't expecting a big New Year's Eve party, but given that it was peak season (and three days before NYE!), we thought Bagan would be rife with other travellers who would at least be keen to ring in the new year in the traditional western way, i.e. with a toast and countdown at midnight! Not so.

In the end, we decided to spend two days exploring the region, then head to Inle Lake.

The market in Nyaung U

Myanmar people doing their washing on the banks of the river. This was our view from The Beach Bagan restaurant, which was a lovely restaurant about a 10-minute walk (or 5-minute horse cart ride) from the main thoroughfare of Nyaung U.

A typical Myanmar horse cart. These are superb for exploring the temples. Sure, renting a bicycle is a cheaper but much more exhausting option, as not all of the roads are paved and the bicycles are a bit rickety! We saw more than a few tourists walking their bikes through inches of red sand... not fun!

A common view in Bagan: old, noisy trucks and vans with dozens of passengers hanging out of every window and perched on every available surface!

You can get a sense of just how many temples there are in Bagan... THOUSANDS! We visited about 15 in the course of a single day. According to the Lonely Planet:

In a 230-year building frenzy up until 1287 and the Mongol invasions, Bagan’s kings commissioned over 4000 Buddhist temples. And despite centuries of neglect, looting, erosion, and regular earthquakes, this temple-studded plain remains a remarkably impressive and unforgettable vision.

Typical temple activities. Note my scarf tied around my waist - as is the case with many religious sites around the world, you need to dress appropriately to visit the Buddhist temples in Myanmar. No skimpy tank tops or short shorts!

One very old, beautiful temple.

Temples as far as the eye can see

Amazing...

... Even more amazing after one man got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend! We all cheered when she said yes.

Be sure to stop at a lacquerware workshop, too, where you can learn the process of weaving, painting, and decorating lacquerware, and then buy some really beautiful Myanmar pieces.

We also rented a river boat and took a little cruise down the Ayerwaddy River. This was another highlight of our time in Nyaung U – the boat engine very noisy (as Lonely Planet did tell us would be the case), but the river is enormous and really beautiful. Our boat captain even brought us to a little beach shack for a drink!

  

That night, we decided to check out the local party our horse cart driver had been telling us about – it had something to do with the religious festival that weekend but we weren't exactly sure what. Nevertheless, we had some dinner, then rented bikes and rode about 5km toward New Bagan. 

We knew we were in the right place when we heard loud traditional Myanmar music playing and spotted all the parked scooters. (FYI, tourists are no longer allowed to rent scooters or hire scooter taxis in Bagan. We kept hearing about one incident in particular involving a female Japanese tourist who was apparently raped and stabbed to death by a male Myanmar motorcycle taxi driver that had picked her up to go sightseeing.) 

And this was the performance! It was a bit of a bizarre night – not exactly what you'd expect to draw a large crowd of around 200 Myanmar people ranging in age from 20 to 50, but cool to witness anyway. 

Stay tuned for a post on Inle Lake next...