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Published: November 27th 2008
Hammock
Jo chilling in her hammock one rainy afternoon.So many times when we get on a bus in a country where no one speaks english and we can't read the writing I wonder to myself "how do we know where to get off". Every time the bus stops we look at each other and think..."Is this our stop?" You can't go by the time either, a 4 hr bus once took us 14hrs in China because the bus drove BESIDE the highway rather than on it. (long story)
So here we are on a night bus to a town called Kalaw. It was supposed to take from 11am until 5am the next day. Myanmar has very little electricity and so as the sun went down there was no signs to read... not that we could have.... The bus stopped a few times.... we looked around... we shrugged a lot... furrowed our brows in confusion... then at about 6 am the bus stopped again and every one got out... but not in Kalaw.
So there we were at a small junction north of Inle Lake... Opps... it was 4 hrs past our destination, but what the hell! Goin' ta Inle Lake instead!
Inle lake is a
cigar
Smoking. Don't smoke though! primarily fishing community made up of small villages. Villages are either fish or farm, but all live off of the land... In this case, they make the very land they live off of. Inle lake is known for its floating gardens... lake vegitation is harvested from the bottom of the lake and bound into rows. There they float on the water and are used as soil platforms to grow tomatoes, chillies, and fruit. They are literally floating gardens. As a boat goes by and sends a wake towards them, they gardens roll with them. Very cool to see. NOt to mention how many km's of them we saw! The gardens are resistant to changing water levels (obviously, as they float!), limiting flood damage and they are incredibly fertile, providing truck loads of vegetables (tomatoes while we were there) year round. transportation is largely by canoe though some people have larges canoes with motors.
On the day we arrived, after very little sleep (if any) we found ourselves on a canoe ride through to some of the small villages surrounding Inle. Our Guide Mr. Latay (Latte... easy for me to remember) was an older guy whose pride in his community
could not be masked, even with his broken English. on our 7 hour tour through the back waters, we made cigars with a 4 year old, drank tea with families in their homes, and had lunch in a school on stilts above the water... then we napped.... lord how we napped! Mr Latay, looked at me after lunch, threw a jacket on a bench and said "now, sleep". I laughed at first but then he curled up and closed his eyes so we thought "what the hell, when in Myanmar."
The next day we took a motor boat to the other end on Inle (a 22 km lake) and went to the floating market... the floating market is not actually floating, just so you know... not floating at all... we were a little disappointed.... then off to see weaving, and silver making... basically the Thailand tuk tuk tour if you have ever done it. You get taken to all the "family run" workshops and then you are meant to buy stuff. Unlike Thailand there are not as many scams and you can easily get out of a visit if you want, but it was still a tourist trap...except there
were very few tourists. The highlight was Shwe Inn Thein. It was a huge assortment of weathered stupas on the side of the mountain overlooking Inle Lake. We preferred the canoe day for sure but it was still a good day on the lake.
Next we really did head for Kalaw, we sat on a road side for a few hour and waited for a bus... when that failed we opted for a pickup taxi. I road for 3 hours on a bag of grain (aren't you proud mom) and Gunnar stood on the tailgate and held on to the rack.
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