Living on the lake

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Inle Lake is a pretty shallow 20km long puddle in the Shan State at about 850m elevation. Enroute from Bagan I met first Marion, a Dutch girl, and then another Peter, another Dutchman. Cool customers and great company both, we pooled our resources and concentrated on doing nothing. Books and travelers' tales kept us busy for the first day and a half spent mostly in the courtyard of our hotel.

The elevation kept the heat down to a slow bake and we maintained our fluid levels with beer and prevented the alcohol from dehydrating us by drinking copious amounts of water. That may not make medical sense, or even common sense, but at the time it seemed perfectly logical.

Reading was probably the best pastime given that the alternatives were pretty awful: cycling in the heat, going to the hot springs (which were too hot to get more than a toe into anyways), looking at the 538th historic ruin; the days were pretty constructive really!

Apart from hiring a boat for A boat trip on Inle Lake, I did manage to have a look around town at the locals and the local temples; given that we spent most of the day sitting next to one, it would have been incredibly lazy not to have. The local temples were rather better than those of Bagan because they were actually being used. At Inle lake I surprised myself by getting up at dawn everyday and witnessing the monk and monkess parades. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but it was just that and I never got tired of watching it - unlike temples.

On our last morning at Inle Lake, after Peter had left, Marion and I did to each other what we had been wanting to do from the moment our eyes met: we painted each other's faces with the local ground tree. Marion probably looked better without it, but I think it improved my looks!

My last day was spent using the computer and internet. Unlike Mandalay, it's unusual for senior officials to visit this part of the world, so the electicity is even less reliable. The phone system is also rather pathetic, so trying to find a time when both were connected was a bit of a waste of effort.

One thing that I did notice at Inle Lake was that there seemed to be a bit more freedom. One of the locals spent half an hour ranting and raving at us about the government, and with good reason it seemed. He spoke of several atrocities, including a city of about 100,000 that had been virtually removed from the map. No wonder the governement doesn't want the world press coming in.

Despite the government though, the people were very friendly and happy, and I often wouldn't even notice the reserve in the people that was always there somewhere below the surface.

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Photos

Our courtyard
For $4 an night we got a hotel with a courtyard next to a temple and a wonderful breakfast. We made the most of both.

The monk parade
If you are up before sunrise anywhere in greater Siam, you will witness the monks collecting their breakfast from locals winning Buddha kudos. I think I've seen them three times in two years.

Peter and his makeup
Marion did somewhat of a better job on me than I did on her.

Local temple
Although I was well and truly templed out, it was too nice an afternoon not to admire the sky.

Another local temple
They might not be a thousand years old, but they look better than most of the ones in Bagan.

An old Buddha
There are a few thousand year old stupas crumbling away around town, but at least one still gets a few prayers and incense.

A killer bug
This thing was bigger than me. Dunno what it was called, but it had a very short lifespan that day.

Comments

[Kevin]

Hotel Name??
So what was the name of this hotel that you stayed at? Great photos, except I think you are exagerating about the size of the killer bug, the cig lighter behind is a giveaway. Thanks

[pkeusgen]

Hotel name and bug size
The hotel is called "The Little Inn" opposite Gold Star Hotel and next to Shwe Zali Paya. And I personally saw the bug pictured kill two cats and a donkey before six staff members carried it off my balcony.