Blogs from Inle Lake, Mandalay Region, Burma, Asia - page 4

A four foot tall girl padded silently to her bicycle and subtly beckoned me to follow her. As she pushed her bicycle, I meandered along behind her and we wound our way through the village of Nyaungshwe, past the ladies with their baskets of fruit, (kind of) fresh fish and hordes of curious locals. I, trustingly, followed along. As the path ahead ended, I was gestured towards a long, narrow black wooden boat on my right, where a rugged-up man smiled up at me, positioned a wooden seat in the middle of the vessel and handed me a blanket. Thus, without a word being spoken, I was off for my adventure to Inle Lake and its floating villages, with both the morning fog and the temple tops rising along the banks on either side as we ... read more

Oh boy ...Inle lake area was a great place to visit . The town of Nyaungshwe was a bit of a backbackers hang out . There were some good restaurants , great food choices , and an easy ambiance . The lake itself (21 km x 11km ) was 4 km away reached via a channel/river . The whole area had waterways of different sizes . We spent 2 days with water excursions , 1 day trekking and a 4th day with a car and driver . Needless to say it is hard to narrow down the pics but I have chosen these . Let me know what you think.... read more

Back on line . It has been quite strange I can receive your messages but I haven't been able to publish any new blogs ... or retrieve the one I autosaved 2 days ago . Oh well I shall try again . The boat trip down the Ayerwaddy was very pleasant . The seats we had grabbed on the deck had enough sun ,shade and shelter and the A/C assigned seats were comfortable enough for a nap or two . As it happens there was a GAP tour group on the boat .Had Suzanne not decided to come to Burma I would probably have been with that group . There were 12 of them 4 Canadians and the rest Aussies and New Zealanders . A pleasant group to visit with . Also on the boat were ... read more

Le Cambodge fût relativement bref ! À peine quelques jours sur Siem-Rep, que déjà il était temps de filer me diriger vers Bangkok. Avec mon billet d'avion en poche pour le 13, je n'avais pas beaucoup le droit à l'erreur ! Il me fallait impérativement obtenir mon visa dans la journée du 12 (étant arrivé la veille sur Bangkok). Heureusement, l'Ambassade en question n'est pas l'administration Française (désolé pour les quelques fonctionnaires qui liront ce message :p ), et l'obtention d'un Visa, peut se faire dans la journée moyennement quelques centaines de bats supplémentaire. Contrairement à ce que vous pouvez déjà vous imaginez, il ne s'agit pas de pots de vins, mais bien du tarif express : une journée ouvrée, le temps normal étant de 3 jours. Ce fut très rapide. Arrivé le matin 15-30 minutes avant l'ouverture pour ... read more

"On August 13th, we flew to Inle Lake. We went to the hotel and stayed. We played shop. It was fun. At 3:30, we went to the winery with our German friends. We ate dinner there too. Me and Lynn played and colored. Then we said goodbye and went back to the hotel. We went to get ice cream and then slept. On August 14th we took a boat to lots of places. One of them had 1,500 stupas. When we got there I slipped in the mud and then got up. Then I had wet pants because it was raining. In the stupas there where Buddhas. In the boat it started raining like crazy! We went to a store where they make blankets. I got a red headband. Then we went to a cat monastery ... read more