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Published: February 26th 2018
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Five hours on a bus from Bagan to Mandalay! The ride was very interesting, we saw local culture, small villages, farms & how people live in the countryside. We passed acres of farmland, where cotton, peanuts, onions, watermelons, peas, sesame, beans, corn & plums are grown. As we pulled into Mandalay, we saw many new hotels sandwiched in between very old hotels & brick buildings. Traffic is less in this city than Yangon & crossing the street is 'easy peasy'! We found a local restaurant for dinner & had the best sautéed mixed veggies with rice! The flavor was unbeatable.
Next day, we had a driver take us about to see the cultural sites: Golden Palace Monastery was built by King Mindon 1853-1878); Mandalay Royal Palace, 40 buildings built out of teak; The World's Biggest Book, there are 729 stupas, each with a slab of rock, with writings on each one. The king had 2,400 monks read the book in a nonstop relay, taking 6 months to complete. Last pagoda was the Su Taung Pyae Pagoda, which was built on top of a hill, with sweeping views of the city & had an escalator to take us up to the
Is this the sort of electrician you'd call or employ??
How would you like to be up on this metal ladder making electrical repairs to the overhead wires???? top of the Pagoda. Following our tour, enjoyed a big bowl of chicken noodle soup at another local restaurant!
Two days later, we were back on the bus again, 10 hours this time to Inle Lake & learned so much by again riding the bus. We saw locals in the fields, planting & tending to their crops & seeing many ox drawn carts carrying loads of hay & bamboo. As we neared Inle Lake, we crossed over an extensive mountain range & went up & up the mountain, then down & up, until we arrived at Inle Lake. Our bus driver let us out in the middle of the city & two young guys picked us up to take us to our hotel in a new, black, private car. We, initially, thought they worked for the hotel but when they looked confused & started asking directions as to where our hotel was, we realized they weren't part of the hotel after all. We arrived at our hotel & chalked the ride down as another one of our traveling experiences!
We spent a day exploring this charming town, looking into the small shops, checking out menus in different restaurants
& when we eventually reached the lake, we decided to have a coffee at a cafe alongside the lake. There we saw locals bathing, washing their clothes & dishes in the, dirty, murky lake. We observed Longboats with tourists & others carrying timber, bamboo, fruits & veggies, using the lake as their main transportation, similar, to, what I saw in the Amazon, when I was there 2 years ago.
Here's a bit of history: The Republic of the Union of Myanmar has a population of 55 million people.: Between the years of 1945-48, Yangon became British Burma. After the junta transferred power to the civilian government in 1992, tourism increased. After 50 years of brutal military dictatorship, Myanmar held it's first free fair election in November 2015. Tourism has been developed by the government but many private enterprises exist, catering to a wide range of tourists. Since 2015 tourism has increased dramatically. Twelve percent of government revenues come from tourism.
They ship approximately $11.7 billion worth of goods around the world, especially to Asian countries. Exported to India $67 million; India imported $50 million worth of product from Myanmar. Some of the products they ship are: fish, oil,
clothing, accessories, vegetables, sugar, cereal, metals, computers, ginger, saffron, turmeric, bay leaves, timber & copper. Total trade between Myanmar neighbor countries amounted to $70 billion.
Only 25% of Myanmar have electricity, blackouts are very common. We generally lost power at least once or twice a day for a few minutes.
Our driver in Mandalay told us he had been a monk three times in his life, once at age 7, age 13 & again at 20 for a week each time. Each male has to be a monk at least once in their life for a week at age 7, 13 or 20. They live at a monastery, wear the traditional maroon robe awaken at 5 for prayer. They don't have any money & go to restaurants to get food donations, many receive monetary donations from passerbys. They only have two meals a day, morning & lunch. Our driver said he always went to bed hungry. It is a humbling experience & many remain at the monastery for the remainder of their lives.
Inle Lake is a freshwater lake with a population of 70,000, living in four cities around the lake. It is the second largest lake
in Myanmar, is approximately 44 square miles, with an elevation of 2,900'. We hired a guide with a Longboat to take us around the lake from 8 am - 4 pm. We saw local fisherman who have a distinctive rowing style, which involves standing at the stern on one leg & wrapping the other leg around the oar. Only men practice this rowing style. Carp is the most caught fish & is the staple diet for most people. We saw many floating gardens growing veggies & fruit in large gardens that float on the surface of the lake. These garden beds are formed by extensive manual labor. We were told that the United Nations & a couple other NGO's are in Myanmar teaching different forms of agriculture. We also noticed signs in front of a few of the floating gardens as to which NGO sponsored that area. One hundred years ago, women started weaving textiles out of the Lotus' flower's stems, extracting silk-like fibers from the stems. The fiber is pulled away from the stem, rolled into thread & woven into cloth on old weaving machines. These fibers are very strong, 3,000 stems are needed to make one scarf. These
scarves sell for hundreds of dollars & are frequently mixed with silk. Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in Asia but these Lotus fiber scarves are in high demand by the wealthy & will help the Inle Lake people to rise out of poverty. We went to, yet, another market to buy trinkets, saw another temple & had lunch at a restaurant alongside the lake, where we ate on a raised platform which formed a small open room with a table & chairs. It had lots of atmosphere & the food was quite nice. We have grown quite fond of this town & have enjoyed the many different restaurants, especially the Everest, Nepal one I went to by myself the night Charm was taking a cooking glass. This may be the closest I'll get to Everest & Nepal!!!
We took bus to Kalaw, approximately 2 1/2 hrs & found the city to be nestled against a mountain. Many Nepali Gurkha soldiers from Nepal crossed over the border & consequently, the town has a Himalayn atmosphere, trekking from Kalaw to Inle Lake is very popular & Trekking company signs are all over town, one can either take a one
Woman bathing, Inle Lake
They also wash their dishes in the Lake or two night trek depending how much time one has to spare. We went on a Saturday & walked through the biggest open market either one of us had ever seen, selling fruits, veggies, meat, flowers, new & used clothing. We had tea at a local 'tea house' along with the best small fried veggie pancakes! We took the bus & two hours later, were in Inle Lake about a 15 minute walk to our hotel. We decided to take a jitney to our hotel which cost us approximately 35 cents.
It was sad for both of us to leave this charming, laid back village of friendly people, nice restaurants & wonderful views of the mountains alongside the lake. We flew to Yangon this morning & are back at the Pickled Tea Hostel, which we've also grown fond of. This trip, for me, was extremely humbling & yet enlightening. It was also exciting to observe the traditional culture fairly untouched. This is not true in so many other countries I have traveled to, Asian cultures are quickly disappearing with TV, they all want to mimic Westerners. I was able to leave with a feeling I had seen an amazing
culture that hasn't yet been changed and it left a most beautiful feeling in my heart. These kind, helpful & hard working people, with a humble heart, are living the way they've lived for centuries, what a privilege to take these memories back with me.
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Kira Gray
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Inspiring people!
What a lovely if rudimentary lifestyle. I would like to meet all of them!