Kalaw to Inle Lake Trek

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hi everyone! well this is a really long one, but it was the best part of Burma so there's a lot to say. i have GREAT pics from this trek, and had so much trouble choosing ones to post!

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The airports just keep getting smaller! we flew into Heho airport, which is the main place for Inle Lake - another popular tourist spot and again in Amy Tan's saving fish from drowning book. we got in a death trap taxi - i would love to just see ONE working speedometer here - and headed to a tiny town called kalaw, the audaciously named "town" which is the trekking base for the hill tribes in the area. Much indian and nepalese influence here (read: better curries and chapatis)

The 3 went on a brief afternoon trek, but I wanted to do a full 3 day trek which goes from Kalaw to Inle Lake, about 60km (a bit over 36 miles i think) so i wandered around the town for a bit (this is hard to do) and arranged my trek. i saw some trucks going by with a bunch of military guys with guns. near here is a military area, and this used to be a huge british camp back in the colony days. I bought some postcards because for some reason it is RIDICULOUSLY cheap to mail them from here...30 kyats. remember the exchange rate is 1250 = $1. i don't know WHY it's so cheap but i can't help but wonder if it's related to teh probability that they will reach their destination... The post office, well what a joke - no words for it really, just an empty building with a woman. i spent time chatting wtih the hotel staff during a rainstorm and watched her fill out her 5 forms for the police, immigration, military, etc. it's the same form they jsut write up 5 copies with all the foreigners and all our personal details. they have to do this every day! i had another "last dinner" with the guys, as they would be leaving early in the morning, and was (again) sad to see them go...but this time I knew it was for sure!

Trek - Day 1

I woke up really excited about the trek, and saw my friends off on the local bus - can't wait to hear what they thought of that. it was me and this italian guy in my "group" - he didn't really speak a word of english, which was HILARIOUS because all he woudl say was "no problem." we actually communicated more through spanish. The scenery was STUNNING!! no other word for it! lots of terraced, agricultural hills. tea leaves and rice are the main farming industries here. there was a road to follow, but no cars, only ox carts. Many people were carrying teakwood from the villages into town - about a 6 hour walk with this HEAVY wood on their heads, sweating..for 3000 kyat! just over $2. we saw a "mad cow" tied to an ox cart that they were bringing into town - maybe he is sick, or crazy, my guide said.

the first tribe area we passed through was the Pow - living high on the mountains, their language sounds NOTHING like burmese! they are the poorest of the mt tribes because they don't grow their veggies, only buy them. until 30 years ago they really thrived off the opium trade, but the gov't has shut that down. they still have arranged marriages - you can't go outside the tribe or you're exiled. And, like in Uganda, the dowry is paid from the male's family to the wife's parents! the way it shoudl be!!

Each village has their own monastery and stupa, and generally one school. as we entered the first village we were swamped by about 50 kids who surrounded us wanting to be in pictures and shake our hands while saying "hello." Noone was seling anything, the kids did not ask for anything, it was really great and authentic. we visited the "school" which was a total joke, kids running around in madness just screaming, etc. Some ppl we took pictures of asked if we would send them back to them, because to get pictures they have to send for a photographer from the town of kalaw who comes up and charges 500 kyat for a picture. i really, REALLY wished i had a polaroid camera with me.

it was very idyllic walking through teh villages, we passed various sites such as a man bathing in the river (which we had to cross over on bamboo shoot bridge), a lively football game between two villages with many spectators, the sounds of a boy who was herding cows playing a flute (until he saw us coming and ducked behind a bush!), and the beautiful scenery of manuervering our way around 8 inch strips of land woven throughout rice pattie fields.

For some reason, in the middle of the villages is a random train stop, although i dont really think ppl get on or off here as there is no road out of the train station. trains pass once per day, and timing of the train is very, very approximate...perhaps it is always an hour or two late. so there is this very quiet train station wtih ppl hanging out, who have gathered with their large baskets of produce out in their village homes and brought here to try to sell to the ppl on the train. we are peacefully sitting here having a cup of tea and watching ppl mill about when suddenly - The train approaches! chaos ensues! The entire train station is completely transformed as massive commerce commences and heads are hanging out windows, sleepy train passengers are awoken and people begin to peddle veggies, firewood, anything you can think of...i was swept up in the action!

after about another hour of walking, we arrived at a homestay family with really lovely people - the husband who is a farmer, the wife, a 10 yr old daughter, and a 12 year old son. the daughter goes to school, the son had to drop out of school to stay home and take care of their 3 buffalo, because the father needs to do the farming. There was no electricity or running water - and the kitchen was open fire, in the house. it was all made of bamboo and it was actually a sort of two story house - and the people all stay on the second story. at first i coudln't figure out why, but then i realized that the cows actually stay on the "bottom floor" at night, inside. my guide asked if i wanted to "shower" to which i said yes - see the picture attached. luckily the wife let me borrow a longyi to wear, because you need to wear it in order to actually bathe, or be out in the open i suppose.

We had a DELICIOUS dinner, tons of rice and different types of veggies. the young 12 year old boy had also caught about 5 tiny (4-5 inches maybe) fish in the river that day - By HAND! i couldn't believe it. he was so proud. so they fried these up and invited us to try it. Disgusting! EVERYTHING left on, including the head, skin, the scales and the tiny fins, and they eat the ENTIRE thing! i thought it would make me sick, but the italian guy wouldn't try it and i really felt like i had to, to not be insulting. particularly when they didn't have that much of it and were offering some to me! so, i stomached as much as i could and tried not to eat the nasty parts. the little boy was so proud! i told him it was delicious 😊

in evenings the families all sit around talking, and we had a visit by the grandfather (0f 12 kids and 35 grandkids). my guide was saying sometimes he sees his grandkids and doesn't recognize them! haha. he invited me to come over to his house and visit as well! they live just up the road. at one point, i was lounging, lying on my stomach with my head propped up and my guide says to me in all seriousness, "jaime can i tell you something?" i said, "yes" and he says, "please dont' point your feet at the budha" opps! EVERY single house, restaurant, etc. here has a small budha shrine with candles, etc. and where they give little gifts - in fact the first thing i saw in the morning was the little girl putting out the daily little bowls of rice in front of the budha. it's insulting to point your feet at the budha.

At night, the tables were pushed aside and blankets rolled onto the bamboo mats for sleeping. there were two small rooms separated by a curtain, one where the family slept and one where four of us slept (myself, italian, guide, and his friend who was helping with the cooking, etc. and i think trying to learn how to be a guide). it was kind of like camping. we slept to the noises of first of all, the italian snoring insanely which was pretty annoying (i put my mp3 player on to sleep) and also the funniest noises from teh cows right below us. i kept wondering if the bamboo floor would collapse right into the animals.

i had the most AMAZING guide, in fact i really felt like we could have been friends and he was just such a good person - probably , in all my travels and tours, etc., this has been far and away the best guide i've ever had, i learned an amazing amount of information about burma and didnt' stop questioning him! and he knew how to explain everything to me. this made the entire experience even that much better.

Trek - Day 2

we woke up early the next morning, i was SO stuffed from dinner that i could barely eat breakfast...rice/veggies with chilis, and i had to try the homemade "pear jam" that the woman had made herself. The household all went about their morning activities, the young girl woke up applied thanaka to her face (she leaves for school at 7am, it's about a 1 hour walk), the father was getting 2 baskets of cabbages ready, which were held together by one long bamboo pole that sits on his shoulders. The young boy had to feed his chickens (so cute), clean out the cow dung from underneath the house, and feed the pigs.

we said goodbye and we were on our way, passing throiugh a different tribe area now - with a new language, and they didn't even seem to understand my "hello" or "thank you". In this tribe they even have different outfits - still longyi of course but the women wear all black with an orange turban on their head. seems unpractical in the heat. we stopped in and visited some more schools, which seems extremely disruptive to me but it's jsut chaos there anyways so my guide ensured me it was fine. all the teachers come to the village from the town, because there are no really educated ppl who can teach in the village (so i'm told). it's the only job that young women who go through school can really get. we saw a lot of really crazy tattoos in the this village. tehre was this really old man with the ENTIRE top half of his legs just covered, back 60 years ago or so, this was a sign of strength to get tatoos like this - because it is very painful i guess. they use an iron needle which they heat over fire and charcoal ink. i love wandering around the villages and observing the little activities going on, it sort of felt like we were walking through a movie set! you pass by the woman pumping water at the well, you pass by shooting school kids, we walked by a bunch of men making bamboo baskets to sell in the city, ppl picking tea. if you didn't know any better, you really feel like it's a bunch of actors and not reality.

For lunch we basically just find someone who will let us cook in their house. i guess the guide pays these guys a bit of money (like for sleeping) but he also cooks food for them, so everyoen shares a meal. I am really, really happy for my money to get in the hands of the ppl this way and NOT the gov't...maybe not much money though since the trip is really cheap - only $10/day for everything included. but a little money to these villagers goes a LONG way, and i see a lot, lot of value in cultural exchange as well. interestingly, it's actually ILLEGAL for me to be sleeping in these places, since they aren't licensed guest houses. so the gov't can't take their little taxes out! good. The hospitality of these ppl is AMAZING. it is really, really honest and they just open their homes to me and they are always inviting me, please come back, etc. etc. and they really do mean it. they have quaint houses, always with the bamboo floors/mats, no chairs ever. you have to take your shoes off before you enter, and it's always comfy and clean. I was just overwhelmed by the authenticity of the entire experience - i think it has something to do with the fact that this area was actually closed to tourists until only 3 years ago, which really isn't that long ago...

so in the evening we arrived at this old, rusting monastery which lets trekkers sleep there - i think as a rule, monasteries can't refuse someone who needs / wants a place to seleep. i thought they would have rooms or something, but no, we literally slept IN the main hall where the budha alter, etc. was, and they put up some bamboo walls and put bamboo mats down on the floor! i asked my guide pls put me far away from the snoring italian! so he conversed with the head monk for about 10 minutes when we got there, to make sure our mats would be far away 😊 tehre are just a handful of real monks here and about 20 novice monks for whom it's apparently a hard knock life! all around the compound, the little monks were sweeping, carrying buckets, etc.

tehre were other trekkers there, a few more now from ppl who were doing only a 1 night trek but interestingly EVERY one of them was european, and mostly older. i met 3 young guys who were also traveling independently - one dutch, one swiss, one irish, and we spent the night hanging out and there was an AMAZING sky, so when everyone went to bed, we went in the middle of the well-swept courtyard and laid on our backs to look up at the stars, and the brilliant milky way! eventually we went to bed and i slept like a rock, to be peacefully woken up to the sounds of novice monks chatting at 5:30am, just 20 feet or so away.

Trek - Day 3

we'd been lucky so far with rain. it's the rainy season in SEA - so while i didn't see a single day of rain in south america, i've hardly seen one w/o it here! after 2 clear days though, the downpour happened on day 3, and for hours we were just walking in the pouring rain - thank goodness for my excellent northface rain jacket! the mud under our shoes just turned into clay, and would literally just stick to the bottoms of my shoes, 4 inches thick! eventually the sun came out and dried everything in an hour or so - i was still filthy and my shoes were unrecognizable, but i had them washed at my hotel later for $0.33 and they look almost like new! We reached the lake at lunchtime, where I had 2 bowls of noodle soup and watched the activity of a sinking canoe in the lake and the men having to unload all the gear and watching some float away downstream. the lake is huge and we had a 1 hour boatride to town. i would have sorted my transport, but it was too late (i'm back to no itinerary w/o my friends) so i figured i'd be staying at the lake at least one day! After a much, much needed shower the swiss and the dutch guy (at a diff hotel) came loking for me and we spent the entire evening drinking beers, chatting, and eventually getting some delicious curry. at the first restaurant, we were joined by a solo dutch girl traveling who joined us for the entire evening, and we also met these really cool slovenians - that was a new one for me. we had a really, really fun evening and i had forgotten how easy it is to meet independent travelers when you're alone. it made me wonder if when i was traveling with my friends were we unfriendly? because we didn't mingle much with others.

The next day we agreed to go on a boat ride together the next day, less the swiss guy who was unfortuantely leaving since i really liked him.

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Photos

Cooking!
Here I am pretending to cook over the open fire with the host mother where I stayed one night.

Men carrying Teakwood
as mentioned, these guys carry this wood six hours for about $3!

Produce
Woman carrying produce to the train station where she'll sell it.

Waiting for Train
I was watching this unsupervised little girl for a while, while we were waiting for the train. i was worried she'd fall off the table!

Football Game
We stumbled across this game, you can see the monks playing too!

"Shower"
My guide wanted me to help improve his english...for starters, this is not the definition of a shower....

Comments

[Justin]

Sleeping at the monastary sounds cool - did they give the "novice monks" a hard time, hazing them and making them do push ups?