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Published: August 26th 2007
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Man rowing on Inle Lake
Boat is full of this seaweed stuff they all collect and use for a number of purposes. The next day the dutch, carmen and braum and i got a canoe to take us on a little tour around the lake. it was super touristy - like you visit all these places where they show you how they are making traditional stuff by hand, blacksmiths, weaving, etc. etc. but that is what i had expected, so i was prepared. we did get to observe life on the lake though - there is no shoreline here, so the villages, the houses, even the monasteries and pagodas are built on stilts in the marshland, and people use canoes to get around, even just to visit a neighbor! i mostly just liked riding around in the boat, through floating gardens, watching ppl row with just one leg (it's strange here, hard to explain!).
the dutch had also met a local and arranged for us to have dinner at his house, which his wife was going to cook. so we paid them a little money, like less than $2 each, and had this awesome meal of burmese food - rice, veggies, and meat dishes and LOADS of chilis! braum and i kept asking for more chilis and they were shocked! besides the
Women of the Long Neck Tribe
Self explanatory, except that this gold things, which CAN'T come off, weigh a TON! food, it was a really really cool experience, and again i was thrilled to be able to help out this family by giv9ing them a little income. the hospitality again, amazing. it was a very modest home (though they had electricity), we ate sitting on the floor, they have adorable children, and they also have 2 student boarders from the villages.
once dinner was finished, like in the homestay on the trek, it's social hour! so much activity going on and so much fun to feel included as part of it! we were all commenting, this must be what life was like before television! ANd it was very pleasant and anything but boring.
all these people stopped by to visit. The young boys who boarded there sat right next to us and did their budhist prayers for about 30 min in front of the altar (which as i said is at every house) and i actually by now can recognize the tone / words of the prayers thay chant! the guy's sister, or sister in law or something (everyone seems related somehow) came by to visit and chat with us for quite a while, one of them has
her own souvenir stand and it was really itneresting to learn some of the economics of it. So she used to work for a big souvenir shop where she got paid 3,000 kyat per day - or about $2.50. so now she is thrilled to own her own shop, and it's a good day for her if someone buys anything! she was excited that day, an italian mann had bought a little statue on which she made 2,000 ($1.50 or so) profit, and same thing the day before (sold one statue). the day before that? Nothing. Makes you think a little bit harder and feel REALLY freaking bad for bargaining down these people an extra $0.25, no? all the women who cam to visit invited us to their house, and were so so lovely. In fact, some of them even gave us traditional massages while we were sitting there talking - which were great!
Somebody came by selling tea, and they were measuring it out on a very very old fashioned scale in the living room, and carmen had some -interesting- piercings that the burmese ppl were SHOCKED at, and even a bunch of neighbors HAD to come see!
One leg rowing
Dont know how they actually do it, or how it propels the boat forward, but here it is! it was such a riot. we got to - just a LITTLE - talk about politics, which i always find really really fascinating. basically anyone you start to talk to a little is really unhappy with the govt, and i just can't help but think to myself that when is this peaceful image going to shatter, because there is SO much discontent beneath the surface. how long will the military be able to supress these ppl and keep things on this very fragile position? i also can't help but wonder how MUCH about the govt that the locals know? about the goings on in the rest of the country?
The next day, i was off for Yangoon. I had just a few days left which was too much for yangoon but not enough to go somewhere else...unfortunately. basically i really, really hated yangoon and i don't know why. it was SO dirty, SO ugly. and i just really didn't like the feeling i got there. i also couldn't find a place to stay that i liked. i can't remember disliking a city while traveling so much, so i ended up moving my ticket back to bangkok earlier, to spend
only one day in yangoon. it was really funny when i went to the airline office to change my ticket, and the woman had to call the head office (of course - handwritten manifests, remember?) and one guy was like, are you sure you come tomorrow because we had 2 french guys who changed their ticket for today and didn't come. i'm like, uh....can't say i know the french guys...yes i'm coming! it was just funny, because i can't imagine that happening in the US. anyways, i went to the biggest temple in burma / yangoon which was pretty cool, and strolled around the city which is fairly international - asian, international that is. i had delicious indian food, chapatis, etc. for less than a dollar. i passed this really interesting scene where there were all these really young, western clothed concert goers, girls in short skirts, etc., looking very punk style, out of the street. it was SO strange to come across this scene in burma. talk about a counter-culture.
So, I don't know what i was expecting out of burma, but it's deifnitely not what I found there. One thing is for sure that a very mysterious
Dinner at Local's
Here is myself, two dutch people, and the daughter (mimi) who lives there. she had a cough and was sort of coughing on my lap into the food...i was like, oh great... country has been demystified for me, and that I have some sense of hte situation going on over there (mostly that it feels very very fragile and there is a lot bubbling beneath the surface!) It also seems like a strange place full of anamolies, in some way it's like you're 50 years back in time, people riding in ox carts, etc., but in most ways it's really a rather developed country...and so modern. it's not as third world as a lot of the places i've traveled, but i've never been somewhere that has a lot of "modern" to it, yet is so completely out of touch with the rest of the world...
Basically, i've been really fascinated by my time in burma and the culture and the people here. i feel like i've just learned a ton! i will be watching the situation develop, or not (!), with great interest in the coming years.
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Justin
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The local dinner sounds awesome - it sounds like Mr. Roger's Nieghborhood, with all sorts of people just stopping by out of the blue to measure tea, visit, and teach you about local arts and crafts!