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Published: March 30th 2009
Myanmar Part II
Day 66- 74
Day 6 of Road Trip
We arranged a boat trip for the day around Inle Lake. The river along Naungshwe eventually opened up into the huge expansive shallow Inle lake. Zaw Zaw had bought some treats along that we got to throw up to the seagulls that flew right up to us, hovering about 3 feet above us waiting for us to throw the treats. Another interesting thing about the lake was that the fisherman use their lower calf and heel to paddle the boats (see photo). Our first stop was a local market that sold everything for locals and tourist. S did a bit of souvenirs shopping but G started to fill a bit ill. After about an hour of wondering through the market we got back into the boat, but Ben then realized he lost camera. We turned around and went back to the dock and all scattered to go looking for his camera. It turns out he left it at one of the food stalls and the woman was walking around looking for him. Only in Myanmar would this happen in SE Asia. This is a prime example of how
kindhearted and caring the people are here.
We then went to a silk weaving village and silversmith village and got see them making all of the piece that were for sale. Then we stopped for lunch along the lake and headed to the Indein village and passed through narrow channels along the way with both buffaloes and locals taking a dip in the water. We walked through the village and then past a long corridor of souvenir shops to get to the stupas. But it was well worth it. The hill was filled with hundreds of ancient stupas. Most were in ruins and covered in overgrowth. But we actually prefer to see things its current weathered state then refurbished and renovated, so it was a lovely site.
Next stop was the Long Neck Village, but it was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn't actually a village rather just a huge house of souvenirs and 4 women in long neck attire standing outside. We did get to talk to them via Zaw Zaw as our translator. They are not really sure how the tradition started or why it is still in practice today. They showed us how they
Long Speed Boat
Bex, Mark, and Zaw Zaw.wash their necks and what they do if they have an itch. We got to hold the gold rings which were extremely heavy!
Next we headed to the Nga Phe Kyaung monastery, aka "The Cat Jumping Monastery". Even though it wasn't a monk that showed us the skills of the cats it was still good fun to see the cats jumping through hoops. The place was teeming with cats and one for some reason decided to relieve himself in Ben's flip flops. Poor guy but after a long day it gave us all a reason to have a good laugh! We head back to town and as we motored on, G started to feel worse and worse. She called it a night after the boat trip and the rest of us grabbed dinner at nearby local restaurant.
Day 7 of Road Trip
The next morning we set out for our 11 hour drive to Mandalay. To say it was unpleasant is an understatement. We had to back track all the way to Kalaw which meant going through the hills and unpaved roads. We didn't reach Mandalay until dark and G went straight to bed after S and
Fishermen
The locals rowing with thier feet and balancing precariously on the boat with the other. Bex got some medicine for her from a local pharmacy. The rest of the group ate a delicious and cheap dinner at a local Indian street stall. Steph got two chapatis with veggie curry for $0.35!
In the AM, Steph, Bex, Mark and Ben went to Mandalay Hill, which was alright so G didn't miss much. It was a hazy day so the view was just too spectacular. Plus the hill was filled with more stupa's and Buddha statues which we've seen loads already while in Myanmar (and SE Asia). After about an hour at the hill, we headed back to the guesthouse to pick up G. Once we gother, we made our way to a monk monastery in Amarapuna for the 10:15 monk precession. We got to watch the monks all lined up to receive their only meal for day. It was a bit touristy actually with loads of people taking pics, but we tried to be respectful and not stick our cameras right up in their faces as they ate.
Then we headed to Inwa (both towns are suppose to require a purchase of a $10 ticket, but no one bothered top ask us, so we
Inle Lake
Taking a break from harvesting seaweed. once again got to avoid the government's ridiculous fees), which was the hometown of our guide Zaw Zaw. The town is located in the middle of a river so we had to get a ferry over there. We each paid $1, which isn't too bad but then we found out the local price is $0.10. The only real way around the town other then walking which would take you a really really long time was by horse and cart. They had a flat fee of $4 for people and we tried our best to bargain that down but it was of no use. So we all coughed up the money (we're not trying to be cheap but remember there are no ATMs to get money out, so when we run out, we're out) and got into our respective carts. It was truly going back in time, riding on the back of the carts through this modest village.
We first stopped off to see Zaw Zaw's father's house and got to him and tell him what a wonderful son he had! Well, we had to use Zaw Zaw as our translator so we hope Zaw Zaw wasn't too bashful about
Red Bananas
Local Market selling Red Bananas repeating what we had said. We also got to meet his sister-in-law, who live next door (his brother was off at work at a nearby village) and prepared a green tea salad and a pot of tea for us. He had an adorable niece that was very very wary of us, but eventually cracked a smile when Steph offered her a balloon. He then brought over his other niece from a different brother, who died last year up in northern Myanmar of malaria. He made a promise with his sister-in-law, that he would take care of her schooling and clothing if she could manage to feed and shelter her.
Eventually, word got out to all the village children about "the foreigners in their village" and as we walked towards the shore to on old fort, we turned around to see about 2 dozen of them following us. They were so excited to have us take pictures and videos of them. The minute we clicked our camera buttons they would run over and crowd around the camera to see the screen. It was really sweet and a bit sticky as some kids were eating fruit and then stuck their hands
Indein
Hundreds of Stupas dot this field. on our shoulders, but thier smiles made it all okay.
We toured around the island some more to see a few sights but many of then required the $10 ticket. But we did go up to see The Watch Tower (Nan Myint), which G joked around calling it the Leaning Tower of Inwa since it was definitely on a bit of a tilt. And low and behold that is the nickname given to the tower - G is a genius, even when she is sick with the flu!
Our last stop of the day was back in Amarapuna to see the world's largest teak bridge. It was pretty impressive but the two us walked halfway and basically got the jist of it. The other 3 walked the whole way as we waited on plastic chairs with little girls bothering us to buy jewelry from them (school is out for March, April & May - that's why they were here trying to sell instead of being in school.
Later that night the 4 of us minus G went to "The Mustache Brothers" which we had all heard was a really comedian troupe that made political jokes (which is
Long neck women
The fames long neck women of Myanmar - although most have fled to Thailand a huge no no in Burma). Par Par Lay was even mentioned in the movie "About A Boy", for going to jail for 3 years for making political jokes. However, it was very disappointing. Our LP book said it would cost $3.50 and Bex's book said it would cost $5 (she had a more recent SE Asia Lonely Planet). But it ended up costing $8.00. But we couldn't just walk out, especially since they collect them money about 20 minutes into the show. The show was more dancing then jokes and even the jokes he said weren't that funny. It was just one brother with the mike the whole night, instead of the 3 of them bouncing jokes off each other like we had expected. It all seemed really rehearsed and the punch lines were really easily predictable. We all walked out 2 hours later a little bummed but had to just put it behind us and not dwell too much on our $8 loss.
Day 8 of Road Trip
We left the next day after deciding to skip the royal place and a few monasteries as we didn't want to pay the $10 ticket. It took about
7 hours to get to Bagan but we stopped along the way to see Zaw Zaw's nephew who is a novice monk. We also stopped by the village where he use to teach English and lived as a monk years ago. Again, the people in the village were all so kind and invited us in for tea and food at each house. At one house, G asked Zaw Zaw how he knew these poeple and he replied, "I don't know them , they just wanted to invite you over for tea." At one house we were being served by a lovely women who made a pot tea for us, brought us biscuits and chickpeas. We then found out that she had just given birth to twin girls 15 days ago! She brought the babies for us to see. One was very very tiny, we were (and still are ) worried that the little one might not make it. The other one was bigger and a bit more healthy looking but still all newborn raisin looking.
We reached Bagan around dusk. Just as we had gotten into the city limits a trishaw driver rammed into our van. Our poor driver
Dinner pots
1800 monks each carry a pot for this large lunch. Alex was so mad as it was clearly not his fault and the minivan was severely dented and scratched. The trishaw driver wasn't looking and took the corner too wide. He and the guy exchanged some words and a small crowd had begun to gather. But Alex eventuality got back into the van and drove off. It later turns out that the guy called the police and the police tracked down the van. Alex had to pay the guy $70, the cops $35 (just for doing their job!!!) and had to pay $10 to get the dents taken out. It 's stuff like this that shows the rampant corruption in this country.
That night, G stayed in and the rest of us went out for dinner (and got Italian no less, there were loads and loads of Italian restaurants, well actually there were loads and loads of restaurants serving their take on Italian food). But for $1.80 for a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce it wasn't too bad even though we had to wait over 40 minutes to get our food.
Day 9 of Road Trip
The 3 other got up early to watch the sunrise
over Bagan's hundred of stups's . The two of us have seen enough sunrises in Asia. Plus, G was still sick and S, as most people know, is not a morning person and couldn't be bothered. Pus the mornings had all been hazy and this one was no exception and the 3 others reported back on a not so great sunrise anyways. After breakfast, we headed to the local market as we had to wait for the van to get fixed. We've seen our fair share of markets but it was also nice to see the rest of city. Plus we picked up a cheap bottle of rum for Alex to drown his sorrows in.
Later that day we visited just the main pagodas. S was ready to call it quits after the second one since no shoes are allowed and you have to walk through gravel at times. But she pushed forward with as little complaining as possible (which is probably a lot by most standards). We could only climb a few pagodas but saw an amazing view from Dhamma Ya Zi Ka Pagoda and ended the day at the Shwesandaw Pagoda for sunset.
For dinner it
Village Life
seperating nuts from the skin. was just the five of us and we ate right next to the guesthouse and out of nowhere it started to downpour. It was the first rain of the year the locals said. We tried to wait it out but eventually realized there was no letting up. So we rolled up our jeans and tucking away our bags preparing for the deluge. When out of nowhere our driver Alex comes walking down the driveway wet, smiling and drunk as hell!!! It was hilarious. We all ended up getting soaked and steeping in huge puddles but Alex is probably the most smiley person we've ever met, so we we couldn't help but laugh at our soaked clothes, shoes and hair.
Day 10 of Road Trip
From Bagan to Yangoon its about 600 kilometers, but since the road conditions are so bad, it took us 20 hours from start to finish!!! It wasn't too bad as the three in front - G, Ben and Bex - chatted and Steph & Mark slept and listened to their ipods in the back. But the last 2 hours were pretty grueling and everyone kind of shut down and stared out the window wondering
if we were there yet. Eventually we got to the hotel around 2:30AM and went to bed.
Our road trip had come to an end!!!!
The next say, he four of us (minus Mark) went to the market the next day for some cheap souvenir shopping, a cheap Indian lunch and printed out some pics for Zaw Zaw and Alex to remmember us by. That night we went out for $0.50 beers with Zaw Zaw and Alex (and the rest of the crew - Ben, Bex, Mark) to once again let them now how thankful we were to have met them and what a great time we had had over the last 10 days.
Our last day was basically consisted of us watching movies and packing our bags as we had only $6 between the two of us for lunch and dinner. Then the next day we boarded the plane and headed back to Bangkok.
Its hard to sum up our time in Myanmar, as it truly is something one has to see and experience for themselves. It was exotic, inviting, frustrating, memorizing, puzzling and magnificent all at the same time. The scenery was stunning, the
stupas were impressive, the history is intriguing but the people are the real reason to visit Myanmar. Considering the hardships they have endured and continue to endure everyday, it is is amazing to see smiles on all their faces
G summed it up best by saying " If they had a dollar and you really needed it, any Myanmar person would reach into their pockets to offer you whatever they had".
xxx
G & S
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Tara-G's cousin
non-member comment
souvenir please!
This is amazing. I've been telling everyone I can that you have been in Myanmar. I am so jealous! Please bring me home a souvenir!!!! Please please please. some local jewelry would be awesome! I will wear it everyday. Sorry if sounds selfish but I may never go and I would just love to have something! Love you and hope you are feeling better!