Day 25 Nyaung Shwe


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Asia » Burma » Mandalay Region » Inle Lake
December 26th 2012
Published: January 4th 2013
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Today was our day to trek in the surrounding villages of Nyaung Shwe. Our trek was only for 3 ½ hours so it wasn’t too strenuous. We took a horse and cart to the bottom of the hills just outside town. Our guide was a young Pa-O man who spoke reasonably good English. He turned out to be quite a character and we shared many a joke with him even with the language barrier. There weren’t really many big highlights of the trip. It was simply just great to be away from the hustle and bustle of the town. The guides seemed to have their own particular favourite track and even though we briefly came across other tourists undertaking a similar trek you only really crossed paths with them. It was very peaceful and a lot of the vegetation and surrounds reminded us of places we have bushwalked in Australia. We spent some time in one of the meditation caves in a Pa-O village. I know for sure I couldn’t spend more than a short time in them. I don’t know how the monks spend days in them meditating. The small caverns were eerily silent, extremely warm, and had very stale air. Not to mention having the company of many bats. The smell that comes with them is very distinctive.

Upon our return to the town we wandered down to the local market. It must have been the turn of Nyaung Shwe to host the travelling market as the normally empty stalls were now full and many sellers were simply sitting in the aisles selling their produce. We smelt the delicious smell of melt on the bone curry and decided to have lunch at one of the local eateries inside the market. This “lunch” turned into a major meal as the ladies running the stall not only gave a bowl of the yummiest curry with the usual gigantic serve of rice, various little dishes of flavourings, and of course a bowl of soup, but also made us a beautiful salad from locally grown tomatoes. There was of course the endless pot of tea to wash everything down. But it didn’t end there. After lunch we were presented with a made on the spot avocado and tomato salad dip, complete with dipping chips made from an oversized pappadum. Even though I didn’t think I could eat another thing, I ate that bowl of avocado. It was the best avocado dip I had ever eaten. The cost for this beautiful meal, definitely the best we have had in Myanmar, was about 4000 chat together. There is no need to really say we didn’t need dinner after that. Again a cold shower before bed.

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