Blogs from Inle Lake, Mandalay Region, Burma, Asia - page 12

Servus miteinander! Um 7:00 treffen wir unseren Bootsfahrer, der schon wieder auf einer Bettelnuss kaut. Uebrigens: hier kaut ca. 90 % der maennlichen Bevoelkerung dieses grausige Zeug - Marcus hat dies probiert und nach paar Minuten von sich gegeben ... Wir besteigen unser laengliches Holzboot - drei Sitze hintereinander - und fahren bei ungewohnt kuehlen Temperaturen Richtung schwimmende Maerkte, schwimmende Gaerten, Seidenwebereien, Silberfabriken und Kloester ... Nach einer guten halben Stunde war das 1. Erlebnis da. Ein maximal 5 jaehriger Junge beherrschte die Technik des nur hier bekannten Einbeinruderns mit gleichzeitigem Fischernetz auswerfens perfekt. Es war immer noch sehr frisch, jedoch der kleine Bub schwitzte schon. Wir gaben ihm ein paar Bananen und Toastbrot und machten ein paar Fotos. Weiter gings zu dem schwimmenden Markt. Wir bogen kurz ab, sahen ein Boot... read more

Pulling up his longyi, Naung Naung proudly shows us the tattoo of a rabbit on his right thigh, surrounded by a faded swirl of Pali inscriptions. "This one makes me jump higher", he explains, his face deadly serious, before pulling open his tattered shirt to reveal a tiger on his chest. "And this one gives me courage!" This goes on for a few minutes, as he shows us a succession of significant tattoos - each located on a specific part of the body - and tells us the blessing each one bestows. I'd read a little about this custom before, (sometimes precious stones and amulets were inserted just beneath the skin to complement the inks and enhance the mystical significance), but hadn't realised it was still practised. I'd read that in times of war, many Burmese ... read more

Before I started my journey to Southeast Asia I had read some comments about Myanmar from other travellers and one or two of them wrote that the highlight of their trip was Inle Lake. In addition I have watched so many TV documentaries etc. about the Inle Lake and the fishermen that I couldn’t miss this spot while finally travelling in Myanmar myself. I wanted to see the beautiful lake and the famous fishermen with their unique 1-leg rowling technique and take some beautiful pictures of them, but then when I finally get there things turned out to be different than I expected… - Nyaung Shwe - I headed from Yangon towards Nyaung Shwe and the Shan Plateau in central Myanmar with big expectations, especially because one of the reasons why I wanted to travel to ... read more

January 3, 2007 (Happy New Year !) We are in a town called Nyaung Shwe, just north of Inle Lake. Inle Lake is a vacation spot for the Burmese and there are some expensive resorts in the middle of the lake. We found all tourist items (food, water, snacks) being the most expensive in all of Burma. As we are coming towards the end of our Burma trip, we just want to relax and do little. We met a Burmese guide, bringing a French group around on his tour. His name is Moe Moe and speaks good English and excellent French (according to our French friend Sonia). Moe Moe told us he learned French for 10 months, 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sonia is very impressed with his French (and with a french ... read more

I had no idea what to expect from Burma. Out of all the travelers I have met along the way, only two had actually been there before. Everyone else had stories of people they knew who knew other people who had dared to risk traveling within Myanmar's untouched territory. I couldn't seem to get 'the bus ride from hell' story out of my head no matter how hard I tried. A guy I met knew another guy who had taken the bus from Yangon to Inle. It was a long journey and very uncomfortable. After some time the bus began to climb up higher and higher into the hills around windy and precarious pathways. As they curled around a sharp curve, he watched in horror as the bus just ahead went too close to the edge, ... read more