Blogs from Inle Lake, Mandalay Region, Burma, Asia - page 13

5./6. Dezember 2006 reise von yangon nach inle lake. 20 stunden im bus und am morgen aufwachen mit durchfall! zum glueck gibt es aber heutzutage gute medikamente und die reise war dadurch einigermassen ertraeglich. aber ihr koennt euch nicht vorstellen in welchem zustand die strassen in myanmar sind, unsere waldwege sind dagegen schon fast gut ausgebaute strassen. ... read more

Inle Lake - Nyaungshwe The next stop on our Itinerary was Inle Lake via Kalaw. The fifteen hours our bus ride took from Yangon was horrible. While I was sat on my sweaty broken seat, despite my nudges I had a smelly Burmese guy drooling in his sleep on my left shoulder and to my right I had a speaker blasting out some Burmese Techno crap right down my ear making sleep for me impossible. A few places in front of me sat on seat to himself, listening to an mp3 player while smoking a cigarette was a Monk. With fifteen hours to kill I had plenty of time to reflect and consider what I had been told the previous day about Buddhism and how the monks live a hard life of suffering… I began to ... read more

On the way to Mandalay... With the Air Mandalay tickets we had purchased in KL before we got to Yangon we headed to the airport for the flight to Mandalay. We were a bit bummed that we were flying to Mandalay instead of Bagan or Inle Lake since we'd need to do an extra leg then between Mandalay and one of those places. The Yangon domestic departure area was like stepping back in time...no computers, big scales to weigh the luggage, no id check but at least easy to deal with. Once we boarded onto the plane we found out that we weren't on a direct flight but would be stopping through Inle Lake's airport, Heho. That got the wheels in our heads turning...what if we could just hop off and grab our bags in Inle? ... read more

Inle Lake is a pretty shallow 20km long puddle in the Shan State at about 850m elevation. Enroute from Bagan I met first Marion, a Dutch girl, and then another Peter, another Dutchman. Cool customers and great company both, we pooled our resources and concentrated on doing nothing. Books and travelers' tales kept us busy for the first day and a half spent mostly in the courtyard of our hotel. The elevation kept the heat down to a slow bake and we maintained our fluid levels with beer and prevented the alcohol from dehydrating us by drinking copious amounts of water. That may not make medical sense, or even common sense, but at the time it seemed perfectly logical. Reading was probably the best pastime given that the alternatives were pretty awful: cycling in the heat, ... read more

As a tourist in a poor place like Myanmar, we have a moral obligation to support the local economy; spending money on stuff they make is much more beneficial to the economy than filling begging bowls and most tourists would prefer to be tailed by vendors selling knick knacks than beggars. Nevertheless, after being dragged to several tourist traps we did exercise our right not to see any more. Silk factory The first stop was a very small factory where they spun, dyed and wove silk in an unusually nice work environment. I would like to believe that all factories were similar to this one. It was well lit, had plenty of air, and the ladies working there had ready smiles. Not to say that the work is interesting. Mind-numbing would be the most appropriate adjective. ... read more