Wanderings in Myanmar - 3 - Inle Lake & Yangon

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After staying in Kalaw, an old British Colonial town set within the cooler mountains, we drove back down the hair-pin bends to Nyaung Shwe, stopping en-route at Pindaya Buddhist Cave Temples. What an unbelievable sight they were - a wide high-roofed cave almost filled from top to bottom with approximately 6000 Buddha statues of all shapes and sizes. At Nyaung Shwe we board a “James Bond-style” longboat for a fast journey across Inle Lake to our lakeside hotel. WanderingPeter is feeling unwell with an upset tummy and so unfortunately has to stay at the Hotel the following day while WanderingAlison enjoys a wonderful day touring the sights of Inle Lake. The famous leg-rowing fishermen, water gardens, a lakeside temple with numerous Stupas & a lakeside market. WanderingPeter fortunately didn’t miss out too much as next day also saw us on the lake visiting weaving factories and luckily the fisherman were back out on the lake!!

A 3hr flight on a twin-propellor plane from the small Heho Airport transported us to the former capital and major city of Yangon for the last couple of days of the tour. It was strange being back in a major busy metropolis after a couple of weeks in smaller rural towns - although paradoxically quieter as motorcycle use has been banned, by the Military regime, for several years in Yangon. The sights of the city await us and we visit another Buddhist Temple, walk down to the river wharf to watch a barge being unloaded by a long line of stevedores carrying great sacks of rice. We continue walking through an open-air food court, serving a wide variety of unidentifiable morsels, and onto our own “High Tea” at the famous colonial Strand Hotel. Late afternoon we move on to Myanmar’s most sacred Buddhist Temple - Shwedagon Pagoda. The tall golden Stupa dominates the skyline of Yangon and we watch in wonder as the sun sets and the Stupa is lit by flaming candles and floodlights. What a spectacular end to our wonderful tour! All the is left is a 14hr flight via Singapore to London.

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