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Published: March 29th 2006
Green just doesn't cover it
I was hoping the camera would capture just how beautiful this scene was but in my mind, it was the most amazing shade of green I have ever seenHow sweet it is to be by water again!!!! Bagan was beautiful, but my god, it was dry!! After our last day there, we (read as 'Steph') decided that a 10 hour bumpy car ride across winding mountains to Eastern Myanmar was pretty much out of the question. I had spent half the day in bed with a heavy cold and I think Steve even dreaded a 10 hour car journey with me coughing and spluttering all the way! We also decided that we couldn't put Gabrielle through it, so when he popped round to our guesthouse at 8pm we suggested to him that we fly the next morning. It would only cost us $20 more to fly, so it actually made sense. Gabrielle thought for a split second then agreed. I went to talk to our guesthouse manager to see if there was any possibility of us getting on a flight the next day. It so happened that the town's travel agent also stayed at our guesthouse so he was there within 5 minutes to talk to us. Thirty minutes later, we each had a ticket in our hands for a 7.30am flight the next morning. How's that for service?
Thanks to the guys at New Park Hotel and Seven Diamonds Travel!
When we arrived in Neung Shwe, the gateway town for Inle Lake, Steve and Gabrielle were keen to explore so headed off on bikes to the hot springs. I decided that a traditional Myanmar massage was in order, so I took myself of to Win Nyuen, a family business that has been massaging for 8 generations. Whilst I had grandma walking up my calves. I could see LuLu, aged 2, practising on her father. She was doing a grand job. She soon ran over to me and massaged my stomach which was a bit more like being simply belted by a two year than having a soothing massage, but I humoured her like a good tourist. When Steve came to meet me, we played with Lulu for a little bit in the candlelight, before we disappeared into the darkness to find food.
Nueng Shwe is even darker than Mandalay, but being a smaller town, it has a lot of immediate charm. There are plenty of little restaurants springing up to cater for the tourists, but it was mostly the little tea shops that we frequented. As
we stayed in Nueng Shwe for five days, we got to know a few local characters as well, which is always nice.
On our first morning, Steve, Gabrielle and I headed off for a day's tour of the majestic Inle Lake. But before we set off, we had our set breakfast at the guesthouse. This was one of the most amusing events of the trip 😉. I sat opposite Steve and Gabrielle. Steve's pancake arrived, and he proceeded to wrap his banana in it (bananas and pancakes are common for breakfast in Myanmar). As Steve rolled his banana in his pancake, I saw Gabrielle give Steve a sideways glance, then shrug and went back to his food. Then Gabrielle's pancake arrived, to which he proceeded to add salt and pepper. Steve glanced at Gabe and said, "You know that's salt, don't you?". Gabrielle agreed he did. They both appeared to think the other was nuts. I knew exactly what had happened but didn't want to spoil the moment when they sussed it out themselves......... The next moment, Gabe splutters on his pancake. He had clearly thought that he was getting an omelette, hence the salt and pepper, and thought
All the colours of Inle
We visited a traditional silk weaving factory and Stef picked this piece out as it had all the colours of Myanmar. Was she close? Steve was rather eccentric wrapping a banana in his omelette! It really tickled me at the time - if only you could have seen their faces!
Anyway, we set off in our long boat, sitting in a line behind one another, to Inle Lake. For ten minutes or so we chugged along the canal from Nuang Shwe, then suddenly we were in the open lake! It was wonderful. There were beautiful birds flying along with us, and there was water everywhere - just fantastic after days and days of dust.
There seems to be a set tour that you are taken on these trips. We obliged at the beginning by going to see the silk weaving factory, the cigar making factory, the silver factory, but after lunch we asked if we could be taken to the south of the lake. Of course this cost a little more, but it was only beer money. The lake's water looked so inviting that we asked to be taken to a part of the lake that we could swim in. We went to Inleh Bo Teh (literally the "Officials House in the Middle of the Lake") where we could moor up and
Swimming in the lake
On the way back from exploring the lake we stopped in the middle for a swim, just divine. have a swim. It was divine; cool, soft and exhilarating. Afterwards we all lay in the boat to dry off before setting off for sunset further up the lake. The whole day was lovely and relaxing - just what we needed.
Over the next few days and nights, we didn't plan much but had a lovely time wandering, chatting to the locals and relaxing. However, we did organise one day to do a one-day trek. It cost US$6 each and we organised it through Smiling Moon. Our Myanmar guide, all of 21, was called Trigger and he was great. After a short ride on a donkey cart, we began our trek by arriving at a small monastery set in a cave. We saw another further up on the trek which was beautiful; inside there were limestone stalactites and amazing formations of other stones. Trigger showed us down one cave that apparently lead to Bagan (about 250 kms away). Apparently a monk and his dog tried to walk through the cave to Bagan many years ago, but didn't appear at the other side. I wonder why.
Trigger took us through some indigenous Po and Shan villages. Please note that
Stef and Mahai
Read the main text for an explanation on this photo this trek is not the type that you would experience in Thailand where the villagers are waiting for you, and it's all a bit put on. The villagers that were in the village were just getting on with their work, hardly paying any notice to us. The children however would run up to say "hello!" then "goodbye!". The main staples that were grown were soya beans, tamarinds, rice, ginseng, and a few other beans. It gave us new respect for all those types of foods because the people of Myanmar work very hard to grow them. Those that do not farm can collect firewood. They can sell this in the town for about 100kyat that will feed a family for one day (less than USD1). It's a real hand-to-mouth existence.
As we walked higher into the mountains, it got cooler yet dryer. About 4 hours in, we arrived at a lone hut at the top of a hill. We went inside and there was a young girl and her husband sitting inside. They were friends of Trigger's and Mahai, the lady, was cooking us lunch. She was beautiful. At only 17 years of age, she seemed to have the
Chilli!!!!
Everything on this table had a large dose of Chilli on it, the best was the Chilli fish (like whitebait) caught on the lake that day. Stef didn't like any, but I loved it (but I did pay for the privilage, ohhhh how I paid, but it was still worth it ;-) world on her shoulders. She wore a longhi and a very old ragged lumberjack type shirt. Her hair was long and black, and tied and pinned to her head. When she had prepared our food, it was her turn to examine me - goodness knows what she thought of me, but she really checked me out. I wanted so much to give her anything girlie that I owned, but I hadn't brought a thing with me. Although it was naughty, Steve and I decided to leave some money for her. I did this as a woman-to-woman thing when we left, hoping our guide didn't see me. Mahai and her husband were soya bean farmers, living on the dry land alone after the rest of the village had left to find water. Their bamboo home was about 4m by 2m - one room with a flat stove in the corner where Mahai cooked us rice with beans. The only clothes they had were on their backs. Some blankets hung over a rod in the middle of the room - it gets pretty chilly up there in the night. Mahai had already lost one baby. I caught her daydreaming at one stage
- she looked so serene, but she soon snapped back to the task in hand; cooking for foreigners.
After a lovely lunch, we set off down the mountain to a monastery. We were greeted by a very cheerful monk who gave us biscuits - I was so happy because I have had hardly anything sweet to eat since we've been here. In fact, we have both lost a bit of weight, not because the food isn't any good - it's great - but more so because all the food is fresh from the land or the lake - nothing canned, nothing preserved, nothing frozen.
The whole trek took about 7 hours and was fab. That night we enjoyed fresh barbecued "Japanese" fish from the lake, tomato salad (with tomatoes grown on the lake) and avocado salad (made like a guacamole dip - YUM).
Our 5 days at Inle were nearly up, but we were ready to head back to Yangon for our flight to Chaing Mai.
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