Myanmar (Burma) - Mandalay to Inle Lake

The morning we left Mandalay, I woke with the beginnings of a head cold. I can't imagine how that might have happened after spending a couple of days soaked through to the skin. We caught a ferry to Began, which lasted about 6 hours and was very uneventful. We had a lovely hotel in Bagan with bungalow style rooms. We had lunch when we arrived, which took forever, and then Jason and I walked into the main town from our hotel. Once again we were drenched - there is really no hope for escape when you're on foot. We got back in time to change our clothes and hop on bicycles to watch a sunset from a nearby temple. There wasn't much of a sunset due to clouds on the horizon, but the views were amazing. Bagan is situated on a plain and the countryside is dotted with temples. There used to be in excess of 4000 of them within a 42 square kilometer area, but due to weather, earthquakes and government decisions there are about 2000 remaining. It's still an awful lot of brick in a very small place. Since it's so flat, you really only have to climb to the first story of a temple to see spires around you in all directions. It's truly amazing and one of those places where your camera just doesn't do it justice. We were hoping to do a balloon ride here, but the season just ended and the pilots are all on holiday back in Europe. We rode back to the hotel and had dinner in a restaurant down the road. Fortunately the water-tossing stops at 6:00 every evening, so you don't have to walk around soaked after dark when it can get quite cool if you're wet. After dinner we had some drinks on the lawn of the hotel. They had karaoke set up for the festival so we joined in and sang the only English songs they had.

The next day we enjoyed a great bike tour through Bagan. A few people chose to ride horse-carts instead, as the sun was very hot and they were concerned about the exertion in the heat. I took a Sudafed to keep my runny nose in check and decided to give the bike a go. I'm not totally comfortable on a bicycle but we we going slow enough that I did okay. I have to admit it was a bit of a challenge staying upright when you have dozens of people hurling themselves at you from the sidewalks with buckets of water or hosing you down (or both!). We visited all the major pagodas and learned of their histories (mostly from the 14th century). There have been a lot of earthquakes in the area and the damage is quite obvious. Some replicas have been built of major temples that were lost to earthquakes. Most structures are made of brick and some still have residual stucco on the outside. A very few have murals or carvings on the inside walls. In the middle of the afternoon, we stopped the entourage to go take some photos off the beaten track. We ended up walking through the fields for more than an hour, visiting all these temples with absolutely nobody around. This was one of the highlights of the trip - the views were spectacular and it was wonderful to be in such a quiet and peaceful environment. We watched another non-sunset from a temple roof then cycled home for dinner. Given that this was the true new year's eve, a few of us stayed up until midnight and sang Auld Lang Syne.

The next morning we all (except Gabrielle) rented taxis to take us to Mt. Popa which is about an hour and a half east of Bagan. Andrew had warned us that it was a festival day there and it would be crowded but we had no idea what we were getting ourselves in for. As with other hill-top pagodas in Burma, this one is accessed by a covered and walled stairway up the side of the mountain. There are little shrines and gift shops all the way along the route. In the case of Mt. Popa, the stairway widened and narrowed along the way, and with the excessive amount of people, this created many traffic jams. There were monks and policemen trying to control the pedestrian traffic, but it was an absolute zoo. It reminded me of trying to get into rock concerts back in the day of general admission seating. Asians aren't exactly known for their politeness in these situations, nor do they have anything close to our western concept of personal space. We were packed in like sardines in something akin to a slow-motion buffalo stampede. It was actually pretty frightening at times but we all made it up and back without any major mishaps. The pagoda at the top was nothing to write home about but the views were lovely and it certainly was an experience different from any others I've had. The shrines on Mt. Popa are largely for nats, or spirits, rather than Buddha, so it was interesting to see a different side of the faith.

We were back in town for the afternoon and I was able to do a bit of shopping despite the fact that it was new year's day and the market stalls were largely closed. It is apparently inauspicious to be open on new year's day, although the few vendors I bought stuff from kept telling me that my purchases would bring them good luck all year. I'm not sure if that was to guilt me into buying or not. I was going a bit stir-crazy by this point, since Gabrielle was never out of the room and I had no time to myself. I'm not sure what she was doing on this trip, since she really just wanted to watch TV. It was difficult for me, as most mornings I'd have to shower and get ready in silence and in the dark for fear of waking her (which she didn't react well to). If I wanted to spend any time alone I had to leave the room, so I did all my journaling or reading in restaurants. After I did my marketing that day, I had a quiet lunch alone and then took a bicycle and headed out to the temples by myself. I sat on the top of a deserted temple all alone for an hour or two until the sun had set and darkness was falling. Ironically the water stopped flying that day when it was over 40 and a good soaking would have been welcome.

The next morning we were up early and caught a bus to Inle Lake. Despite the shape of the roads, we made excellent time: it only took us 10 hours to travel the 200 miles. We found a great restaurant for dinner when we arrived and I had my best meal to date in Burma (pumpkin and pork curry). We stopped for a couple of beers on the way home then back to the hotel.

The next day we hopped in a long boat and had a tour of the lake. It is about 13 miles long and a couple of miles wide. There isn't really a shore line - rather the lake is surrounded by marshland that gets denser and denser until it becomes solid ground. All of this is inhabited and the houses are built on stilts above the water/marsh. There are canals between the rows of houses rather than streets. The lake itself is very shallow and every inch of it is used for fishing and cultivating the vegetation. It is at a fairly high altitude compared to the plains of Bagan, and the lake is surrounded by hills. Much to my surprise, I enjoyed Inle Lake the most of any the places we visited and so ended the tour on a high note. I guess it was a combination of being on the water, seeing the hills and feeling cooler air on my skin.

Our tour included a visit to a blacksmith, a silk and lotus spinner (they make fabric from fibres in the flower stems), a boat maker and a floating market. There were also cheroot makers who have a very simple but efficient technique for hand-rolling the small cigars. They make 1000 in a day and earn about $1. We also visited a few temples and monasteries, including the "jumping cat monastery" where yes, they teach house cats to jump through hoops. We had dinner at the same place as the night before and a few of us went to a puppet (marionette) show. This is a traditional Burmese art and the show we saw was given by Burma's premiere puppeteer. Rather than doing skits, they do traditional dances with their puppets, and strive to make them as human as possible. It was really very good and he even had them doing flips and playing with soccer balls. Pretty amazing since he only has two hands and there are about 20 strings on every puppet. On the way home we stopped at a little art gallery. I really wasn't that fond of the work, but there was one painting that I spotted the minute I walked through the door and fell in love with. I just couldn't take my eyes off it. I really hate shopping in a group, especially when bartering is involved and the vendors are starving to death. Eventually one of the others stepped up to the plate and asked how much it was. He said $20 (I was expecting $200). It is now in a box with some other of my purchases on its way to Canada.

The next day was a free day, so a couple of people went trekking and four of us rented a boat for the morning and went to visit a temple at Indien across the lake. It was really lovely - a dense collection of old stupas and shrines that are rather reminiscent of the Angkor area in Cambodia. When we came back to town, we hired a taxi to take us to the only winery in Burma, about an hour outside town. It is owned and run by Germans who had their first batch about 3 years ago. The wine isn't the best - that will take some time - but it was lovely to be there. It looks just like I imagine Tuscany to look and we sat out in a gazebo set in the middle of the pool and sipped wine for the afternoon. We came back to town in time for dinner to find that Gabrielle hadn't left the room all day. We all went out for pizza, yes pizza, for dinner. I guess there's only so much rice a western person can eat in a week.

The following morning we flew back to Rangoon and I spent the afternoon doing a lot of nothing. I managed to get a photo of a building that I really loved, but last time I tried to photograph a policeman stopped me. I finally figured out it was a bank and I guess he thought I was casing the joint. This time I was smart and hid behind a tree where he couldn't see me to get my photo. As per a request from the group, we all went to dinner at Andrew's house for our final night. His sister spent the day cooking for us and it was a fabulous feast - by far the best meal I had in Burma. This was really a wonderful thing for them to do for us as they're not exactly rolling in cash and they wouldn't take anything from us by way of payment (although we left them several bottles of good booze which was probably a real treat for them). It was really neat to see a "real" Burmese house and eat a "real" Burmese meal.

The next morning I was up early for a flight to Bangkok which is where I'm writing this. As I'm sure you can imagine, I was thrilled to get back here to a hotel room with nobody else in it. I spread all my stuff from one end of the room to the other and claimed the entire room as mine. A couple of girls from the tour were on the same flight with me and took me out on Sunday night to celebrate my birthday. I'll spare you the details, but I finally saw a side of Bangkok which I've been interested in seeing but never wanted to venture into alone. The remainder of my time here has been spent in front of the computer writing this blog and uploading photos. I'm not going to get all my photos up before I leave for Kathmandu tomorrow and I'm not sure how much I'll get done there. I don't want to spend all my time in front of the computer, and last time I was there they didn't have the technology for me to do it anyway. I'll have to see how it goes.

I've had to start a new web page for my photos as the first one is full. The first one will stay intact as it is, so you can always see what's there at http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/hahonegger/my_photos. However, all the photos that I post from now on will be at http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/feelitturn/my_photos. I hope this isn't too confusing, but there didn't seem to be an alternative.

Can't wait to get back to the Himalayas. I have a one-way ticket to Kathmandu so this could be my last hurrah in Bangkok for a while. It seems weird to be leaving my "home base" potentially for good. I'm writing this on April 24 - happy birthday to me.