Awoke early to the sound of other guests tromping down the wooden pathway to breakfast.
Doesn’t seem like sleeping in will be a part of this trip (maybe on the island?). Hauled ipad to reception, but couldn’t get a signal. Meet Val at breakfast on the veranda/deck of the restaurant, located almost over the edge of the lake. Needless to say….Spread is pretty awesome; mohinga, of course, as the national breakfast food, and the usual western breakfast options: french toast, omelet to order, breads, fresh fruit, fried (lo mein) noodles with veggies, and something new…assorted nuts and sugar concoctions similar to, but less sugary than, brittle. Yummy!
Coffee is very good and we sit over our leisurely repast, knowing we have plenty of time until our guide comes to retrieve us.
As we finally head out, we stroll past a DIFFERENT reception area, and it dawns on me that I tested the internet connection in the wrong place. Bazinga! We have liftoff, and I sit myself down to upload the previous 3 days of blogposts that I’d saved on the pad. Back in business, and manage to finish with enough time to run back to the room, take a quick shower, and head back up front for the rendezvous. We load ourselves and the luggage into the boat, manage a tearful goodbye, and off we go. I’m sitting behind my pal, who looks pretty darn happy:
First stop is is the market by the Phaung Daw U Pagoda, considered, along with Shwedahon in Yangon and Shwezigon in Bagan as one of the country’s three principal shrines.
The market was similar to others, but no less fascinating. Sampled fried banana fritters, a small bowl of fish curry and purchased a bag of the uber-crunchy fried chick-pea circles (kind of pretzel shaped), before heading back to see the pagoda.
Inside, there sit 5 small Buddhas,
but you wouldn’t know what they were because over the past 50+ years, pilgrims have added gold flakes to the sculptures
for blessings and now they look like large blobs of shaped gold. The picture above shows what they looked like 50 years ago. Once a year, during the full moon in September, there is a great festival when they are rowed around the lake to visit outlying pagodas. They are conveyed on copies of royal white barges and sit under great white canopies. Silly humans! Once the Buddhas have ended their journey and are safely back in Phaung Daw U, there are great leg-rowing races. Here is our guide showing me where on Inle Lake we have been:
Back in the boat – always a pleasure – and we stop at our yesterday lunch spot for a lime juice and potty stop.
Next, on to the traditional Inle umbrella workshop. We watch how a woman takes the fibrous branch and pounds to a pulp, adding appropriate amounts of water, then spreads into a frame that is sitting in a couple inches of water (note the woman off to the side cleaning out a fish), then lays the frame out to dry, during which time flowers may be added to the paper.
White paper is for umbrellas and others are for lamps. You can see various family members splitting wood for spokes and other steps in the process.
Beautiful and painstakingly made.
Next, a brief stop at gold and gem shop, family-owned.
I shop for earrings, and Valerie finds a lovely silver necklace. Lots of negotiating, and we end up walking out. No matter, it’s off to have Shan noodles (high on the “to eat” list), again overlooking the lake. And I order….a cold beer! Love every bit of it, too.
Noodles arrive (ordered with a bit of chicken curry, which adds broth and more flavor) and sauteed cauliflower. Mmmm good.
Back in the boat, and off through winding canals…Why, hello, Mr. water buffalo, taking a cool bath after a hot, hard day in the fields:
until we head down a tributary
and arrive at the Paya Pauk Pagoda and adjoining monastery (only one monk lives on hilltop at this point; the rest departed because of the onslaught of tourists). We walk through a little village, and then up a long sloping pathway that is paved and lined with large white columns. Between the columns are souvenir hawkers, but more passive that most. We walk quite a ways until we step out of the covered area and into a field of sorts where there are over 100 stupas up the hillside, many crumbling and falling apart, while others are still in pretty good condition.
The government is renovating many of the, but in the sense of recovering so look like brand new, as opposed to restoring to good, but mostly original condition. Our guide is incensed by this and routes us so he cannot see the government trucks working.
We head up the steps and into the pagoda, visiting the large, golden seated Buddha that measures approximately 165 feet high. Evidently people take turns washing his face each morning, but at the moment, only two men are standing close to the statue, putting on their own gold leaf.
Again, our guide is upset because he recognizes that these are government men, and keeping out all others from praying at the Buddha’s feet while they take care of themselves. Hmmmm.
We collect our shoes (have I mentioned that we have to remove our shoes before entering any pagoda?) and walk back down the loooong covered pathway until we’re back in the little village. Along the way, we pass some hill tribe women sitting to have their midday meal after working in the market and before taking the one hour boat ride and then hiking back to their village:
Our guide chats with them and we give them a bit of money in thanks for the pictures. One woman says it’s not enough for so many women, so we give more. As we depart with our guide, I think about those “sisters” of mine, and I stick my hand in my pocket, pull out a fat wad of bills (probably a whole $10) and go back and throw it into the center of their table. They laugh and divvy up the spoils of the day.
The dust and heat have gotten to us, so we sit and have a water and fresh coconut before re-embarkation. As we’re heading out, we stop and look at a necklace similar to the one Valerie wanted, but decide the quality is significantly lower. She gives in and we boat back to the jeweler’s and she bargains a bit more and walks out with her gem.
A one hour ride and then we’re back at the jetty, loading ourselves and our gear into the van, and we’re driven about 10 minutes through town to our hotel. Our guide leaves us for our day of leisure, to return Tuesday morning at 7:30 to whisk us off to the airport. We settle in, shower, and head down to our lovely outdoor restaurant area that is built like a large deck over a canal. Valerie orders us a spicy green papaya salad (and it is!) and grilled fresh fish from the woman with the cart on the corner. We enjoy it all as darkness settles in, and head out for a spin around town when there’s nothing left but bones. Oh, and I do introduce her to the idea of nibbling fried fish tail as similar to a potato chip – and this one had great black pepper flavor.
Small, dusty town, but restaurants, little souvenir shops, and lots of people (including tourists) dotting the streets. It’s been a long day, so we’re back in our room before too long (excellent internet access here!). I try facetime-ing Michael, but connection really sucks. So I change to Skype and we chat for a while until I realize it’s 7:30 in the morning at home. Oh, so sorry, Mr. M. He’s great about it though, and we chat for a bit, then sign off. I wait to contact the other two chickens in the morning (and the night before for them) and it’s off to dreamland.