January 10 - 14. We saved the best for last. Today we flew from Yangon to Heho and then took a 1 hour taxi ride to the Inle Lake area. We are staying at the Aquarius Inn in Nyaungshwe. We were greeted at the inn by the owner with a cup of tea and a plate of fruit. He suggested that we take a walk to the local market in the afternoon and sign up for a boat trip on Inle Lake the following day. After we got ourselves settled in our rooms, the four of us walked the few blocks to the market. We wandered around the stalls, this time dirt floors and bamboo stalls with tarps. Everyday the week, a regionwide market is held in a different city around the lake on a 5-day rotation. The day we arrived, it was in Nyaungshwe. However, we were so late in getting there that many vendors had packed up their wares and were departing. Still, we got the flavor of the market.
The next day, we got up early to take the boat on Inle Lake. I must interject here that we are at a higher altitude here in Nyaungshwe and it is COLD. Daytimes are in the 70s and nightimes in the 50s. I'm not completely sure that we are "escaping winter." Rising for breakfast in the cold of dawn (we haven't figured out yet why one has to get on the boat at 7:30 am), we put on every piece of clothing we had in our suitcases...and we were still cold. Then we boarded the long boats (about 35 ft long and 4 ft wide at the center, tapered on each end with a motor at the back driving a propeller on a long pole which can lifted out of the water as needed) and started on our journey down a wide 3 mile canal to the lake. The brisk wind in our faces chilled us further, but our driver had provided blankets and life jackets. The latter were helpful in keeping the wind off our bodies. Soon, the sun arose and we began to warm up. The lake is huge--13 by 7 miles--and shallow.
At the entrance to the lake, we saw fisherman using large cone-shaped bamboo baskets to drop on the fish. Then they speared any that were caught in the basket. While the fisherman was doing this, he stood and paddled the boat with one leg wrapped around the oar. Other fishermen used large nets, working in teams of 3 to drive fish into the nets. Fish is a staple here at Inle Lake.
Next, we went to Jumping Cat Monastery which unfortunately no longer boasted jumping cats. The monk who trained them died not long ago and the cats were retired. The monastery was on stilts in the middle of the river. It contained numerous gold-encrusted wooden Buddhas. The building itself was quite beautiful. Boarding our boat again, we wandered through the Floating Gardens. The gardens are floating masses of organic matter, staked in place by bamboo poles so they don't blow away in the wind. Tomatoes, gourds, green beans, squash, all in their neat little rows, all in the middle of the lake, acres of gardens. Incredible! Aquaculture...or hydroponics, whatever.
Our driver then chose one of many canals and wound through more solid patches of earth to the village of Inn Dein. We paid the 50 cents to use our camera (being new to tourism hasn't daunted their inventiveness) and walked up a series of stairs to a pagoda forest. Similar to Bagan, there were hundreds of stupas, temples and a pagoda, some in ruins, others in excellent shape and some in the process of being restored. It was fascinating to walk around the site and look at the artistry.
After an hour at Inn Dein, we returned to the boat and toured a parasol making demonstration, a lotus (silk) making demonstration and a cheroot making demonstration, all at separate places on the lake on stilts. Whole communities of people live on the lake in little houses on stilts separated by roads of water--just like a regular village, except water is the roadway. We loved it!
Our guide took us to an amazing restaurant on stilts where we had fried noodles and outstanding grilled lake fish.
As we returned to the hotel, the sun set and cold lake air returned. It was one of the best days of our trip. It couldn't have been nicer.
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