Inlay Lake - Last stop in Myanmar

Day 1 – Hell Journey!

After yet another great breakfast in our hotel in Bagan it was time to move on yet again, this time to Inlay Lake.  We had booked a coach that conveniently was going to pick us up from our hotel.  It turned up and it was a minibus which was Ok as we thought this was going to transfer to a large coach at the depot.  Picking up a full van load along the way with our luggage strapped to the roof, we got to the coach station after a short while.

It soon became clear that we were not going to be transferred but were going to travel the next 5 hours in this cramped van.  We also agreed to switch to the even more cramped and bumpy back seat as one couple asked if they could swap with us as one of them was feeling ill (we won’t be doing this in a hurry again!!).

So we set off towards Inlay lake and the journey wasn’t too bad apart from having no leg room, the guy next to us being about the same size as me and after about 3 hours we stopped at a roadside café for lunch, for some reason we were given 40 minutes even though 20 would have done (especially given the food options).

It was after lunch that things got worse, I think driver was keen to get off duty quickly, so he sped up whilst the road conditions got worse.  Massive pot holes and snaking s-bends throwing us around and regularly getting Shell and I air borne, us being in the back seats over the rear axle of the van.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if the travel time had been correct (we stopped once but it was to let a few people off at a hiking point – thinking that was it only to be told we had another hour of this torture to go), but we had to suffer another 4 hours of this, Shell now convinced the girl who was ill definitely was now not looking green enough to have warranted to have switched seats with them.

Eventually shaken and stirred and enduring a 9.5hr journey which we were told would be 5, we arrived at Inlay Lake and checked into our hotel.  Once again the hotel staff were very nice and friendly and our room was very pleasant and large with a balcony (some more home laundry to be had here!).

Inlay Lake is 22km long, roughly 11km wide and is beautiful, flanked by high hills either side of it.  The lake is very calm and dotted with floating vegetation and busy fishing canoes. The lake shore and islands include 17 villages on stilts.

Once checked in we had a little mooch around the main street and noticed that yet again it had a slightly different more laid back feel to it.  We found a beer station along the street that contained more locals than tourists so we stopped there for a bit of refreshment before going out to eat.

We went to a restaurant that was recommended by the hotel and a couple of people we met at the bar, which served traditional Shan food (Of the region).  The price was amazing at around £1.50 each for about ten dishes, however once it turned up it was very different (Not in a good way), raw vegetables (a couple that we had never encountered before) and 3 types of strong dried fish, one of which I can only describe as a very strong fishy marmite containing hundreds of chilli’s.  Also some of the most foul tasting fish sauce dip we had tasted, but to our credit we tried at least a teaspoon full of everything and agreed it was nice to try something different, but we would not be having a return visit.

After our bumpy ride all day we thought we would have an early night, however we did have one problem with the room, the only English TV channel we wanted to watch had a fuzzy picture and no sound.  Fortunately the hotel staff were really efficient and one guy came up to fix it, then after about half an hour of getting nowhere another two turned up and about 15 minutes later we had our film channel back – yes we are sad but sometimes you just want to watch a bit of TV – it turned out to be ‘Bad Santa’ in case you were wondering!!

Day 2

I think we had a small lie in followed by a breakfast, which was a more sparse and disappointing affair compared to our Bagan Hotel, cold fried eggs, cold noodles and sweet toast just doesn’t cut it anymore!

One embarrassing moment, my underwear which had been drying on the balcony (courtesy of Shell’s hand wash parlour) had fallen off into an area I could not access, so I had to ask the receptionist to retrieve them for me – much to Shell’s amusement, at least they were clean!!

As we had four days here we were not in a rush to go straight on a boat excursion on the lake, instead opting for a walk in search of it instead. 

We headed out in the direction that I thought it would be, which was up the main thoroughfare which the long-tail boats were charging up and down.  We followed this past some temples and through small little villages on Stilts, which were far different from the town.  It was nice to see daily life going on, washing being done, small little schools and even a man drying out chicken skins.  

Eventually we came to a dead end where we couldn’t go much further, we hadn’t reached the lake but it had been nice anyway.  We sat down by the riverbank and ate oranges that we had commandeered from the breakfast table and watched the long-tail’s going past and local people washing themselves and their clothes in the water.

It was now around midday and the sun there seemed to be hotter than anywhere else than in Myanmar so we headed back to the town for some thirst quenchers, back to the locals bar.

After we felt sufficiently refreshed we then though it would be a good idea to check out the boat trips for the next two days, but as we were walking along the main street a woman (Shel pointed out to me after the meeting that she was a woman, not a man as I had thought) started selling us her company’s boat trip.  As she seemed so nice and the price seemed reasonable we enquired about a canoe trip we fancied and we were quickly shown to her office where we were sold, day one – hike & canoe trip, day two – all day long-tail trip around the lake – I thing they worked out about £ 7.50  a trip.  She even told us the best place in town to get our laundry done at about 75p per kilo.

Feeling very pleased with ourselves we then felt we could take the rest of the day off, so we headed to a bar on the other side of the estuary and had a couple of beers whilst we watched life go by and were lucky to see a gaggle of pink lady monks. After a while we headed back to the hotel to relax and research a better place to eat that evening (I may have even done some blogging – but have got a bit behind so cannot remember).

In the evening we first of all deposited 3 kilo of dirty clothes at the laundry before heading for some pre-meal drinks at our now local bar.

Whilst supping a couple of pints Shell caught the eye of an old woman who was busy feasting on some deep fried food and after a few shared smile she came over to say hello to Shell.  However as neither could speak a word of each other’s language they ended up just holding hands, smiling a lot and speaking to each other in their own languages.  Fortunately, a big contingent of her family were sat behind us (her family owned the bar) and they ended up translating for us, it turned out she was 90 and was pretty much the head of the family, she just comes to the bar for company as all her family work so she gets lonely.  She then said something to them that roughly translated was that Shell was lovely and she wanted to give her a blessing and now she was also her daughter (A bit of welling up from Shell).  Shell did ask if she needed any money, but was told that she wants for nothing as the family look after her, she in fact wanted to buy Shelley some food – that’s how nice these people are.

During these interchanges I went to the toilet, which is as usual round the back, passed the kitchen and somewhere in a dimly lit corner.  I of course got the directions wrong and found myself going up some stairs around a tree and pretty much ending up in someone’s bedroom, lucky for me there was a big rooster there which took offence to my presence and whilst retreating I found the loo.

We then thought it was time to leave for dinner, but not before another visit from Shell’s new Bessie and a bit more hand holding smiling and kisses.

Shell had done some pretty good Trip Advising and the restaurant we went to was definitely the best food we have had in Myanmar, so good in fact that we ordered the extra dish the waiter told us we would not need.  As usual the staff were lovely and even all got together in a line when I asked for a photo of a couple of them (Unfortunately due to crap camera it was too dark to appear here), we then went back for the night.

Day 3 – Shell & Glenn’s Teaching Academy

Up early again and after another uninspiring breakfast we made our way to the tourist office to do our morning trek and were promptly handed over to a young guy of around 14 – 18 (it’s hard to tell) and we were off.

A short walk up the road and we were taken to a hut which apparently did the best fried tofu in town, but despite telling him we had just had breakfast we were sat down at a low table and two large bowls of tofu and a pot of green tea (not my favourite brew since the infamous puking episode of Gambia 2008!).  However we consumed a couple of pieces not to be rude and he bagged the rest for the trek.

We then took a pleasant walk into a nearby village and then up past a small monastery before heading into a small cave system.  We picked up some torches from a Buddhist monk near the entrance and were shown round some dark chambers that contained different Buddhist statues where the monks came to meditate.  Someone smacked their head along the way (Shell not Glenn for a change), before coming to an exit which had some Stupa’s there with a check list written on the wall of when they were last painted (a bit like when the loo’s were last checked!!).

After that we then headed off for another local village, but it was at this point our guide wanted to quiz us on some English.  Apparently he had only being doing this job for 4 months and had a complaint from some tourists that he could not understand them.  It then turned into an English lesson from Glenn & Shell (maybe not the best choice in the world), but we were happy to help him.  Explaining everything from past & Present tense, to Shell teaching him how to pronounce th with your tongue on the tip of your teeth, to me giving him practical uses for the phrase ‘just in case’, which he was lapping up (No I didn’t teach him any swear words!).

Although we were finding this quite rewarding, our guide had forgotten that he was supposed to be showing us stuff, we completely missed the village we were supposed to go to and we had arrived back in 3 hours instead of 4.  Never mind he seemed like a nice chap so we let him off with it and won’t be making a complaint, so what can you do at 10.30 after a short trek – go for a beer!! After a couple we did some shopping and then went back to the hotel to wait for our afternoon excursion. 

We were met around two by the woman that had sold us the trips and were taken to the quayside and put on a long-tail boat that whisked us down the channel and onto the lake.  We went a short way on the lake before heading down a small channel to a small stilted village where our guides family live.

 

Mooring up next to her family’s house we were then transferred to a small wooden canoe. I had already decided that if this small woman was doing the rowing I would offer to take over at some point, but this was not going to be an option as I was immediately handed a paddle, well I say a paddle it was more like a pregnant pool cue (most likely just a token to make it feel like I was taking part!)

We then headed down some pretty by-ways with stilted bamboo houses everywhere and then moored up at a wooden monastery that she said would be nice to visit.  When we got inside there were loads of guys renovating the place (apparently their labour is free of charge for this), we had arrived just before their tea break so we sat down with them and had some tea and biscuits before leaving a small donation and heading back to the canoe.

Going down more little channels we were shown their farming techniques, where they get all the floating plant life and attach it to Bamboo poles and then plant their crops in them.  Whilst doing this work they can only work off the canoes as these flotillas would not support their weight, but they were growing crops such as tomato’s and other veg.  The other impressive thing was these crops were not one persons but shared but the community.

Returning back eventually to the family home we were then invited into the stilted house (Shell was pleased as she said she wanted to see inside of one) to meet the family and sit down and have Green tea and biscuits with them.  Our guide was also trying to explain the in’s and outs of the local Myanmar lottery (at least that’s what we though all these numbers scribbled on pieces of paper meant), it appeared she was bemoaning her luck.  I also had a piece of the local sugar candy, which also explained why the two children in the room were bouncing off the walls!

It was then back in the long tail  to return home but on our way back we stopped to watch the traditional fishermen, this was very nice as we spent about half an hour just watching instead of just seeing the ‘posing tourist fishermen’.  From what we can gather they have a very large net which they corral the fish into by smashing their oars on the surface of the water, then they close the net so it forms a large circle (I guess they cannot net in the normal way because of all the reeds). After this they then take a large conical type of net/cage and place it inside this net and poke around with tridents until they hit fish, and this is repeated over and over until I guess they think there is no more fish in their net circle.  It was fascinating to watch and their skill was unbelievable managing to balance at the end of a boat, rowing with one leg (apparently they are all taught to do this from an early age – it gives their arms a rest) whilst holding a large net/cage in their hands.  We even managed to see one of them snag a fish before we left, we could have spent hour watching them.

Heading back we were then taken to the ‘posing tourist fishermen’ as sunset to watch them doing acrobatics on one leg with the net/cages, although it was just a big tourist attraction and we preferred watching the real thing, you’ll have to admit it makes for a pretty stunning photo!

We then headed back to the quay and went and collected our laundry, unfortunately they had mislaid one of the bags we had bought it in and after 15 minutes it could not be found, but they then gave another better bag as a replacement.

As it was nice to get fresh smelling clothes we went back and gave them another kilo’s worth so we had all our clothes done.  We then headed to our local for a couple before going for dinner, this time next door to the previous night’s establishment, again the food was pretty decent and we even treated ourselves to a long island iced tea (there’s only so much fizzy lager you can drink!).  We then headed home for a bit of movie action before bed.

Day 4 – Tourist Traps!

Once again we were up early and were met by the lady we booked our trips with who escorted us to the quay to board a long-tail boat for our day long tour of the lake.

It soon came apparent that our boat driver had very little English and was going to whisk us round a very tried and tested tourist route (the first time we had come across this in Myanmar).

The first stop we were dropped off at a very pretty wooden  (a bit like U Bein Bridge)  and we assumed this is where one of the local markets was.  Without any guidance from our driver we walked along the jetty towards town.  There was no sign of a market but we saw people with various shopping baskets and thought our best bet was to follow them, fortunately this proved to be the right move.  Around half a mile down the road we eventually found a market, it was a mixture between tourist tat and a proper local market so we spent some time looking around and sat down in a local café to have a coffee before returning to the boat.

After this our next few stops were a selection of local cottage industries specialising in overpriced tourist souvenirs.

Firstly we were pulled alongside the silver shop where they demonstrated how they processed and made silver jewellery – no sale!

Next it was the cotton shop, where they had the long-necked women (similar to the African ladies) who were a traditional Myanmar tribe, but were just hanging about for photos and a large clothes shop – no sale!

After this it was the paper making shop, where some young girls immediately started pummelling some wood pulp with paddles as we entered the paper shop, stopping whilst we were in there and starting promptly again when we came out of the shop  - no sale!

We then headed on further and were dropped at another local market (we assumed due to the lack of a guide).  Firstly it looked as though it was going to be more tourist tat so we passed through some stalls towards the back of it and found a local bar where we thought we would take some time out from this shopping tour.  It was quite interesting in there and we had a couple of beers whilst seated quite close to a couple of Buddhist monks who had popped in for lunch.

When we left we walked a bit more and actually found a proper local market further along which was very interesting and we both managed to get some very good photos of local life.  Shell also manage to get herself a nice silver/tin bangle (it will turn her wrist green!) haggling down from around £6 to £ 2.50.

Returning to our boat we were then whisked to the local silk store where it was demonstrated how they made a type of silk out of lotus flowers and then made clothes with it, followed by looking round a big silk clothes shop – no sale!!

It was the local blacksmith’s next, so we watched a couple of guy’s bashing molten metal, briefly passing past their ware’s before returning to the boat – no sale!!!

Now getting a bit tired of this we asked the diver to drop us off at a restaurant for a spot of lunch.  When we got there we found that we were at the most expensive restaurant in Myanmar and although the view was nice we just had a couple of drinks and polished of the complimentary crackers. At this point I thought I’d lost the camera, but after checking I found it to have slipped out of my pocket into the well of the boat and was not wet!

As we were fed up with shops we told the driver we were happy to go to the cigar factory and the go back early.  We drew up alongside the cigar factory and watched a young girl producing cigars, whilst given the opportunity to smoke a couple of different flavours with the sales girl (one was star anise – Interesting!!).  We could have been tempted to buy a couple but we were told they would only be sold in boxes of 20 – No Sale!!!

Just as we were going to head off home one of the people on the cigar jetty said are you not going to the Jumping Cat Monastery, so we thought why not?  Apparently in the near past the monks had taught cats to jump through hoops (well I suppose it make a change from chanting!).  Although I was disappointed I was not going to see feline acrobatics when we got there it was a lovely wooden monastery on stilts complete with some chanting monks and locals which made Shell very happy.

We then returned home a bit early, ignoring the tourist fishermen along the way (already have the shots!).  The trip was very scenic and interesting it may sound like we didn’t enjoy it but there were just too many tourist shop and when you are travelling you are not buying holiday gifts only practical things.

Once disembarked we went and collected our second batch of laundry before returning to the hotel to get ready for the evening.

A couple of quick ones in our local before heading back to our favourite restaurant in Myanmar, the one we had gone to a couple of days before.  Yet another lovely meal before going back for an early night as we were moving on to Thailand the next day and had 3 flights to negotiate

All we can say is thanks Myanmar for a wonderful time, beautiful people and so far the best country we have visited, I hope you do not get ruined in the years to come with the increased tourism.