So so glad I made the decision to spend some time in his incredibly beautiful part of the world. To get to the lake I flew from Mandalay to Heho, and then by taxi to Nyuangshwe, the town where you can access boat trips to the lake. On the flight I realized that not all of Myanmar was flat like the Bagan Plains.
About an hours dive from the airport to Nyuangshwe, the views are are great. The nicely paved highway twists and turns its way up and then down the hills into The Inle Lake Valley.
I stayed at the Hotel Emperor Inle Lake, my favourite hotel thus far. Rock star service, free breakfasts and very helpful staff who helped me make arrangements to tour the lake with a fisherman.
First day was a day of wandering the little town, pleasant enough with a lovely canal walk, some Wats and the usual shops and services.
The area around Inle Lake is mainly agricultural land including sugar cane which is set fire to after the harvest and so there is a low lying smoke that settles over the town and the lake. At first I thought it was a mist but later realized it wasn’t quite so innocuous. Like Bagan, hot air ballooning is popular but oh so expensive.
The next morning I was fetched at the Emperor by the fisherman who walked me a short distance to the canal where his longboat sat waiting. He wiped the morning dew off one of the two seats, retrieved a cushion from a plastic bag, gave me a bottle of water and we were on our way. It felt like the queens day out.
The narrow canal leading to the lake buzzed with the diesel engines on the long tailed boats, coughing black smoke when started by a hand turned wheel. The churning waters were busy with people getting to and from work, home, school or whatever else occupied their days.
I had only hoped to see the Inle Lake long boat fisherman and it was my lucky day. These fellows perform the outstanding feat of paddling with one leg while using both hands for traps or nets and all the while balancing precariously on the narrow lip of the bow on the remainng leg. Like a dance they plunge their traps into the lake and pull them back to the surface as smoothly as ballet. Wow what a sight.
Turns out the boat tour with my fisherman, included stops at various arts and crafts cooperatives, where we would tie up to the docks in front of them. The cooperatives were in the hear today the communities entirely built on stilts including In Paw Khone, Nam Pan, Phangan Daw O Pagoda, Shwedagon in Dein Pagoda, Ywama Floating Market, and Nga Phe Kyaung Monastary, (difficult pronunciations for my English toungue). Hovering above the lake were schools, hospitals, temples, pagodas etc. In rustic buildings were mechanics, builders, boat makers, weavers etc., all busy at their trades, everyone moving about in longboats.
The weaving cooperatives were fascinating and the women used foot to pedal and back strap looms to make beautiful things in traditional colours and designs. I didn’t know that the lotus plant could be used to make a thread and we had passed huge nurseries of them on the way to the villages. I took a picture of a woman cutting the stems to reveal a long, fine, white thread which was then combined with other threads and spun into a larger thread used in weaving along with cotton and silk.
The tour lasted about seven hours, would have been longer but I declined the last stop where the women wear gold bands around their necks. I had read that they were often exploited by the tour guides and I did not want to contribute.
Back in Nyuangshwe I wandered the streets for awhile watching the hardworking people go about their business when suddenly there did appear a sign for dhosas, straight out of southern Indian cuisine! Hanit and Kunal who introduced me to dhosas would have been proud of my lack of hesitation. Sadly however these delicious pancakes were off the menu temporarily…plan b…samosas.
Inle Lake is a beautiful place and has a quiet peaceful felling to it but it is close to some of the “trouble spots” in Myanmar and there is no doubt that the people have suffered at the hands of the political turmoil that has plagued Myanmar. I thought it was the most lovely of places and was so glad I went. A short flight and I was in Yangon, boarding a connecting flight to Bangkok, which in turn connected with a flight to Chaing Mai in northern Thailand.
Getting off the boat in Mandalay was a mad rush of taxis and Tuk Tuks vying for our business. Of course you have to bargain and I managed to get the price down from 10000 kyats to 8000. I established that this was the normal price through a series of hand signals with a fellow passenger as he was whisked away into the crowd. At this time that is worth about $8 cad. This scrum of who will carry who and for how much is always invigorating and riding in a Tuk Tuk is a much more in the now experience that being shut up in an air conditioned taxi.
My hotel, The Royal Pearl, in Mandalay was very close to the palace grounds but based on the hallways I had a bit of a gulp when I first arrived, but it turned out my room itself was quite lovely. It was well located and walking distance to the main sights. Not the prettiest city, Mandalay for a couple of days might be sufficient unless you are able to get out into the countryside. Glad though, to have some time to walk and stretch my legs after the boat trip, I left Royal Pearl after breakfast and headed to the palace, the grounds of which are huge and surrounded by a moat. Foreigners can only enter from the east gate for 10000 kyats so it was a long lovely stroll along the broad sidewalk that skirted the moat around the palace.
But as chance would dictate my direct beeline took an interesting turn when a young guide talked me into a full day tour outside of Mandalay, across the Ayeyarwady to visit Sagaing (temples)and then return via a country market which he assured me far surpassed the beauty and grandeur of the palace and the pagodas in Mandalay. Turns out the tour was on the back of his motorbike. A little wobbly getting on the first time he said to me “Mother you are very strong”to which I replied “yes and you may call me grandmother” trying to muster all the esteemed treatment possible given my undignified lunge on to the bike.
He was right and the tour was great and took me up into the hills that we had passed on the boat, great vistas and amazing pagodas (yes more pagodas) we spent the day whizzing up and down the hills in the fresher country air. Turns out my guide knew just enough English to talk me into the tour and not much more. At the top of Sagain Hill, which is dotted with white and gold pagodas, is the Soon U Ponya Shin Paya and the Unmin Thounzeh temples.
My guide offered me the opportunity to have an authentic Myanmar meal at a road cafe. They served a meat dish of your choice along with rice and then lifted a bug screen from an array of a dozen or more small dishes, condiments, vegetables, pickles, sauces etc. Myanmar excels in fresh veg dishes; green beans, cauliflower, squashes of all kinds, etc. There is a subtle spicing not as hot as Thailand but slightly above Cambodia. I paid “our” bill and out of the corner of my eye I saw the owner give my guide a kickback, can’t complain as the total for both of us was less than 5.00 Cad.
After tootling around the Mandalay hills for five or so hours we crossed back over the Ayeyarwady River to visit a pier/market (think Granville Island) for a short stop. By now I was mounting and dismounting like a pro and wasn’t nearly pulling my little guide over to the pavement each time.
How motorcyclists weave in and out among the traffic, traveling together like a school of fish, always close but never touching, is beyond me. The only rule seems to be if there’s a space…fill it. All in all it was an interesting and exhilarating day and my butt was glad to see the east gate foreigner entrance to the royal palace of Mandalay.
It is a very long walk from the gate to the actual palace grounds and along the way there are army barracks for soldiers and their families. Other than that the grounds are pretty and a nice place to walk. The palace itself is rather minimalist when compared to others, like the one in Bangkok, but it’s simplicity leaves a lot to the imagination. There are a few structures that would have been reserved for the royal family and clustered around them were panabodes that would have been reserved for the retinue that served them.
Too late to climb Mandalay hill for the sunset, which apparently is the Mandalay thing to do, I returned to my hotel and caught the last of it from the rooftop restaurant of the Royal Pearl. Tomorrow an early flight to Heho, gateway to Inle Lake.
The boat from Bagan to Mandalay was a 12 hour treat from start to finish. The boat left the Bagan Jetty at 5:30 just as the sun rose over the river. The mists from a morning chill rose off the water but slowly dissipated as the sun rose above the plains of Bagan and shone down on the Ayeyarwady River. (I have also seen it spelled Irrawaddy but I suspect that is the anglicized version.) The river flows south through the middle of the country and the plain that it cuts through is as flat as it gets. In places, the high mud banks look like they were sliced flat with a knife and the scrubby grass that stands straight up above the banks give the appearance of a bad brush cut. In the west the plains end at the Chin State mountains and in the east at the Shan Hills.
Life along the river is vibrant; farming, fishing or the transport of people and goods keep something on the horizon to watch and wonder about. We passed all manner of vessels from scows to other tour boats and it was delightful to see whole families fishing in the river using, poles, traps and nets. Reminded me of my fishing days when the fishermen would take their families along for company and to share the work. Of course along the way we saw plenty more gold domed pagodas, a further reminder that Myanmar is a deeply Buddhist country. The settlements along the river were haphazard collections of tents and shacks where the fishermen and their families live during the dry season but relocate for the rainy season. Right now it’s “winter” in Myanmar, meaning that the temperatures plummet to the mid 20’s at night and in the morning.
On board the RV Panorama, part of the Alliance Cruise Group, there were about 32 passengers, most of them a tour group from Taiwan and the rest were Europeans except for me the lone Canadian. A woman from Slovenia told me she didn’t think Canadian’s travelled much. At first people snoozed below deck and I was lucky enough to have three seats to myself which made for a great bunk. After a nap I followed the lead of other passengers and went topside for breakfast and then out onto some really comfortable deck chairs on the stern.
The young men who were our stewards on the boat gave us a demonstration on the art of wearing the “longyi”. With a few deft twists and turns of fabric they created, hats, shorts, jackets, slings, back packs, carrying pouches and even an elephant. Then they demonstrated the use of “thanaka” a paste made from ground bark which the Myanmar wear on their faces as both a sun block and a skin cream. They even have some fancy designs that they create after the swirl of paste dries a bit and one of the Taiwanese passengers was eager to be a model.
Twelve hours evaporated and before I knew it we were approaching the mythical city of Mandalay, made famous in Kipling’s poem. Of course it bears little or no resemblance to the romantic version set out in the poem but it was impressive as we approached our dock.
There are other ways to get from Bagan to Mandalay but in my mind the 35 USD fare that included breakfast and lunch was the only way to go.
Things happen where you might be tempted to panic but doing so isn’t going to help. I had decided on a private taxi tour of Bagan as the best way to see the most Buddhist structures in one day as they are spread over 67 sq kms and there are more than 2000.
But the best laid plans… and so I found myself at the arrival gate in Bagan searching fruitlessly for the handheld sign that would bear my name. Not to be, I was nevertheless hustled out the door and into an awaiting taxi who wanted 35usd for a days tour. A fair price given they last from early morning arrival until sunset. However I had already paid in Yangon and a few kms into the journey I realized that, contrary to what I had been led to believe, this was not my car or my driver and I instructed him to turn around and go back to the airport.
Back inside the arrivals area I found a lovely helpful English speaking guide who called the number on my voucher and after a furious relay of other calls he assured me that although there had been a communication gap between Bagan and Yangon I would be picked up shortly. All in, I had 2 hours of waiting and my 8am tour started at 10am.
While I was getting in the right taxi the first taxi driver approached my pre-paid driver and demanded payment for the five minutes I was with him. My driver paid him and explained that he was paying him for taking me to the market, which he did not. No es mi pedo as my Mexican friends say.
Bagan Temples is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with good reason. Located on the banks of the Irrawaddy River in central Myanmar, and sprouting from the flat plains along the river is the largest collection of Buddhist temples, stupas and monasteries in the world. Time worn, reduced to rubble in some cases are stupas that show the bricks and mortar used to build them.Others are survivors, resplendently preserved and revered, covered in gold plate and gemstones they point the way to the heavens.
There are three settlements on the Bagan Temple plains; Old Bagan, New Bagan and Nyuang U Town. My tour started at the Nyuang market bustling with women sellers of fruits, vegetables, fabrics, jewellery, puppets, clothing, toys and many other goodies. Markets offer great photo opportunities, every stall is piled high with something of beauty, be it a food or a piece of clothing proudly displayed, I was told many times “made here, not China”. I bought several items including my own “longyi” for temple visits and a long legged skort as a further nod to modesty.
The temples and pagoda jut out of the plain in seemingly random patterns. Some are huddled close together and others are some distance apart. Each one is notable for different reasons, the gold, the Buddhas, the cool dark passageways, frescos, etc. In no way can one visit all 2000 in one day but I managed to pack in a few which to be honest became somewhat of a blur.
My driver spoke enough English to get me from A to B but not enough to fill in the mysteries of these ancient reminders of the 9th & 10th centuries. There is something haunting about the plains and what is poignantly missing is the human presence of the people that built them. To quote Borges, some places, “try to tell us something, or have said something we should not have missed, or are about to say something.”
The day ended with a short climb up a rare rise in the flat landscape to watch as the sun set behind the Temples of Bagan.
After a long day, especially considering my early start in Yangon, I was at last taken to the Bagan Wynn Hotel, one of the best hotels yet. Beautiful grounds and five star treatment at a very reasonable price through Hotels.com. My second day in Bagan was spent enjoying the pool and gardens of Bagan Wynn, catching my breath, working on my blog, answering friends emails and doing a little sink laundry. Tomorrow very early I am off to Mandalay, not by plane but by boat on the Irrawaddy River. Alarm set for 4:00 AM!
Between books, movies and a letter my brother once wrote to our mother in which he told her the was “on the road to Mandalay”, there awakened in me a romantic, nostalgic ideal of a place so different, magical, golden and so far away I could only dream of seeing it. But with some careful preparation requiring library time, online research, talking to people that have been here, and applying for and being granted a visa, here I am.
Getting here from Bangkok was easy and I had the foresight to ask , My Hotel (that is the actual name) to send a driver to meet me at the airport. Generally pick up service is out of my price range but I thought as a first time traveller to Yangon it would simplify things and it did. But, as I discovered, it is way cheaper and easy enough to take a taxi from the airport to your hotel. My Hotel is lovely and I would recommend it as being in a great location, well priced and right across the street from The People’s Park and the Shwedagon Pagoda, which I could see all lit up as I settled into my room. The staff at the Hotel are friendly and polite and make every effort to make you feel welcome, which I came to discover is a hallmark of Burmese people. The first thing upon arrival you are presented with a cold fruit juice before the business of check-in commences.
Day one I made a list on paper of the places I wanted to visit because I would never remember how to spell never mind pronounce them. Then I made a google map trail with all of the sites and started out the door. My driver that picked me up at the airport had helped me get cash (not available outside of Myanmar) and buy a SIM card with data making google maps and other on the go research possible.
First stop was a travel office where they helped me buy a ticket for the boat between Bagan and Mandalay where I will head after Yangon. All flights and hotels I have booked through Hotels.com and Air Asia or Myanmar airlines, flights being relatively cheap. I find the hotel prices a tad higher than in Thailand, but so far I have not been disappointed. As well I booked a private taxi tour in Bagan for 35USD. Generally making arrangements in a reputable travel agency rather than in your hotel can result in a greater variety and often a better price of options.
Business taken care of I headed to my first stop on the google map trail, the giant sized Reclining Buddha, weighing in at 66m long, 7.3m long face, 2.7 m worth of nose and 50cm high eyes, but who’s measuring? Not really old, built from 1959 to 1974, it is housed in the Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda. Maybe the most interesting thing about the place was a giant sized mural depicting the life of Buddha, there were some English explanations and it covered his pre-life existence to his death and of course rebirth. The monks were welcoming and entrance was free/donations welcomed. Both the scale and the colour of the Buddha’s feet were impressive as were the golden robes.
My second stop was the most important spiritual home for the people of Myanmar. The huge golden stupa of the Shwedagon Pagoda is visible from many parts of the city. The shrine is said to have been built during the lifetime of the Buddha and houses eight of his hairs. I was very fortunate to hire a guide at the entrance and he was very informative. I never would have gleaned as much had I attempted it on my own. Si Thu, named for the day of the week he was born on and another word with significance to his parents, explained that everyone born on the same day off the week has the same first name or version thereof. Unlike us they do not have surnames and in business and relationships it is thought that some days are more suited than others to a positive interaction.
The most notable thing, even at the airport, were the Burmese people, they are calm, elegant and well-dressed. For the most part they still wear the long beautiful skirts and long-sleeved blouse/shirts that reflect their modest natures. They walk tall in these skirts and even though the men in particular, often wear a western style dress shirt they pair it the “longyi.” I was so lucky when visiting Yangon that it was Independence Day, a holiday where people travel and gather with family for outings and devotions in the temples. We saw many university graduates being photographed by family and friends with the stupa in the background demonstrating the importance of the shrine to the people. Another notable group were novitiates who, carrying golden umbrellas, gathered with their sponsors, on their last days before entering a monastery. The sponsors support them financially while in the service of Buddha which can be for a short time or a life time of service, but something that is undertaken by all men.
Archeologists have dated Shwedagon as having been started somewhere between the 6th and 14th century, but it withstood the tests of time, neglect, government, earthquakes and stands as a testament to Buddhist devotion. The Pagoda, complicated layers of internal bricks and mortar is covered with gold plate near the top, gold leaf in the lower areas and is encrusted with jewels and a huge diamond is the icing on the cake.
A busy day even by Shwedagon standards, I found the people were polite, curious and many wanted to practice their English and they didn’t mind having there pictures taken, in fact they seemed quite happy to oblige. The children I encountered were particularly endearing and well behaved, and obviously treasured by their families. Of course when visiting the temples one must leave ones shoes at the door, and it’s nothing short of a miracle that those same slippers, sandals, runners and flip flops find their way back to the right pair of feet. In order to avoid being offensive, Western guests are given a longyi to wear in exchange for a refundable cash deposit.
My guide had a couple of interesting stories involving the British regime, the fervor of which may have been influenced by the fact that it was Independence Day. The first story concerned a golden Buddha, returned to Myanmar by Queen Victoria following a dream that schooled her in the error of having removed it from it’s rightful home. The second involved a huge bell weighting many tons that the British army attempted to make off with but somehow let it slip into the river where it languished until rescued by the ingenuity of Burmese who managed to float it using bamboo pools and ferrying it back to the shore.
The rubies, emeralds, diamonds, sapphires (to name a few types of stones) encrusted in gold are most impressive. Although you can’t climb up to see them, there is a photo display of the different sections of the pagoda and the gemstones that adorn them. Devotees are able to purchase a gold plate and they have their names engraved. Rings and other forms of personal jewelry are donated and hung in different sections as offerings to the Buddha. Of course the biggest and most impressive stone of all is the diamond that tops the spire. Clearly an important place, the Shwedagon crowds were thick, I was glad I went (unwittingly) on a national holiday, giving me so much access to people watching.
Leaving the Pagoda behind I made my way to downtown Yangon. A densely populated area, you can really see the impact of urbanization as people from the countryside seek their fortunes in the city. The best time to just wander and watch is in the heart of a city and generally there is something interesting happening at the turn of every corner.
Like all colonial cities the influence of the colonizer, in this case the English, is everywhere in the core of Yangon. Some of the buildings built during the British era when Yangon was the capital, have been maintained but others are in disrepair. I happened upon the Independence Day celebration with live music and throngs of people visiting the main square with the tall Independence monument in the middle of the park. In addition to music there were food vendors, ballon sellers, entertainers and picnickers sitting on the grass enjoying the festive atmosphere.
When the British designed Yangon, they put the Sule Pagoda front and centre in the heart of the city directly in front of the Manabandoola Park , ironically the future home of the Independence Monument. There are some obvious signs of economic success in Yangon including business towers, glitzy hotels and a huge mall with every designer label store imaginable. A stark contrast to its next door neighbour the Bogyoe Aung San Market, built during colonial times it sells the signature treasures of Myanmar to tourists including jewellery, paintings, puppets, lacquerware and jade. An even greater contrast is the Theingyi Zedi fruit and vegetable market with hundreds of ramshackle stalls, narrow aisles, and hoards of people elbowing their way through the chaos.
Yangon was more than a surprise to me. I expected something more dismal or downhearted about the place given recent history but it was surprisingly calm in it’s busyness, peaceful in it’s industry and beautiful in its hodgepodge of then and now. My admiration for the city is directly attributable to the welcome given by the friendly, warm people I met on my Yangon wandering.
Wander With Stella - Solo & Together 