Okay, I've been home for two weeks and it's time to finish the trip blogs! I finally got over the jetlag just in time to get hit with Daylight Saving Time, which was kind of worse. It was easier to wake up when I was jetlagged than it's been to wake up when it's still so dark outside!
I'm pretty caught up now with work and everything else, and I edited all of my trip photos. All of them. That would be 2,689 photos (those are the ones I kept!) And I hate editing photos. A lot. But, I shot the entire trip on manual. Risky. Turns out, I'm pretty good with indoor shots, still learning with the outdoor ones... and we were outside in bright sunlight all the time! So lots of editing, but it was great learning! So now I need to do something with all those pictures, starting by finishing the blogs... this will be the first post NOT on my iPad and with photos that are halfway decent looking instead of straight out of the camera. I know there have been a lot of posts from this trip, but I decided pretty quickly to let the blogs be my travel journal this time... it took way to long every day to write and I didn't want to miss anything.
That said? Let's finish this! (Warning... lots of photos ahead!)
This was our full day on Inle Lake and it was really fun. We had an awesome breakfast (they do a really good noodle soup there) and saw dancers in the costumes for their local dances - they do versions of the peacock dance all over, and I love the costumes!
After breakfast we got into our boats and headed out on the lake. Lots to see... fishermen and others out and working for hours before we got started.
Our first stop was to the weekly market. They have about five different locations around the lake where the market is held, and they rotate every week so that everyone has one close to them at least some of the time. I couldn't believe how much was there for a mobile market! It was so cool... markets are one of my favorite ways to see the culture - local markets, anyway... anything from places like these to supermarkets - they all say so much about the people!
When we first pulled up to the market, I couldn't help but be reminded of Venice... long black boats everywhere, branches off of the lake that looked like canals... bridges spanning the water... it was so cool. Right as we landed was also a big pagoda.
We got off the boats and were given a time to meet back, and then broke up and headed out. Right there on the edges was the tourist market - we wandered through there and it was fun to see what they were selling, but it was lots of the same stuff. Fortunately, we were pointed toward the local market and decided to head off in that direction. That was super fun! We just kept randomly picking directions to wander and see what there was. It was so cool.
Can you tell I loved the market? I had a hard time narrowing down the photos to share! So much to see. I even saw this little barber shop... I saw several of these on the trip at various markets.
After we finished up at the market, we went to our big stop for the day - it was kind of a 3 in 1... lunch, a bamboo forest and the Shwe Inn Tain Pagoda Complex - I'd seen pictures of that online before the trip and was really excited for it. We got off the boats at the restaurant where we were going to have lunch and I bought a big bottle of water because before eating (even though it was about noon) we were going to take a little hike through the bamboo forest (such as it was... more like thickets of bamboo along the paths) and out to the stupas.
See what I mean about me still working on my outdoor shots in bright light? (Don't tell... this is AFTER heavy editing. But I'm totally going to just tell everyone that I was deliberatly going for that artsy overexposed edge to my photos. It's pretty cool, right?)
Gorgeous, right? Picture it with absolutely perfect weather, and a really peaceful quiet broken only by your footsteps on the path and the sound of the breeze ringing the bells attached to the umbrellas of all of the stupas.
So after wandering through the complex, the guides talked a bit about it and then were ready to lead the group back to the restaurant for lunch. There was a small group of us (including all of my boat) that really wanted to follow the road in the opposite direction and go up to the top of the hill overlooking the complex. We all had brought snacks with us and so figured that instead of taking the time to go back and order and wait for food, we could go up to the top and back and make our own way back to the restaurant. The guides and tour leaders were a bit nervous, but saw that it was a direct enough route that we were unlikely to get lost, so they let us go (we were such rebels.) We hiked up the road and got directions from a guy passing on a moped to the top of the hill. One lady and I had passed a path and wondered if that was the way, but the guys were ahead of us so we ended up just following them. We sort of had to hack our way up the "path" (I joked that we should have bought a machete from the knife shop we saw in the market!)
After busting through all of the thorns and plants while climbing over rocks and going up at a pretty steep angle, we made it to the top. And then discovered that yes, the path we'd seen was actually the right one. lol. But it didn't matter... the view was totally worth it.
Here's a panoramic from my phone to get an idea - that's going from far left to right about 180 degrees around where we were.
And a bit of the view:
And then coming back down the hill and approaching the complex again.
Then we went back to the restaurant and, as we had bet would happen, the people who had gone back with the main group still hadn't even gotten their food. Surprise! So we found seats and pulled out our water bottles, protein bars, and crackers and had our lunch. After that, we still had time to go back out and wander a bit and get some more photos. There was one place down the way with a bridge over the river where you could see all of the Saturday activity. This was apparently the day for swimming, bathing, and doing laundry. The people all bathe out in the water, and the women have bathing dresses that they wear for modesty.
Once everyone finished up with lunch, we headed back out in our boats. For the next part of the day, we split into groups and went to two different artisan workshops. On the way, we saw the water buffalo out for a bath...
Our group went to an umbrella factory first, where they made the paper and the structures all by hand. The bases and spokes of the umbrellas were all bamboo - no metal involved at all. We watched the guy turning the lathe - it was old school... he used his foot to pump it so it would turn.
The funny thing about this? There were no umbrellas for sale in the main showroom! It was cool, though. We weren't there very long - it was pretty small, and then we got back in our boats and swapped with the other boats and went to the silversmith workshop. There was a whole room full of men creating different jewelry designs and other pieces.
The workshop was gorgeous... they had these stunning silver worked curry dishes like the ones we'd bought at the lacquerware shop. If I hadn't already bought one of those, I could have gone for a silver one for sure! Lots of gorgeous work on sale, but I was actually starting to be a bit shopped out (I know... can you believe it?)
After that, it was time for the long boat ride back to the hotel so we could be back before sunset.
We came back out on the patio to watch the sunset which was even more beautiful than the night before, if that's even possible! Then our boat gathered around the table and ordered drinks from the bar for a toast (I had a Grape Forest - all fruit juices and delicious!) As we sat there, lots of others came to hang out with us and it was just fun to sit and chat.
After sitting out and talking for about an hour or so, our boat went into the hotel restaurant to have dinner together. They had a really great menu, and I decided to try something local for our last night on the lake - I ordered the Myanmar style beef curry, and it was absolutely fantastic.
It was an absolutely wonderful day... I loved every minute of being at Inle Lake and was so sad that our time was nearly up. But I'm so grateful I had a chance to go! The people who didn't go on the extension totally missed out on an awesome experience.
And with that, just one more post to wrap up the last of the trip!
Recent Comments