C & C globetrotting around the world…

After a 12-hour bus ride, we arrived in Inle Lake at 3:30am. We were so happy when we were able to get our room straight and sleep a bit. We had breakfast on the hotel terrace and walked to the market, which was especially busy. We spent some time wondering the various alleys and it is a rich market indeed. We spent the afternoon wondering the streets and sipping tea and in the evening we went to the Puppet Theatre, which was short but entertaining.

The next day was a chill day where it was more about who we talked to rather than what we saw. It started off with breakfast on the hotel terrace again, overlooking the canal. We met a French couple and a Dutch guy with whom we decided to do boat trip on Inle Lake the following day. Cecilia spent the day catching up the Blog and sorting pictures while relaxing on the terrace and enjoying the view of the activity down below. Christoph went on a bike tour around the area with the Dutch guy. It was a fun day with nice views of the surroundings and interesting encounters. One of the more memorable ones was with a monk at one of the monasteries. The guys walked in and were greeted by a monk who is living there by himself. They chatted with him for a while and were baffled at all the information the monk had. When Christoph told him he comes from Germany, the monk started talking about the former East and West Germany, Konrad Adenauer, Angela Merkel and a bunch of other political events. He also knew many German companies and spoke a few words of German. As for the Dutch guy, he started by telling him that most people don’t know “The Netherlands”, but they know “Holland” and how the country was below sea level. The guys called him “Wikipedia Monk” because of all his knowledge. They had a good time there and even got offered some bananas and tea.

The next day we had breakfast on the hotel terrace again and then left on our boat trip around Inle Lake along with the French couple and the Dutch guy. Inle Lake is a huge body of water and is one of the 4 major attractions in Myanmar. It is known for its floating gardens, villages on stilts and the unique one-leg-rowing technique of the Intha people. From the village on Nyaungshwe where the guesthouses are, the boat took canals until it reached the lake. Our first stop on the lake was a touristy market, but we crossed a canal to reach a temple complex. Afterwards we stopped at a silver- and goldsmith place, but we were more surprised by the fact that the silversmith’s child was watching Cartoon Network than by the silversmith himself. What was nice is that at each stop we were served free tea. Afterwards we went to a weaving house and got a tour. First, we were shown how to make thread from lotus stems and it’s really cool. There is plenty of lotus growing on the lake, so it’s also useful. It was also pretty impressive to see the ladies working at the looms and the various patterns they create. Our grandparents’ generation used to weave too, but it’s a lost art in the Western world. Cecilia ended up buying a longyi, the traditional long skirt worn by everyone here. She had wanted to buy a sarong in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand but never did, so now that we visited a weaving shop, she decided to go for it. After lunch at a restaurant on stilts, we visited a Buddha-temple, passing a dentist on the way. We were surprised to see that the dentist had a typical dentist chair as well as a disinfecting station in his hut. The temple was very interesting and the most important one of the lake. It contained some Buddha statues that had been covered with gold leaf. To show their devotion, people buy gold leaf and apply it to the statues. Over the years, the Buddha statues have changed shapes due to the thousands of gold leaves applied. Our next stop was a cigar-making shop where we could have tried the cigars. They make some regular ones, but also some flavoured ones, including anis (licorice) and pineapple. It was impressive the speed with which the girls were rolling away the cigars, often without even looking. On the way back, we also passed some floating gardens, but didn’t get to see them from up close, which was disappointing a bit. Overall it was a nice day and the company pleasant.