Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Fantastic day! We spent the entire day out on Inle Lake being driven around by narrow motor boats holding five passengers. I had no idea that there was so much to see on the lake itself. Such a beautiful setting.
After breakfast we went to the local market. Nothing unique about the market besides seeing the breathing fish lying on their sides (out of water), but I did get a few awesome portraits and an apple. We lost Elli, so we ended up all meeting back at the hotel before boarding our boats. It was a good ride to the first stop, just under an hour, through islands of plants, fisherman, and houses on bamboo stilts, with mountains on either side of the lake. We got off at the Nga Phe Chaun Monastery, a monastery that now houses Buddha statues from old Shan palaces and jumping cats. A woman feed cats and then got them to jump through a hoop. It was pretty lame.
We then made our way through the floating vegetable gardens, watching as locals picked the ripe food from their small boats. The wood houses we passed reflected in the still water; I was impressed with the flower gardens suspended in the front of the houses. Continuing through narrow passage ways, we got a view of local life on the lake. Eventually we arrived at the silk and lotus weaving workshop where we watched a woman slowly pull the fibers from a lotus stem to create the lotus silk. Seemed like a very painstaking task and there are only 5 lotus looms as a result. The factory had about 20 cotton looms and 100 silk looms. There were some beautiful silk scarves and I couldn’t help but purchase a few. Fortunately, the next workshop we went to was for handmade cigarettes which I had no interest in buying.
By this point it was almost 1pm, and we stopped at a restaurant across from a pagoda for lunch. I was still feeling bloated, so I ate my apple (with some honey) with sprite and water. An extra noodle soup was ordered, and I sipped a bit of the broth. We didn’t visit the pagoda as I think J.P. realized that most of us we getting tired of the shoes and socks off routine, and that we’d seen enough pagodas; we went to a silver factory instead. Another place I didn’t intend on buying anything, but I saw some pretty earrings. Earrings are easy to pack, as are the scarves. I think I’m buying a bit more now as I’m back in the States in a couple weeks.
Back in the boats we motored another 15 minutes southwest to an island where a long walk (maybe 20 minutes, but long in comparison to any other walks we’ve had on this trip) took us to Shwe Inn Dain Pagoda. The Indein temple complex on the hill around the pagoda is covered with stupas and pagodas of various sizes; over 1000 in total. It looked like Bagan consolidated as most of the stupas were built between the 14th and 18th centuries. Now, instead of repairing the old stupas, new ones are built. When we’d finished looking around it was 4:45pm, time to head back.
It took over an hour to return to Hu Pin Hotel, and we watched the sunset from our boat. I would say it was peaceful, but the loud sound of the motor ruined the otherwise tranquil setting. It was stunning anyway. For our last night in Myanmar, we dined at one of the nicest restaurant in Nyaungshwe, View Point. They offered a selection of Shan dishes, which we hadn’t tasted yet, including some tapas type options. I shared the avocado salad with Elizabeth and the pumpkin dumplings with Ros and ordered the shrimp cakes and shredded pork in banana leaf. It was much more food than I expected. I also tried a glass of the local red wine, not something I would order again. A lovely evening in a peaceful setting; a great way to say goodbye to Myanmar.
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