Nyaung Shwe - Inle Lake - Burma/Myanmar

May 21st - 22nd, 2016

We arrived at Nyaung Shwe, a small town close to Inle Lake, at 6.30 in the morning after a very slow, twisty, turny journey on our luxury bus, sleepy but excited to be discovering somewhere new! After declining the offered taxi, we walked not much more than 10 minutes to get to our hotel and were pleasantly surprised when they let us check in straight away, expecting to just be able to leave our bags and come back later. Being able to freshen up made us feel much better and we decided to have some breakfast before venturing out to look around the town. Our original plan had been to do a boat tour immediately, but the friendly guy at the hotel informed us that as it was 'full moon day' and there was some kind of festival going on at the moment, the markets would not be operating that day and we would be better off waiting until tomorrow if we wanted to see them.

Our exploration of the town which was assembled as an easy grid system, allowed us to see how busy it must be in the height of tourist season, we are just entering the rainy season so not many people about, the sheer number of guest houses, hotels and resorts was staggering for such a small place and there was lots of new development still going on. As it was, it was hard to walk along and not see other tourists so it must get absolutely swamped at its peak. We wandered past various pagodas, stupas and monasteries dotted about all over the town and went down to the river to have a look at the boats where we must have been asked 30 times or more if we wanted to go on a boat tour. Trying to keep politely declining and not get frustrated, we quickly left the riverside in favour of a quiet road leading out into the country where to our delight no one pestered us and we were able to relax as we looked out over the rice fields to the hills in the distance. After some time we thought it best to turn back before we got lost and feeling a bit shattered returned to the hotel for a couple of hours sleep, having had very little on the bus that night.

That afternoon we walked the back streets of the town and discovered yet more pagodas, some looking rather neglected in a stand of bamboo, others obviously still cared for and well attended by the offerings present. Whilst most of the day had been dry and the dirt roads were dusty and hard, as we walked along the heavens opened and we soon found ourselves dodging puddles, the wildlife clearly enjoyed the rain as we saw a metre long snake slithering along and heard many birds in the trees which had previously been quiet. Eventually we came to the destination we had been heading for, the Red Mountain Winery, where we were able to sample some of the wine they produce there from their own vineyard right on the slopes of the hills. It had stopped raining and we enjoyed a pleasant hour sipping wine and looking out across the view from the terrace whilst many other tourists came and went, some staying for lunch, others just having a glass or two, before starting the walk back to town. It seems we were the only people not to rent push bikes to come here, but as it was only 4km we didn't really see the point and after seeing how hot and sweaty some people were getting with the effort of propelling the rather old and dilapidated bikes along, I was quite glad!

The next day we met our boat guide at 8am as we had arranged and proceeded to follow him to the riverside, along with a French gentleman we'd picked up at breakfast, who was travelling alone and was also planning to do a tour. We are always happy to share with other people, firstly it cut our own costs down and secondly, it's always interesting to see what other people think and how they experience different things. So with our little band in tow, our guide led us out to his boat and got us settled on some short legged chairs set up along the centre. The boats are all quite long and narrow, the front sits very high out of the water and the engine at the back is so loud that when they pass you its like a jack hammer going off! It took an hour or so to get from where the boats dock to the far side of the lake and with the gentle drizzle disappearing as we went, it made for a lovely way to see in the morning and observe the locals about their everyday lives. Many other boats zipping about carrying passengers (up to a dozen or more in a boat the same size as ours) or goods, some of them so laden they sat very low in the water and had to putter along slowly so as not to get swamped. The fishermen out on their little boats, not much more than hollowed out planks of wood which they perched on the end of and with some extreme sense of balance, propelled along with one oar using a strange leg action that really didn't look very efficient but was oddly elegant. All this and then we started to come to patches of floating greenery, mounds drifting on top of the lake like isolated little islands that gradually got bigger and more densely packed as we sped along. Soon enough we came to see an extraordinary sight, vast tomato plantations, row after row after row, floating on the top of the water! They seemed to go on forever and we were mesmerised by the scale of this production which provides the tomatoes for all over the country, being the main producer and certainly very organised in delivering the goods.

As the tomato plantations finally started to peter out we came upon more and more houses, built up on high stilts above the water, these bamboo structures are very pretty with their woven wall panels and boats tied up underneath. We passed through a small town before alighting at our first stop, a workshop where they hand weave cotton, silk and lotus into stunningly beautiful scarves, shawls and clothing. We were able to watch how the lotus is transformed into yarn and understood why it is so expensive...it takes 4000 lotus to make a single scarf and several days labour to produce enough thread, an average day in the dry season only yielding about 10m, whilst a day in the wet season giving about 15m, the lotus being more fibrous at that time. Resisting the temptation to buy, despite the pretty heavy sales pressure, we hopped back in the boat to be taken to a silver smith's workshop, another traditional craft in these parts, the quarry for silver being fairly close by. We had a short demo of how the silver is extracted from the rock and were then able to watch some of the workers shaping the silver into bits of jewellery before again trying to resist the pushy saleswomen within the display shop. Our last stop before lunch was to a lacquer ware shop and cigar factory where we watched women rolling different cigars and cigarettes with a speed and effortlessness that must have taken years to acquire.

We lunched at a stilted restaurant overlooking the busy water thoroughfare which at times seemed almost like the M1 with the noise, before stepping back into our boat once more to be taken to the Jumping Cat Monastery. We're not sure why it is called such as there didn't seem to be many cats and they certainly weren't jumping, there was however an interesting sight inside, 5 small Buddha statues are crowded around by men applying sheets of gold leaf to the point where they look somewhat snowman like and bear no resemblance to their original form! Women are not allowed to do this and have to pass their gold leaf (which you can buy inside) to a man to put on for them. An unusual custom which we've not yet found the reason behind. There was also a processional boat just outside the monastery which we went and had a look at, apparently it still sails for festivals and certain occasions, but presumably not until it's rained some more, it being well clear of the water at present.

Our last stop, (we never did get to go to one of the floating markets which we were a little disappointed about) was to a somewhat controversial place where 'long-necked women' or Padaung wove traditional cloth and posed for photos. These women from an early age wear heavy golden coils around their necks which push their collar bones down, so elongating their necks, supposedly making them more beautiful. One old lady must have had a dozen or so coils and I wonder if her neck would support itself if they were removed, so thin and fragile she looked?! They say these women are somewhat exploited and I have to say it saddened me to see a couple of young girls already wearing coils, probably not having any choice but to do so from their community. The weaving however was fascinating, not using big wooden looms as we saw earlier but all completely done by hand, the dexterity with which they manipulated different threads to create a pattern was amazing and I would have happily sat and watched them for hours. It was however time to leave and after several minutes of pushing and rocking the boat which had gotten stuck in the mud due to the water being so low, we were off back across the lake, the steady whirr of the engine and gentle rocking motion so soothing as to almost put you to sleep were it not for the beauty of the scenery around which demanded your attention.