7th November 2012: From Mandalay to Nyaungshwe/Inle Lake

Am getting a bit tired of backpacking. My hotel room smelt of “sewage” last night and a light kept flicking, but despite these I slept like a log because of a restful mind.

Can’t take any more fried eggs for brekki, so had omelette with only the egg whites, which took me in time in explaining to the cook. Today I shared the breakfast table with two guys from Barcelona who told me I sounded like I am from the South of Spain – must be my Talavera accent (close to Badajoz) anyway I kind of liked one of them. Shame the encounter was so short!! So was really happy to get out of Mandalay as the city was starting to get on me.

Paid 12,000 kyat to go to the airport “alone”, no more taxi sharing. The trip took about an hour and it was so hot in Mandalay. The airport is very basic, but there is a nice coffeeshop just before the check in counters, where I had the first decent coffee and cheese sandwich since my arrival in Myanmar. No air-conditioning or fans in the departure lounge or anywhere else for that matter – like I said “basic”.

Now I am finally on my way to Heho airport (Inle Lake) I could not wait to see Inle Lake (pictured above), but first I would need to find a place to sleep. On arrival argued with the taxi drivers as always as they normally try to con you. Ended up sharing a van to the town ofNyaungshwe with two German ladies. Guess what on arrival? The whole town fully booked! So now what? The van driver was nice enough to drive me round endlessly until I found the most basic of basic accommodation without even a fan and only cold water. But you know what?  I was just glad to have a place to sleep.

After a very quick shower I went running out as Nyaungshwe looks lovely. I spent ages walking around the worn, but should have just rented a bike as then it would have been much quicker to whizz around. The town has a relaxing ambiance, many beautiful nice pagodas and monasteries. I walked to the market, but the stalls were closing up. Went back the next day and bought a delicious roti filled with plum jam for 200 kyat. Made it to the jetty pier, took some lovely sunset shots, and negotiated my boat excursion for the next day.

For dinner I ended up in a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet for what was an uneventful chicken and potato curry, but the place was packed. A guy came over, bought me peanuts and said they would go well with my gigantic beer. That was a nice gesture, I thought, and later he came over and sat with me I said to myself, “come on Maria at least chat to the guy”. Actually he was quite interesting, and he did not only told me all the options on what to do in Inle Lake but also told me a lot about Myanmar. He is a guide for Routard, is   25% Shan, 25% Chinese, 50% Burmese and spoke English, Korean, English and Burmese

Things to do in Nyaungshwe

• Rent a bike and just get lost around the small town and lanes, numerous pagodas and monasteries to visit.
• The town is just 4km from Inle Lake, you can walk from one end of the village to the other in 20 minutes
• Go down to where the boats leave for Inle Lake, interesting to just see all the activities of daily life there.
• Buy a round roti filled with plum jam for 200 kyat, selling on all the streets.
• If you need a touch of luxury there is a nice Western bar and restaurant, called Vista Café, next to the pier.

Hotels

In Nyaungshwe:

• Amazing Hotel – Looks great, excellent location, heard good comments about it
• Teakwood Hotel – Looks nice, good location, some Spanish guys recommended it.
• Aquarius Hotel or Minglar Inn

8th November

Had an excellent good night’s sleep. The fact that I could not access emails here was paying off big time as I was really disconnecting from work, which was what this holiday was all about. I think in future, whilst on holiday, I should just switch off my Blackberry full stop. We are too used to being connected all the time, and I am certainly one of those “always connected” individuals. It isn’t really good for my life balance, so one thing I need to do is be more disciplined with “disconnecting”, and that means switching off the much beloved Blackberry.

I got up early and went to the local market and bought another puppet. I am “puppet mad” in Asia, and adding this to my little collection. Enjoyed having a chat with the puppet guy about his tattoos. Then off to the little jetty pier to have a decent coffee in a sophisticated place – gosh! that did feel good. I miss having a good coffee and going to nice restaurants – here it is once again very rural and basic. But luxury awaited me as I was meeting up with my friends – Bertrand, Freddy and Muriel – for two days at Pristine Lotus Hotel on Inle Lake. Could not wait to explore the lake.

I paid 8,000 kyat to get from the jetty pier to Pristine Lotus Hotel, which is very nice indeed –  room was enormous and really comfortable. It was such a welcome break to luxuriate in this quiet resort after all the 1 star hotels. Bertrand, Freddy and Muriel arrived about an hour after. By 12.15pm we were on our first excursion to Inle Lake. I don’t have words to express how clean, beautiful and breathtaking the lake is  – such a sensation of freedom to be on our private boat to explore all the different gems there. We visited a cigar-making outlet called Cheroot where I bought cigars made from anisette and tobacco. I also bought a lacquer ware teapot – yes the British part of me does emerge now and then.

Then it was off to the Jumping Cats Monastery, which is quite touristy. And yes, there were cats all around but they were not jumping about when we were there, although some travellers complained about this and they had to stop them from jumping. To round up the day we had cocktails Hotel “Margarita”  – that was so very nice.

9th November: Inle Lake

After a nice breakfast that was much better than those I had been used to on this trip, we departed on our private boat for a full day excursion. It was so lovely to be in the lake again – so clean, so blue. We visited:

• Maiang Thauk, 5-day rotating market: Quite local but mixed with zillions of souvenir stalls. You need to really negotiate prices down as the vendors would jack up prices.  I bought a Buddha face for USD9, the original price was USD18. My friend later paid USD6.80 for the same souvenir. You have to bargain lower than half the state price.

• Ywama: A village built entirely on stilts, very unique (pictured above).

• Indein: This village is in the shallow part of Inle Lake and can only be accessed by boat. It has a whole collection of ancient ruined pagodas, as well as new ones, which is quite weird but rather impressive. In the village you walk  for quite some distance through a long path with columns full of stalls with vendors trying to sell you their wares – they can really bother you- and then zillions of stupas greet you.

Try to make your return trip to the hotel when the sun sets, as then you can have some do amazing photos of the lake (pictured below).

Price of full day excursion from 8.30am till about 4.30pm: 20,000 kyat (divided among four of us).

10th November: Mandalay

Got up early to have a coffee and say goodbye to Bertrand, Freddy and Muriel as they had an early flight back to Yangon. I had a few hours to spare so was over the moon when the hotel manager told me there was a market just five minutes down the road. It turned out to be one of the 5-day rotating markets, which was just amazing with hill tribe people selling their goods. Most of these people live in the mountains and possibly get up at 2am to walk to where the market is taking place. The Khaung Daing 5-day rotating market, as it is called, normally starts at 6am. Following that I had a nice Balinese massage at the hotel.

Then the hotel called a taxi to take me to Heho airport for my flight to Mandalay, for which I paid USD30. At the airport I met with some hitches. Now let me share with you the story of my flight.

I was originally on Air Mandalay from Heho (Inle Lake) to Mandalay at 14.30hrs, but this suffered several changes and it became a KZB flight departing at 15.30hrs. Then it was brought forward to 13.00hrs, and I arrived at the airport was informed it would be at 13.45hrs, and finally took off at 14.00hrs. The flight did take off, so am not really complaining.

Check in at hotel, showered, and off to see Mandalay Hill. Took a taxi but the tried to fool me by leaving me at the bottom – means you need to walk up the steps for at least 45 minutes of steps. Since I was late and wanted to watch the sunset from the hilltop, and I had clearly said to the drive “from above”, so I got out of taxi and didn’t pay him. My experience is that not all the taxi drivers will con you, but many really will try. The first thing they ask you is how long you are there for, so they then try to sell more excursions to you. It really does get very tiring having to deal with these. Anyway I took a motorbike up the hill for 1,500 kyat, but I gave the drive 2,000 kyat and asked him to wait to take me down the hill. On my return he was nowhere to be seen!

Mandalay Hill has a great view across Mandalay and beyond into the Shan Hills. It is full of tourists, but it is nice to see Mandalay from the hilltop. You can also climb up barefoot some very, very steep steps. I didn’t but would have done it had I sufficient energy. Up on top of the hill were many Burmese English students, mostly monks. They were very charming and genuine, and was great to actually interact with them and ask them about life in Burma.

11th November – Mandalay & back to Bangkok

What a day!! Woke up by an earthquake! Now that really got me out of bed. After the second tremor the quake seemed to stop. Went quickly for breakfast and found out that the quake was quite nearby, about 69kms away from Mandalay. Had breakfast, and then met two very nice guys – one from Mallorca and the other from Uruguay. I must say staying at guesthouses is no luxury, but you do meet interesting people.

I made my way to Mingun,but as I missed the only one ferry going there I hopped on the back of a motorbike instead. Travelling on the bike was quite risky considering how reckless the drivers could be, and it was a two-hour ride – well, I do get adventurous. However, It did get to a point when I was really fed up of the bike, but my mood improved once out of Mandalay as the countryside was lovely and green, a contrast to the town that is chaotic and dusty. We passed villages and stopped at one for tea. The villagers are shy but nice as they are not used to seeing tourists as they normally go to Mingun by boat not on a bike.

Upon arrival the first sight that greet you is Mingun Paya, which would have been the world’s largest stupa had it been finished. You can walk up the stupa for a good view of surrounding countryside, but you are asked to pay USD3 and that seems to apply only to foreigners. I was not sure if it was worth paying this amount  just to walk up Mingun Paya.

To me the most beautiful temple is Hsinbyume Paya, which is white in colour and was built in 1816 (pictured left). I visited the Mingun bell, which claims to be the largest uncracked bell in the world. It was fun to go underneath the bell and see it from the inside, which is completely covered with graffiti. Well worth going to see the bell. I ended up having lunch facing the river in a place called Poing where you can get draft Spirulina beer and watch buffalos and people bathing in the river.

I then walked around the area and saw a boat leaving, managed to get on and make my way back to Mandalay for just 5,000 kyat. There were just three people on the boat and it was a short trip to Mandalay port.

I saw a local market near the port and it was interesting watching the vendors selling food and flowers. Als amazing to see see how the vendors managed to load a huge load of flowers on to a motorbike.  I hopped onto another motorbike and, for 1,000 kyat, was taken to the Jade market where I spent about 10 minutes. This is an interesting place where you see mostly men working with chunks of jade, some clean them while others cut and polish. The alleyways around the market were filled with people. As the market is near the port it was convenient for me to visit, but am not so sure I would go out of my way to see it.

Near the Jade market is the Shwenandaw teak monastery, which is quite amazing. Next I visited Maha Aung Mye Bon Za Monastery for 10 minutes. Apparently there are 1,000 resident monks there and when I visited they were in their rest period – some were chilling out, others praying, walking around or washing clothes. I must find out how long the monks have been living in the monastery.

I went back to ET Hotel for a much-needed shower and wanted to just collapse on the bed but I had to go out and buy water. While walking in the noisy and dusty 83rd street I saw people rushing out of the building – and yes it was another aftershock from the earlier earthquake. I actually went to bed fully dressed (ready to escape), a torch next to the bed and my bag with important and valuable items ready in case of I need to evacuate during the night. Had a rather sleepless night as around 1am another tremor took place.

End of my holiday and happy to go back to Bangkok, but am so glad I made it to Burma. I want to go back to visit Yangon and Bagan, but hope the authorities would make the visa procedure easier as getting a visa is quite a pain.