Myanmar - Inle Lake

After arriving in Heho we were confronted with what is normally a simple ordinary problem – negotiate a ride to our hotel. However, we didn’t anticipate that the hotel was separated by a car ride and a boat ride in addition to being about a lengthy one hour car ride from the Heho airport before we could get a boat.

Luckily Carrie’s ability to speak Spanish helped us engage some fellow travelers who were from Spain and looking to secure a ride as well. This was actually very comical as the taxi drivers tried to bargain with us in English and then the women from Spain and Carrie discussed the price in Spanish and then counter offered the taxi cab in English and the driver talked to his friends in Burmese. Needless to say the driver had no idea where we were all from but in the end he did give us a fair price for the ride even though we had to share the back of a truck for a bumpy 45 minute ride. Also, the same driver did try at least six times to convince us that we should take his friends boat taxi and that he could drop us off in a great location (no where near town) where the boat would meet us. Luckily we did not take the bait on this gimmick and we got a ride all the way into town.

Taxi ride to Inle Lake

Once we  got to Nyaungshwe town we were onto negotiation number two of our day, where we wanted to find a boat to take us to our hotel which could not be reached via car (yes it was a secluded retreat in the marshes of Inle Lake). The second negotiation involved a nice gentleman, named Tom (this is a name I made up for him), who tried to sell us a day boat tour, hotel accommodations, lunch directions and  taxi ride back to the airport the following day. We told him we had to get lunch first, which was at a very local restaurant named Shanland Restaurant that I would recommend (but make sure to bring your own hand sanitizer and toilet tissue as the bathrooms were less than ideal to put it midly). The food was very good though.

During lunch our new friend, Tom, was very persistent and sat down to enjoy a cup of tea with us. We told him we needed his advice on all sorts of things (places to see, hotel accommodation, etc) but that we were willing to use his services for some or all of these things. Luckily the bundle technique and Carrie’s favorite tactic of picking a very hardline on price convinced Tom to give us a pretty good deal on a ride to our hotel and then a day tour of Inle Lake. (Note well that Carrie’s negotiation prowess also helped on the taxi ride back to the airport when she insisted with a capital “I” on her price and eventually Tom agreed).

After the bargain was struck Tom disappeared (we hadn’t paid yet) without saying a word. This allowed us to finish our lunch and contemplate why Tom so suddenly disappeared. We anxiously awaited Tom’s return by finishing our tea and people watching the locals (no tourists here that is for sure). When Tom did arrive Carrie and I realized what was going on as Tom had earlier asked how much luggage we had and we pointed to our single duffel bag/backpack.

Tom was riding on a motorbike/scooter and told us to hop on with the backpack strapped to our back. Carrie and I looked at each other with a look of confusion and then realized Tom was serious and then sat down on the bike and were off through the town to a chorus of laughter from all the locals who loved the scene of three adults (two of them tourists) straddling a small scooter. Even the police got a good laugh when we went flying by.

It was something like this.... but with three people on it.

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_nv/more/section/archive?date=2007/11

Tom dropped us off at the dock and had us board his friends boat for a very enjoyable trip to our hotel and intriguing day trip around Inle Lake.

The photos below are a recap of our trip around the lake with just a little commentary from me as well. The highlights were the one legged rowing, the peaceful evening and morning at our hotel, the jumping cat monastery, the golden buddhas that were engulfed in gold leaves, and lotus fiber weaving.

Longtail Boat Ride on Inle Lake

Fisherman (one leg rowing) on the lake

One Leg Rowing on Inle Lake (up close)

Lotus Fiber Weaving

 

Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda

Under all those gold leaves - Buddhas (at Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda)

Nga Hpe Chaung Monastery (jumping cat monastery)

Jumping Cats at the Monastery

 

The following day we had an extremely peaceful sunrise over Inle Lake, followed by a sumptuous breakfast on the hotel porch, a quick Burmese cat encounter and then a return trip including boat, car, and plan to Yangon. It was a fairly uneventful trip except for the delayed flight and a temporarily lost bag (as you remember that was our only bag).

Sunrise view from our room

Farmer working his "field"

Burmese Cat (the breed and the location)

 So it was a good thing we checked into our splurge hotel, The Strand, with only the dirty casual clothes on our back. Fortunately, the hotel was kind enough to let us in and allow us into the posh bar and restaurant despite our dusty, sloppy clothing topped off with tennis shoes for style points.

We did recover our bag that evening, luckily before our early morning flight from Yangon to Singapore, and that ended our thrilling trip to Myanmar and unfortunately that was our last trip before leaving Singapore to move to San Francisco…where of course our adventures continue just in a different way and very altered locale.

Strand Hotel

Modern Myanmar Taxi