inle lake
8 hours of hell. the timimg of the 5am local bus from bagan to inle would have been painful enough even if i hadn't been dumped in the window seat that sacrificed its leg room to one of the wheel arches. add to that a tiny space packed to the rafters (and beyond... the old visual stereotype of grinning natives capering about on the roof was shamelessly reinforced here) with people, produce, and sunshine and you can see why i was pretty weary when i stumbled out into nwaung she in the late afternoon. still, life became a lot sweeter once i checked into the queen inn. despite the fact that this place isn't in the lp (and most travellers follow the bible pretty blindly), the guesthouse had been recommended to me by almost every traveller that had been to inle. i'll be spreading the love too over the next few days because the people were amazingly friendly and the food was stunning. add to that riverside views over a cracking little dinner table designed for adda with other travellers and you can see why there were many happy bunnies in residence.inle lake is a large expanse of clear water filled with houses on stilts and various other curiousities to gape at. 5 of us hired a boat and left at 6am to avoid paying the entrance fee: an added bonus was sunrise over the lake, which was real postcard stuff. the boat tour was actually very chilled. we got taken to endless workshops (silversmiths, cheroot makers, silk makers), drank copious amounts of free tea, and blushingly avoided buying a single thing. i know it's all relative, but we're poor goddamn it! just journeying on the lake was a pleasure: cruising around in a boat in the sunshine beats the smog filled roads that infest the rest of south east asia by a fair distance. the culmination of the trip was a visit to the jumping cat monastery: this is basically a normal monastery where the monks, or rather one monk, has taught a bunch of cats to jump through hoops. that's it. the rest of the time the cats just laze around the monastery floor. the monk in charge of the cats was a bit of a legend (burmese monks rule!) with some great banter and a worrying love for manchester united (closer than most fans i suppose).
myanmar continues to throw up other interesting travellers. special shout to tal who cancelled his one year open ticket and is now in his 15th month (trekking from manali to leh in 22 days, over all the passes, first marked him out for good lad status. the fact that he only has two t shirts with him for the whole trip consolidated it). the burmese people themselves are also incredibly friendly once you get them on their own (more on this once i've left maybe).
anyway, after a couple of days i left for mandalay. the seven hour trip took thirteen, because a blockage up one of the hills meant a three hour wait followed by a couple of hours trying to clear the two way backlog on a single track road. finally made it, checked in and am going to take it very easy today, before going for a super cycle to some of the ancient cities around mandalay tomorrow. first impressions of the city are pretty poor, polluted and full of people hassling you which, whilst consistent with asia in general, is certainly the exception in myanmar. let's hope it can redeem itself.
posted by bicrom @ 3:52 am
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