Aye Thar Yar Golf Resort Shan State Inle Lake

I got up at 0430 to catch a bus to Mandalay, after which I caught an overnight bus to Inle Lake. I did not hit the bed for 27 hours. Traveling in Burma was time-consuming and not very comfortable.

But I was glad I did it. Inle Lake has floating gardens, village on stilts, mountains, and friendly people with interesting traditions. Some travelers call it heaven on earth, I wouldn't go that far, but would admit it is the most peaceful ...

... but still a bit tough if you’re not used to it. Luckily my bed in the Beijing dormitory was almost as hard so I wasn’t the one who suffered most from the lack of the mattresses.

Kalaw is a small town from the colonial times and around the town there are more good trekking possibilities, but I was done with trekking for this time so I spent a day there doing nothing special but gearing up for the next day’s strenuous 9-hour non-air-con bus ride to Bagan by drinking beer.

... that had both lotus and silk threads. The looms look very difficult to operate and have 4 pedals to operate, plus they constantly have to change the thread to create patterns. Chan Chan's mother-in-law is one of the women who works on a loom. There are not set hours, women are paid by the meter. So, the faster you work, the more you get paid. I would not make very much money at all. In order to create a pattern like the traditional Sun of the Lake, the silk is dyed ...

After another night of traveling on the bus, I've finally reached the serene and picturesque Kalaw in the afternoon. Oh, traveling the mountainous road from Meitilka to Kalaw was rugged, but the destination was well-worth the bumpy ride. If you enjoy Laos, you'd love Kalaw. The little town centre set against the rolling hills at an altitude of 1320m offers refreshing cool breezes, beautiful cherry blossoms and friendly people ...

... We found some temples that were 400 years old. There was a gentleman who seemed to be paying for the renovations of some of the temples. He came out and generously talked to us showing us around and telling us more about the temples. Then we walked across the street to a monastery. The monk boys came running to their windows to look and one showed us a around. It was entertaining though because we would turn around and there would be a bunch of monks. Then ...

Kalaw We arrived in the mountain town of Kalaw around 2:30 in the morning. Luckily, there were many guest houses within walking distance so we crashed into the cheapest one we could find to sleep. It was a real dismal room with no furniture other than the two beds to sleep on. Surprisingly, the hotel manager was surprised when we up and left, but promised to book a trek through them, they were more shocked when we did just ...

... to outsiders. The sights to see in Pindaya include a series of caves in a cliff face filled with thousands of Buddha images. If you are familiar with S.E. Asia, you will know this is a common type of place. People come to make offerings to their special Buddha's or to dedicate a new one, to make merit for themselves. A visit to a paper making business, it's related parasol shop, and a bike ride on a bike with nearly flat tires, complete the days activities.

... cats. Unfortunately, almost all the cats died two weeks before we arrived so the only cats we saw were a couple of stragglers milling about. We did manage to have a long and interesting discussion with a monk their who had taught himself an amazing amount of English (and apparently Italian, Spanish, French, and German apparently as well). The topper was that SIG managed to get one of the cats to jump through his arms made into a hoop so we ended up seeing at least one ...

... this point, only having spent an hour here, I already had fallen in love with the place. Later I walked up to a cave on the side of the eastern mountain where I sat silently with a monk in his small hut as he offered me various snacks, treats, sugar, nuts, and tea. Then he took me on a quiet tour of the medium cave with several Buddhas inside. I spent the rest of the day reading The Brothers K and eating at various eateries ...

... fields and topping them with earth. The area is renowned for fine tomatoes. We saw several boats harvesting water plants from the bottom and, laden to the gunwales with vegetation, heading for the fields with the compost material. The fisherman will casually demonstrate their unique traditional method of "leg-rowing" for passing tourists. Perched on the tiny flat platform at the end of their shallow dugouts, they free both hands for ...