After a long bus ride, it was nice to arrive at our destination. Very tired, and after a bumpy ride, we headed to the recomended guesthouse, by one of the motorbike drivers in Bago, and were welcomed with brekky and a comfy bed.
The peacefulness was a little bit disturbed by the noisy longtail boats screaming up the canals headed to the lake. Didn't do much on our first day, but the weather was good, which was a nice change from down south. Matt ventured out to the dusty main street, and returned with after witnessing a hilarous effort of 2 burmese men trying to lift a protesting fully grown pig into the back of the horse and cart. He had us all in stitches of laughter recounting the story, which didn't get a pic of unfortunately. Cheap Myanmar wine and rum (about $1.50 for 1 L) was enjoyed that night.
Next day we set out on bikes with Pierre and Shan a Korean guy we picked up along the way. We could tell from a mile away he was Korean by the visor he was wearing, and he was excited to hear that we had spent a year there. We headed out for an adventure around the lake. Shan had told us he wasn't too good at riding a bike, but headed out with us any way. All seemed fine, until we stopped and he feel off, he did warn us I guess, after a bit of encouragement we persuaded him to continue on with us. The road was realy bumpy but we were sharing it with horse and carts, trucks, pickups and buses at times.
We passed lots of villages and schools and got heaps of "Hello's" and "Mingalabars" (hello in Burmese) along the way. We stopped a couple of times at little tea houses along the way, and Matt and the boys tired their first betel nut. The betel nut is put on a lime leaf, with lime paste, tabacco and wrapped up chewn by most of the men in country with a mildly entoxicating effect. The pic's tell the story, at first they all seemed to be enjoying it, it causes an overload of red coloured saliva, but after a while, they were all spitting it out and calling for water, much to the amesument of the Burmese that were watching, the boys a bit light headed we set off again.
We made it quite a way around the lake, and wanted to cross it to get back to the place we were staying. We had seen boat taxis, and had been quoted around 8000Ks to cross with our bikes. But of course, when we wanted to cross, there were no taxis in sight. We headed into a village, and caused a big commotion as we tried to ask how much for them to drive us across the lake. Luckily, the trusty young English speaker was beckoned, and we were the centre of attention as we negotiated a price with the chief. So, we arranged a price and headed with our bikes to the boat, they even laid out a mat for us to sit on and loaded the 4 of us and our bikes in. At first he had to paddle us clear of the reeds. Once out on the lake, for the first time, the ride was really nice and scenic. We saw the stilt villages and the local fishermen that row the oars of their boats with their legs, ie. leg rowers.
After our boat driver got a little lost we made it to where we wanted to be on the other side of the lake, unloaded the bikes and set out again. Matt stopped along the way for a Burmese haircut, the barber spoke English, but we hoped he didn't draw his inspiration from the 80's mullet hairstyle posters on his walls. He escaped with a pretty decent haircut for the price, and didn't end up like a monk...as was one style the barber suggested.
The next day we did the obligatory round the lake boat trip with 3 others including another Nicole from Australia a journalist with ABC radio who was really interesting. The boat had seats and was a bit more comfy than the day before, when we were on the floor, but not covered so in direct sunlight.
The day on the lake was long but good. We go to see the floating gardens where they grow tomatoes which were really cool, and get up close to village life. Little kids rowing little canoes in particular were really cute. Around the lake we got to see markets, pottery makers, silk factories, paya's, souveniour shops (after 1 we asked not to be taken to any more) and the last stop was Inden which was well worth the bit of a detour. To our surprise as we were speeding pass one of the many gift shops, we saw 2 "long neck" women sitting out the front, we asked our driver to do a U-turn and clicked away, but it felt very staged, completely artifical and we didn't venture into the shop, where they will apparently sing and dance if you buy something....strange. The sun had got to us al by the end of the day, and our lack of control over our destinations was wearing thin, at last it was time to head back.
Matt and Pierre organised to do the Inle Lake to Kalaw Trek the next day over 3 days and 2 nights. I decided to be lazy and take a bus and meet them there. I did however take a 5 hr walk around Inle with Nicole, the aussie I met the day before, and saw a meditiation cave, villages, a dam and got some great views over the lake. Then I jumped on a bus to Kalaw to met the boys.
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