We got 100s and had a fabulous two nights at Inle Lake!
True to our typical travelling style, we squashed a rake of activities into our few days in the country, detemined to see EVERYthing!! So of course we arrived to our final destination of the itinerary, to that of Inle Lake a la night bus!
It was absolutely freezing when we arrived in the early hours of the next morning – we were lured into a realtively open air hut where a mama, papa, kids the whole lot it seemed were up with hours and ready for the day despite it being the crack of dawn and noone else really about! I gathered they opened for business to suit the arrival of the overnight buses – well satisifed in supporting this hard-working enterprising family I said I’ll have one of everything on the menu and support your business gladly thank you very much.
So the menu went something like this – deep fried curly dough, deep fried long dough, or deep fried dough. So we had a “mix” and warmed ourselves up with the heat from the grease :D:D
We were of course escorted from the restaurant to the jetty which would bring us along the lake to our accommodation which was further up the lake, only accessible by boat. The escort entourage was of course comprising of a host of young boys, aged about 15 or so, all eager to be the one who got the final tip from us for being our guide to the jetty!! We of course were feeling generous given the enthusiasm of these fellas, so we were like the celebs of the village when we produced a reward for each member of the “guard of honour” – o the life of the giving celebrity!! We were gently carted onto the currach and our no english speaking boat driver used his feet and a paddle to manoeuvre us slowly into the abyss – that of the wide open expanse of Inle Lake. It was fabulous to just be carted along so slowly, the sun was beaming down, there was a crisp chill in the air and of course the fishermen kindly came out in their droves to provide us with much needed photo opportunities – o it really did live up to everything we had read about, pictured and imagined!
Once we got to our accommodation, our boat driver guy of course was only mad to “hang onto” us and bring us on all the tours and journeys we would like to go on during our stay at Inle Lake – sensing the time almost upon us for us to be going officially home to Ireland, we for once took the first offer price and agreed. Wow, what a treat to not have to haggle for once – Mairead was taking one day off from having game face on at all times, caveat emptor was being put to bed. Now I was enthrusting the next 24 hours of sightseeing at any cost to this lovely gentille no- English speaking boat manoveur. Was I on holidays?!!! :D:D:D I joke, I joke, I joke..
So off we went – we called to different live villages of the lake – all with the houses of stilts of course. Really cool to see.
We called to the “temple” of one of the villages – bizarre to think a thing of such glory and beauty built on stilts to a degree and right on the lake. Life goes on. Lake or not!
Next up was the market – I was seeing that this deep fried dough snack was very popular, a la “super size” – jees, Myanmar were a few centuries away from the food pyramid by the looks of it!! How bad, we were loving that this much deep fried dough was socially acceptable snacking casually of a Monday at 10am while you were at the market for your dinner ingredients :D:D
And then it was just the watching of daily life on the lake and taking it all in..
Further up the lake, we got left off at more of the pilgrimmage site of Inle Lake – and again, the amount of stupas and pagodas to be found! A beautifually mosaiced tiled stair way/walk way leads you uphill to this gold plated feast of stupas! The grandeur en mass up there was just something else.
And the people washing their clothes in the dirty water at the foot of the walkway.
Where the buffalos had a bathe and god knows what else.
It’s the tale of two cities as always with these South East Asia destinations – the poverty of today, engulfed in the riches of the past.
It was the most pleasant of boat rides, us having to do nothing and just observe and people watch. The whole thing was fascinating and humbling, absolutely unforgettable.
We were of course then the poxy westerners with our glorious accommodation right in the sunset trap with the view out onto the. Absolutely magnificent.
How do you pronounce your name? 