Yangon and Inle Lake, Burma

I am back in Bangkok today after 4 weeks in Burma, and will break up the posts so I don't go crazy trying to write about my amazing four weeks. I just got back from watching Rambo IV, which I purposely didn't watch before leaving so I wouldn't scare myself. I don't recommend it, its not a very good movie, even if you consider it just for the action.

To get to Burma, you must fly; tourists cannot enter overland. I arrived in Yangon and spent the first day walking around the city. They people in Burma are so friendly!! I had to keep stopping because people would ask "excuse my brother, where you from?", and it would begin a conversation. It was also eerie seeing so few tourists around. I would literally walk for hours and not see anyone. At some of the 'sights', and at the hotel you would see the tourists, but in between there was no one. Their tourist industry has really taken a hit since the demonstrations last September. I met up with a local woman my mother had met when she visited named Phyothaya, and her daughter Chan Chan. They are lovely people, and took me to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred religious site in Burma. It was incredible. It is so beautiful and is surrounded by other pagodas, shrines, and temples. After dark, you can see the diamonds at the top glittering and changing colour depending on the light. I ended up going back there again on my last day.



I left Yangon pretty quickly, and flew to Heho airstrip, which is kinda in the middle of nowhere. From their, I took a pickup with locals followed by a moto to reach Inle Lake, and stayed at the best guesthouse of my trip so far, Queen Inn. For seven bucks I had a huge room, hot water, and all you can eat breakfast and dinner. Inle lake itself is beautiful. It is famous for its floating villages and gardens. The gardens are staked to the bottom of the lake with bamboo poles and fertilized with lake bottom dredged up by the farmers. The inhabitants are also famous because they often row with one hand and one foot so as not to tire as easily and to get a better view of rocks in the shallow lake. It also has a very colourful market where I saw many diffrerent ethnicities trading their wares.





From Inle, I did a four day trek to a town called Kalaw. It was another great opportunity to see georgeous views and meet villagers, though it got a bit lonely with no other westerner to talk to in the evenings. The highlight for me was spending one night sleeping in a monastery. Waking up to the sound of novice monks chanting beats any alarm clock I've heard.