Waterworld!

Farming on Inle Lake

To complete the tourist trail around Myanmar we headed east and into the mountains to visit Lake Inle.  Unfortunately the luxury bus from Bagan to the lake was fully booked and we left our hotel braced for the worst on Myanmar’s notorious public transport services.  Although the bus was filthy it was better than we had feared but as we loaded the bags the luxury bus pulled up alongside us to let on the smiling faces of those organised enough to have booked in advance.  I hated them all.  Still, we set off on time complete with a fuzzy Chinese copy of Mission Impossible blaring through the speakers and we were even treated to some tea time entertainment in the service station car park by some very strange Australian girls preforming a vigorous stretching routine, much to the confusion of the locals who gathered to stare at the strange display.  We continued east and climbed into the mountains along a winding road, starved of sleep as the driver insisted on loudly playing Thai pop music and growing a little concerned by the sheer drop that had appeared at the side of the road.  Eventually we pulled up at 3am into Nyaaung Shwe, a small town 5km from the lake which was to be our home for the next 3 days.  After driving around most of the town in a tuc- tuc dropping others off we finally arrived at the wonderfully named Lady Princess Hotel and much to our relief we were able to check in and get some much needed sleep.

The Buddhist School

Lacking motivation after the tiring journey the following day was largely spent exploring the town and sorting out a few jobs for Bangkok. Nyaaung Shwe and Inle Lake are in the heart of Shan State, one of the poorest regions in Myanmar and home to some of the most remote ethnic communities that until recently (2012) had been at war with the government.  The town itself is made up of poor quality, low rise houses and its dusty streets were centred around a sprawling central market that was built from crumbling wooden stalls and plastic sheets.  It was clearly the economic hub of the surrounding area as local farmers and fisherman sold their produce whilst a few entrepreneurs tried to sell to the growing number of tourists’ souvenirs at inflated prices.  A handful of small restaurants and tour operators had set up business alongside the main road that ran down to a small jetty from which a canal connected the town to the lake. We sat and ate some local Shan noodles for less than a dollar and watched the world go by, sheltering from the midday sun.  After lunch we strolled alongside one of the streams running through the town where women were washing their clothes next to a huge monastery which was broadcasting through its crackling megaphones young monks chanting. Although this was initially novel to us every time we walked past it over the next few days, no matter what the time, the chanting was still playing full blast across the stream and into the houses nearby.  Quite how the locals kept their sanity was a mystery to us.

Waterworld!

The main purpose of our trip was to hire a boat for the day to visit some of the local towns and see some of the crafts that were manufactured around the lake.  Slightly chilly in the mountain air we set off on a narrow motorised water taxi, skimming across the very shallow lake past the local fisherman who were punting in their small canoes.  The lake is a product of British colonialism and the tribes have utilised the shallow waters to build villages that are built entirely on stilts and set up agricultural strips of raised land that fan out across the lake.  As we weaved in and out of the narrow waterways crops rose up on either side of us. In the first village we meandered around a market that sold all manner of tourist junk from dilapidated Buddhist calendars to hand made silver trinkets made in the  workshop at the end of town.   We did however sample some local pancakes and tamarind brittle that started to make my eyes twirl with all the sugar.   Drifting threw the small villages was like a scene taken straight from Waterworld as children went to school on boats, women rowed the shopping home and men waded in the water, harvesting crops and building up new embankments to grow more produce.  

Making thread from the Lotus plant

The water taxis are private for the day and are very cheap as they take you to every craft making workshop around the lake in the hope of gaining commission. Despite making our intention to buy nothing abundantly clear our driver courageously persisted in the face of adversity to stop at each workshop in the different villages.  We took in everything from paper making to a blacksmiths and most things in between.  The most impressive craft was the weaving of a thread that had been painstakingly extracted from the stems thousands of lotus flowers from the lake, dyed and then woven with local silk to make clothes.  Seeing how the locals had adapted to the environment and were now developing their own tourism despite the poverty of the area and limited government support was remarkable and the day was a great insight into the Shan community. 

View from Kandawgyi Lake

After a hectic two weeks on the road the intense heat became too oppressive and despite our best intentions the planned excursion on push bikes around the lake never materialised.  Our final day was spent relaxing in the shade of the wooden gazebo (after a minor panic over my credit card not working) and we headed back that night to Yangon and the T Venus Hostel where we had spent our first few nights in Myanmar.  Having seen the major sights of the city we spent the morning strolling around Kandawgyi Lake, an artificial reservoir set under the glittering Shwedagon pagoda.  Fittingly we left Myanmar to the airport in a taxi playing the morning Buddhist prayers and sat next to a young women meditating on the plane next to us.  Unfortunately this did nothing to calm my fear of flying and it must have looked fairly ridiculous as the women started to chant next to me as I clutched my Saint Christopher charm with white knuckles for the duration of the flight.

Myanmar was without doubt one of the most interesting countries I have ever visited and has certainly been a high point of the trip.  However despite the gentle and spiritual people we encountered the country is experiencing problems as increased democracy and freedom have encouraged some locals to look for people to blame for their economic plight.  This has led to a movement known as the 969, led by a Buddhist monk who preaches about the infiltration of Muslims and the threat they pose to Myanmar’s traditional Buddhist culture which has caused some deadly clashes in communities.  Rapid foreign investment due to the lifting of sanctions is also changing some of the unique history that still remains in the country as colonial buildings are destroyed and western culture seeps into the previously isolated country eroding ancient traditions.  It is also a moral dilemma paying to visit sights such as Bagan as the money is probably spent funding the world’s longest running civil war that is still raging in the Kachin state and parts of the Shan territory.  The morning we left nearly 200 political prisoners were released from the infamous Insein prison and we left hoping that for the people of Myanmar democracy and freedom comes quickly and peacefully.