Friday 4th November
Today I started the 2 day/1 night trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake. The Singh family, who own the hotel and organise the trekking put me on the back of a motorcycle at 8:30am and I was whisked away out of town and out into the countryside. It was a fairly bumpy ride but the scenery was good, rolling green hills and little villages. I was dropped off at a seemingly random isolated store (actually Lamaing Village) but soon Harry Singh (our guide) arrived with a couple of trekkers (English David and French Amelie) who had started yesterday morning, and off we went.
We left the road and walked along tracks between the crop fields; it was a bit muddy at times but considering how bad it must be in the rainy season it was fine. As we came down into a small valley an old 4-carriage train was passing through and it looked like a part of a miniature railway set that kids, or train enthusiasts, might have.
The low rolling hills are divided into different coloured crop fields; greens, yellows and browns, like a multi-coloured patchwork quilt; very picturesque. We passed fields of chilli plants and ginger roots and canola flowers and sunflowers and mint. And we saw hundreds of bright red chilli peppers laid out on bamboo mats drying in the sun, outside houses made from bamboo and grass.
We stopped to watch some women harvesting rice; they cut the stalks using sickles and tie them together. One of the ladies came down to us and Harry said they had asked him for something for a headache. Harry opened his backpack and inside he has a medical kit which he brings along for such purposes; he handed the lady some paracetomal and from that moment I was sure that Harry is one of the good guys. Another time we stopped Harry gave some people rehydration tablets.
Some of the locals are animist, meaning they believe in spirits. Harry said they also believe that the world is flat and that I 'flew here over the great lakes'. They have no idea about America or the internet or such like. They think our cameras are 'magic boxes', which I suppose they are. They seemed happy for us to take photos of them; Harry does not take the same trekking route everyday so the locals don't have to pose every day.
We stopped in a small village for lunch. Harry always has lunch in the same village but at a different house so that he can share the wealth among the four houses in the village. We had veggie noodles and egg with avacado, onion and tomato on the side. After eating I went outside and played 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes' with the 3 young kids; presumably it is the first time they have played it but they were soon following my lead. I think they enjoyed it as much as I did, one of them fell over from laughing.
We passed along some small rice terraces and some wheat fields that looked like green velvet carpet. And I liked the big crab apple trees among the green wheat fields. We ate tiny amounts of Sichaun pepper berries (they smell like citronella); they made our mouths go numb. And we saw one dead snake and one alive snake, a green tree viper(?) which Harry said was "not super dangerous"!
Late afternoon we came to the top of a hill and there were two water buffalo bathing in a watering hole, looking very content. A bit further up we came to a point where we had a 360 degree view of the lovely green countryside. We stopped to watch the sunset and then walked on to the Hti Tain monastery, our lodgings for the night.
Harry led us inside the monastery and introduced us to the Head monk, who has been here for 35 years. There are about 15 novice monks, each about 11 years old. About 15 other trekkers also stayed at the monastery and makeshift bedrooms are set up using bamboo dividers. It is cold up there but they gave us 3 blankets each so it was fine. They gave us a Burmese-type dinner with rice, potato curry, soup, and veggies (including ochre, also called Ladies Fingers).
Saturday 5th November
I slept ok. At 5:15am we were woken by the tinkle of a small bell, and then, as expected, we heard the novice monks shuffle out of the sleeping quarters and begin their morning chants. It went for about an hour and you could tell they were trying even though it was so early and they must have been sleepy and cold; I managed to doze off a bit!
After pancakes and coffee for breakfast we went to say thanks and goodbye to the head monk. It is bad form to point your feet towards Buddha and likewise to a monk I suppose so we were all knelt down in front of him. He gave us the visitors book to sign and made and we placed a donatios inside. He insisted that we each be touching the visitors book as we handed it back to him and he held it too and and spoke to us in Burmese. Harry translated for us that he said 'I have met you in a previous life and will meet you in the next and the next until we reach Nirvarna'.
We started walking at 7:45am. Most of the time we were walking along a road but we could still enjoy the green hills on either side with the early morning mist still hovering the valley. There were very few vehicles on the road. We met a couple of young girls riding their water buffaloes to find water. They were weaing colourful headscarves and lashings of thanakha on their cheeks as sun-protection. There was a young boy with his Dad. The boy had an old coin on a string around his neck; it was a one rupee coin from 1904 with King Edward on one side.
We left the road and headed down a track. Harry asked us to guess which famous western rock star he had once taken on the trek. we had fun guessing, and imagining Boy George, Robert Smith or Bono on the same track; eventually we came up with the right answer: Robert Plant.
Further along we stopped to rest at a watering hole. There were four young kids there minding their water-buffalos while the beasts enjoyed cooling off in the water. It was quite a beautiful everyday scene, out in the peaceful Myanmar countryside. One of the kids was using her hands to throw water onto a water-buffalo's back to help it cool down; Harry said they do care about their water buffalos and give them names like we do our pets. Mind you, they also pull on the rope attached to the beast's nose if it needs directing.
We walked further downhill and stopped to look down on Inle Lake. At midday we arrived at Inthein, the end-point of the trek. It was a nice setting at a bend in the river, with the colourful longtail boats moored up, waiting for tourists. At a restaurant we had lunch of noodle soup (it was like laksa). Harry asked if we were still hungry, which I was, so he went and got us some more.
After paying the $5 government fee to enter the Inle Lake region (grrrr) we hopped into a motorised long-tail boat and headed along the river; there were marshes and villages on either side and a few bridges across. After about 20 minutes we came to Inle Lake which is about 13 miles long and, in places, 7 miles wide and is banked by low hills. We saw the traditional fishermen who paddle standing up in their small wooden boats, using an upright oar which they have wrapped inside one leg, thus leaving both hands free to handle the fishing net.
We arrived at the town Nyaungshwe at the north end of the lake at about 2pm after a very enjoyable couple of days. Harry showed us to our hotels where we collected our big bags which the Singh family had transported there for us from Kalaw. Having seen that Harry doubles as a mobile pharmacy for the locals along the trek I offered him whatever he thought might be useful from my first aid bag; he took most of the stuff (such as rehydration salts, bandages, plasters and paracetamol) which thankfully I have not needed to use. The trek itself was perfect and Harry was a great guide; I was kind of sorry to say goodbye to Harry as he made his way back to Kalaw.
In the evening I had dinner with Amelie and David and then back at the hotel reception the staff put the football on for me and left me to it.
Sunday 6th November
For breakfast I had two fried eggs, toast, butter and jam, papaya, a banana, avacado juice and coffee, included with the $7 room. After seeing the lake from the boat yesterday, today's mission was to take a bicycle around. Amelie and I cycled along the western side for a couple of kms past some villages and stopping to take pictures of the red flowers (hyacinths?) on the water. We came to a steep broken road so turned around as Amelie didn't have much time. Amelie went to catch her bus out of town and I went to a cafe and ate some pastries containing soy bean paste and drank milk tea; then I headed to the east side of the lake.
I headed down a narrow lane and then came to an isolated monastery in a clearing. There were some ancient crumbling stupas outside and a seated statue with no head, the head was balancing on the statue's knee. I had a brief chat with the friendly monk (the only person there). He said the stupas were 300 years old but they looked older to me. I asked him what he was up to and he said he was reading books about meditation so I apologised for disturbing him!
I carried on until I came to the main road and then headed south. It was fun bombing along the main road, looking for a side road down to the lake, which I found in the village of Maing Thauk. So after some noodles I headed down to the lake, and was joined by the Dutch couple from breakfast so we hired a boat to take us and our bikes across the lake. We stopped at a cafe on the water after a short while and, for an additional fee, the boat driver's wife took us on a smaller wooden canoe, around her water village. I accepted the offer of use of a chinese fisherman's hat against the strong sun.
The lady paddled the canoe with her leg, like the fishermen do. Most of the houses in the water village are of course raised up on stilts. As we drifted along the water channels among the reeds we could see tomato plants growing on the surface of the water and below the water we could see the soil the tomatoes were growing in. The water was cool to the touch and quite clear and the kids enjoyed swimming around. As we went by the locals seemed welcoming and waved and smiled and the kids called out 'ta ta'.
We went back to the cafe and got back on to the motorised boat and headed across the centre of the lake, passing a dunked balloon from the balloon festival. From Kaung Daing we cycled north and ended up going down the hill where Amelie and I had turned around in the morning. We arrived back in town around 4pm.
I had a bit of a cycle around the town and met Japanese Kage and he showed me a place where I might be able to get cheap transport to the balloon festival. The lady there was cool and she said that they need more people for the pick-up (taxi) to the festival and then the price would be lower. I said 'you need a sign outside so people know you have a pick-up', and she gave me a big whiteboard and marker pen and said 'can you write for me', so I did and we hung it up and outside the shop. I then headed back to the hotel, David came back and said 'Hey there is a sign outside a shop saying they have a cheap pick-up to the balloon festival', so the sign works!
I got dinner at a foodstall in the main street; Shan noodle with thick cream of tofu with veggies, it was great. Walked around to a tea shop and watched the football, then came back to the hotel and watched the second game in reception with the hotel manager and a couple of his friends.
Today I started the 2 day/1 night trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake. The Singh family, who own the hotel and organise the trekking put me on the back of a motorcycle at 8:30am and I was whisked away out of town and out into the countryside. It was a fairly bumpy ride but the scenery was good, rolling green hills and little villages. I was dropped off at a seemingly random isolated store (actually Lamaing Village) but soon Harry Singh (our guide) arrived with a couple of trekkers (English David and French Amelie) who had started yesterday morning, and off we went.
We left the road and walked along tracks between the crop fields; it was a bit muddy at times but considering how bad it must be in the rainy season it was fine. As we came down into a small valley an old 4-carriage train was passing through and it looked like a part of a miniature railway set that kids, or train enthusiasts, might have.
The low rolling hills are divided into different coloured crop fields; greens, yellows and browns, like a multi-coloured patchwork quilt; very picturesque. We passed fields of chilli plants and ginger roots and canola flowers and sunflowers and mint. And we saw hundreds of bright red chilli peppers laid out on bamboo mats drying in the sun, outside houses made from bamboo and grass.
We stopped to watch some women harvesting rice; they cut the stalks using sickles and tie them together. One of the ladies came down to us and Harry said they had asked him for something for a headache. Harry opened his backpack and inside he has a medical kit which he brings along for such purposes; he handed the lady some paracetomal and from that moment I was sure that Harry is one of the good guys. Another time we stopped Harry gave some people rehydration tablets.
Some of the locals are animist, meaning they believe in spirits. Harry said they also believe that the world is flat and that I 'flew here over the great lakes'. They have no idea about America or the internet or such like. They think our cameras are 'magic boxes', which I suppose they are. They seemed happy for us to take photos of them; Harry does not take the same trekking route everyday so the locals don't have to pose every day.
We stopped in a small village for lunch. Harry always has lunch in the same village but at a different house so that he can share the wealth among the four houses in the village. We had veggie noodles and egg with avacado, onion and tomato on the side. After eating I went outside and played 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes' with the 3 young kids; presumably it is the first time they have played it but they were soon following my lead. I think they enjoyed it as much as I did, one of them fell over from laughing.
We passed along some small rice terraces and some wheat fields that looked like green velvet carpet. And I liked the big crab apple trees among the green wheat fields. We ate tiny amounts of Sichaun pepper berries (they smell like citronella); they made our mouths go numb. And we saw one dead snake and one alive snake, a green tree viper(?) which Harry said was "not super dangerous"!
Late afternoon we came to the top of a hill and there were two water buffalo bathing in a watering hole, looking very content. A bit further up we came to a point where we had a 360 degree view of the lovely green countryside. We stopped to watch the sunset and then walked on to the Hti Tain monastery, our lodgings for the night.
Harry led us inside the monastery and introduced us to the Head monk, who has been here for 35 years. There are about 15 novice monks, each about 11 years old. About 15 other trekkers also stayed at the monastery and makeshift bedrooms are set up using bamboo dividers. It is cold up there but they gave us 3 blankets each so it was fine. They gave us a Burmese-type dinner with rice, potato curry, soup, and veggies (including ochre, also called Ladies Fingers).
Saturday 5th November
I slept ok. At 5:15am we were woken by the tinkle of a small bell, and then, as expected, we heard the novice monks shuffle out of the sleeping quarters and begin their morning chants. It went for about an hour and you could tell they were trying even though it was so early and they must have been sleepy and cold; I managed to doze off a bit!
After pancakes and coffee for breakfast we went to say thanks and goodbye to the head monk. It is bad form to point your feet towards Buddha and likewise to a monk I suppose so we were all knelt down in front of him. He gave us the visitors book to sign and made and we placed a donatios inside. He insisted that we each be touching the visitors book as we handed it back to him and he held it too and and spoke to us in Burmese. Harry translated for us that he said 'I have met you in a previous life and will meet you in the next and the next until we reach Nirvarna'.
We started walking at 7:45am. Most of the time we were walking along a road but we could still enjoy the green hills on either side with the early morning mist still hovering the valley. There were very few vehicles on the road. We met a couple of young girls riding their water buffaloes to find water. They were weaing colourful headscarves and lashings of thanakha on their cheeks as sun-protection. There was a young boy with his Dad. The boy had an old coin on a string around his neck; it was a one rupee coin from 1904 with King Edward on one side.
We left the road and headed down a track. Harry asked us to guess which famous western rock star he had once taken on the trek. we had fun guessing, and imagining Boy George, Robert Smith or Bono on the same track; eventually we came up with the right answer: Robert Plant.
Further along we stopped to rest at a watering hole. There were four young kids there minding their water-buffalos while the beasts enjoyed cooling off in the water. It was quite a beautiful everyday scene, out in the peaceful Myanmar countryside. One of the kids was using her hands to throw water onto a water-buffalo's back to help it cool down; Harry said they do care about their water buffalos and give them names like we do our pets. Mind you, they also pull on the rope attached to the beast's nose if it needs directing.
We walked further downhill and stopped to look down on Inle Lake. At midday we arrived at Inthein, the end-point of the trek. It was a nice setting at a bend in the river, with the colourful longtail boats moored up, waiting for tourists. At a restaurant we had lunch of noodle soup (it was like laksa). Harry asked if we were still hungry, which I was, so he went and got us some more.
After paying the $5 government fee to enter the Inle Lake region (grrrr) we hopped into a motorised long-tail boat and headed along the river; there were marshes and villages on either side and a few bridges across. After about 20 minutes we came to Inle Lake which is about 13 miles long and, in places, 7 miles wide and is banked by low hills. We saw the traditional fishermen who paddle standing up in their small wooden boats, using an upright oar which they have wrapped inside one leg, thus leaving both hands free to handle the fishing net.
We arrived at the town Nyaungshwe at the north end of the lake at about 2pm after a very enjoyable couple of days. Harry showed us to our hotels where we collected our big bags which the Singh family had transported there for us from Kalaw. Having seen that Harry doubles as a mobile pharmacy for the locals along the trek I offered him whatever he thought might be useful from my first aid bag; he took most of the stuff (such as rehydration salts, bandages, plasters and paracetamol) which thankfully I have not needed to use. The trek itself was perfect and Harry was a great guide; I was kind of sorry to say goodbye to Harry as he made his way back to Kalaw.
In the evening I had dinner with Amelie and David and then back at the hotel reception the staff put the football on for me and left me to it.
Sunday 6th November
For breakfast I had two fried eggs, toast, butter and jam, papaya, a banana, avacado juice and coffee, included with the $7 room. After seeing the lake from the boat yesterday, today's mission was to take a bicycle around. Amelie and I cycled along the western side for a couple of kms past some villages and stopping to take pictures of the red flowers (hyacinths?) on the water. We came to a steep broken road so turned around as Amelie didn't have much time. Amelie went to catch her bus out of town and I went to a cafe and ate some pastries containing soy bean paste and drank milk tea; then I headed to the east side of the lake.
I headed down a narrow lane and then came to an isolated monastery in a clearing. There were some ancient crumbling stupas outside and a seated statue with no head, the head was balancing on the statue's knee. I had a brief chat with the friendly monk (the only person there). He said the stupas were 300 years old but they looked older to me. I asked him what he was up to and he said he was reading books about meditation so I apologised for disturbing him!
I carried on until I came to the main road and then headed south. It was fun bombing along the main road, looking for a side road down to the lake, which I found in the village of Maing Thauk. So after some noodles I headed down to the lake, and was joined by the Dutch couple from breakfast so we hired a boat to take us and our bikes across the lake. We stopped at a cafe on the water after a short while and, for an additional fee, the boat driver's wife took us on a smaller wooden canoe, around her water village. I accepted the offer of use of a chinese fisherman's hat against the strong sun.
The lady paddled the canoe with her leg, like the fishermen do. Most of the houses in the water village are of course raised up on stilts. As we drifted along the water channels among the reeds we could see tomato plants growing on the surface of the water and below the water we could see the soil the tomatoes were growing in. The water was cool to the touch and quite clear and the kids enjoyed swimming around. As we went by the locals seemed welcoming and waved and smiled and the kids called out 'ta ta'.
We went back to the cafe and got back on to the motorised boat and headed across the centre of the lake, passing a dunked balloon from the balloon festival. From Kaung Daing we cycled north and ended up going down the hill where Amelie and I had turned around in the morning. We arrived back in town around 4pm.
I had a bit of a cycle around the town and met Japanese Kage and he showed me a place where I might be able to get cheap transport to the balloon festival. The lady there was cool and she said that they need more people for the pick-up (taxi) to the festival and then the price would be lower. I said 'you need a sign outside so people know you have a pick-up', and she gave me a big whiteboard and marker pen and said 'can you write for me', so I did and we hung it up and outside the shop. I then headed back to the hotel, David came back and said 'Hey there is a sign outside a shop saying they have a cheap pick-up to the balloon festival', so the sign works!
I got dinner at a foodstall in the main street; Shan noodle with thick cream of tofu with veggies, it was great. Walked around to a tea shop and watched the football, then came back to the hotel and watched the second game in reception with the hotel manager and a couple of his friends.
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