Not the best ending to our time in Myanmar, we didn’t really enjoy Yangon that much (pagoda fatigue?? and the heat) and Inle was rather blighted with illness – I guess travellers gut was inevitable at some point. Still, the Lake is pretty, and we found a crazy cave monastery to explore so it wasn’t all bad!
Day 86 – Inle lake – time for travellers belly…
When we arrived at 5am, we negotiated a price with a man for the tuk tuk and he then asked us about boat trips. I’d read that finding a boat driver was easy but not this easy! The price was pretty good compared to what I’d seen online so we arranged it for the next day. Right now we needed to sleep!
Our hotel had other ideas (the Burmese do tend to get up at 5am so to them this was morning time I guess!) and made us sit in the lobby whilst they brought tea. We politely declined and headed to our room to sleep!
Chris had not been feeling great on the bus, and awoke with a dodgy tummy. He managed breakfast, which came with fruit, eggs, white bread and pancakes! Then we retreated back after and Chris had alie down. Hmmm. At least the room was light and airy so hanging there wasn’t too bad.
Aiden also had some issues, so when I suggested to them that we go for a walk around town the kids declined. I went by myself. Nyaung Shwe is a fairly small town so easy to walk around. We were staying on the NE corner on the edge, and I made my way pretty much all the way across and then most the way to the SW corner and back in an hour or so. The initial streets were lined with streams, in which the locals were washing clothes or bathing. All the houses had wooden platforms build down by the water. It was very peaceful. After crossing over the bottom of a lake on a bridge, I passed the main golden pagoda.
Turning into the centre soon after I found all the people, and the other tourists. The main streets are busy, as are the roads, and with the pavements somewhat questionable I ended up walking in the road, dodging people and cars.
Our football had popped and there was a football pitch opposite the hotel so I had a mission to buy a replacement. After checking out the market, I finally asked someone and was pointed in the direction of a more permanent shop on the next street.
After not buying a ball (they were not cheap!) I popped into the mini supermarket to see what sort of things they had. As well as the usual local snacks, Pringles and Oreo’s had made it into Myanmar (along with Coke). We hadn’t seen many Western brands anywhere. How have these companies made it in where others have failed?
As it was nearing 1pm I headed back to see what the family wanted to do about lunch. On the way I passed through the football field opposite the hotel, where there were volleyball and football tournaments going on. Having not seen a volleyball game before I wandered in to watch. I got a few odd looks, but enjoyed watching a few points. It’s a pretty exciting game!
The football outside seemed rather unfair; in some teams only a couple of players had shoes, and they were playing against players with studded football boots – ouch!
Back in the hotel room no-one was really hungry, so we ordered a fried rice from the hotel and ate that in the room. Chris was still mainly sleeping and in no state to go anywhere, but I wanted to explore, so I borrowed one of the hotel bikes (they only had two adult bikes left so I was glad the kids decided not to come), and headed for a Cave Monastery I’d read about on TripAdvisor.
I’ve never been great on a bike, and this one was pretty rubbish, but I managed to get out of town on the roads before hitting the foothills and dying. Nyaung Shwe and Inle Lake are sat in a valley between two ridges. The monastery I wanted to see was set partially up the side of the hill. With no gears I soon ran out of momentum in the heat and had to get off and walk.
Near the top of the hill I passed another tourist on a bike. I made some comment about needing gears and she told me that she’d tried to get to the cave monastery but hadn’t been able to find it. It turns out she (Laura from France) had only a vague paper map, whereas I had Maps.Me so I suggested she come with me and we find it together.
With my new companion we freewheeled down the hill, pushed hard up the next and made it to the monastery. When we parked the bikes two men, a monk and another chap came out and pointed up the stairs. They also wanted a picture!
The cave monastery itself was one of the weirdest paces I’ve been but also great! You have to remove your shoes before entering as it’s a monastery. The main paths are concrete and lit, taking you past many buddhas of all sizes, and some odd shapes!
Then there are some tunnels leading off which are basically caving. There’s no light, you have to squeeze through some of the passages and the floor is sticky slippery mud in places, but these various tunnels always end in a buddha with his protective serpent, or some cave paintings or something. Very strange! Laura was glad I was there with her to explore these tunnels – I don’t think she would have done it alone! The whole time I just kept thinking how much the kids would love it and vowed to bring them back here.
By the time we emerged the sun was starting to set. I left Laura where we met so I could head to a nearby lake and do some evening birding. The lake was lovely and the sky was filled with dragonflies. No birds though – as a birding trip it was an absolute failure! Where are all the ducks??
Back home, having survived my foray on a bike, the kids were up for some dinner so we headed into town to a place that does western food. With slightly fragile stomachs it seemed like a good excuse! Chris stayed in bed ☹.
Asiatico was great, it felt like we were in England again as it has a pub feel, with bikes and boats hanging from the ceiling and English music playing. The kids ordered pizza and lasagne, both of which were good! I had satay, which is probably Thai, but seeing as it’s also a staple pub food for me in England it was cheating a bit!
Sitting in such a familiar culture was actually very relaxing and I appreciated it more than I had thought I would. An enjoyable evening for the kids and I.
Day 87 – Inle Lake and Inn Dein day trip
Our boat trip was booked for this morning and luckily Chris was feeling a bit better. It was an early start, with an 8am pickup by our guide. Unfortunately, he turned out to not be our guide at all. We boarded a boat with a driver and then he pushed us off. Our driver seemed to speak no English, and certainly wasn’t interested in engaging us in conversation or telling us anything about where we were going and what we were seeing! Oh dear…
The boat was a long narrow one, in the style of the fishermen in the area, which meant we were sat one in front of the other. With the engine at the back very loud, we couldn’t really talk to eat other whilst driving.
It was a pleasant enough journey out onto the lake though, although there were many other boats all heading out down the river to the lake and then speeding down towards the bottom half of the lake where most of the attractions are.
There are a number of ‘fake fishermen’ who hang around at the top of the lake, balancing on their boats with fish nets and spears for photos. The tour boats slow down so you can take photos and then wait whilst the ‘fishermen’ come over and ask for payment. We’d read about this. When we arrived near them they were entertaining another boat so whether or not to take pictures was a moot point.
The lake was beautiful in the early morning light, and we soon came across some real fishermen.
We passed many beds of floating vegetation on the way, possibly gardens? Our driver didn’t comment and just sped along. Our first stop was a silversmith workshop. Our driver pulled up, gestured towards a door and we headed in. It’s a well oiled machine, with many boats arriving in, unloading and moving over to be moored at the side. Inside the workshop a lady approached us and was able to explain in broken English the process of getting the silver, melting it and purifying it (it is initially a mix of four metals, but by adding Nitric Acid and heating it, the other three metals are removed), and then showed us the various shapes made here. In the workshop there were workbenches with people shaping metal, making the silver jewellery. The lady then takes you through to the shop behind and stays with you whilst you look around, ‘helping’ you to make a purchase. They are at no point pushy, which is nice, but things were not cheap!
Back on the boat we passed some ‘floating’ houses, and many floating restaurants (the kids were upset that they are actually built on stilts, rather than actually floating!). Most of these are large buildings, not the small fishermen’s huts we were expecting.
We approached an area which was heaving with locals and tourists, a couple of long banks extended into the water and there were boats moored along the banks on both sides. Our driver pulled in and we walked down the bank to the market. In theory the market is for locals, rotating between five locations so the locals can buy food and other supplies every five days. It’s become rather a tourist trap now though and so the initial banks are lined with souvenir sellers, as are the first few rows of the market itself. We wandered further in to look at the locals area, and did buy a couple of things on the way out – the kids were desperate to get a silver fish and an elephant bracelet. Shopping is much more fun if you can actually buy something!
Our next stop was at the hand weaving factory. Here on Inle Lake they grow Lotus and extract the fibres to weave garments. This is worth more than silk apparently; it takes 4000 lotus plants to make one scarf! The process was the same as in the silver workshop. After being shown and talked through the lotus fibre extraction process, we were shown the ladies working the looms, and how they make the patterns on the skirts and longyi’s, before being taken into the shop. Everything here was very expensive so we left. The kids commented that they’d found these factories very interesting though, as had we.
We moved a little further on, and were dropped at the steps of a cigar factory. The tobacco is flavoured with banana, menthol, cinnamon and other things, and rolled up in a dried cheroot leaf with a maize leaf filter. We were offered a chance to smoke one but declined. Not about to start smoking now!
Next door was the restaurant where we were instructed to have lunch. It was literally on the lake so we couldn’t complain really. Although the boat motors going past were very loud and the view of the lake was marred by a massive posh resort with its lake bungalows (there are loads of these on the lake). It was a good chance to people watch though, with all sorts of things being transported around on the boats by locals. Some were so weighed down they looked like they might sink!
We had asked for an extra stop at Inn Dein after reading reviews. This involves a 30 minutes or more trip up a river and was the highlight of the tour. The river was much more picturesque than the lake, and there are wooden semi dams across the river with gaps of varying sizes, effectively creating mini waterfalls which you have to drive up. Very peaceful (except the engine!).
Inn Dein was touristy again and we were dropped off on the bank and gestured towards the bridge. Not sure where to go exactly, we wandered into a covered pathway, lined with more souvenir stalls. Lots of people were walking it so we assumed this was the way to go!
Inn Dein itself was an odd place. There is the main pagoda, but surrounding it are many smaller ones, most with plaques dedicated to families. Perhaps they have been sponsored or built with donations from families? These smaller pagodas vary in style, some are old, and some are just being built. Most contain a buddha.
Unfortunately, Aiden was not feeling great by this point, tired and with a stomach ache, so he stayed with Chris whilst Evie and I explored. We returned to find them being entertained by some tiny puppies!
We boarded the boat for the return journey down the river, and arrived at a monastery. This is known as the ‘Jumping Cat Monastery’ as there used to be cats here who jumped through hoops!? Now there are a couple of cats who seem to pretty much do nothing. The best thing about this monastery was the location, with nice views across the floating gardens and houses on the lake.
Our trip got a little confusing at this point. Our original guide was here and he took over the boat, leaving our driver behind. He sped off back up the lake and we realised too late that he wasn’t stopping anywhere else, just taking us back. We were meant to be going to another monastery, to visit the ‘long necked ladies’ and had paid to stay out to watch the sunset. When we entered the river back towards Nyaung Shwe we knew that none of this was going to happen, but with the motor so loud it would have been hard to communicate, and he was unlikely to take us all the way back down the lake now. We could try to get back out for the sunset, but Chris and Aiden were seriously flagging, so we let him take us back in and paid him a lower amount.
He then informed us that there was no drop off at the hotel included in the price. Chris was not impressed, but I knew that we had to walk in to town to get dinner anyway and this was the same distance. Not an issue really.
The kids were desperate to go back to Asiatico, and Chris had missed out the day before so we returned. Double lasagne for the kids and a pizza for Chris. There’s a pool table, and jenga, which entertained the kids whilst we waited for the food. We even helped a couple teach a lady from Hong Kong how to play pool before returning home to bed (carrying Aiden as he’d passed the point of being able to cope with anything ☹).
Day 88 – Maing Thauk floating village, the Htet Eain Gu cave monastery and another night bus
Aiden was not feeling good today, with a stomach ache and a bit weak and dizzy, so our plan to hire bikes and cycle to Maing Thauk around the side of the lake before walking up to the Monastery for the views was clearly not going to happen! I’m not sure Chris would have been up for it either. Instead we hired a tutuk driver to take us out. We felt very lazy but was super easy! We can just about fit the four of us in one tuktuk, normally with a kid on a lap, but today the driver gestured towards a metal side seat next to him which Chris perched on the whole day, half hanging out and unable to sit straight properly. Haha!
He drove us to Maing Thauk Monastery, a quiet monastery with many buildings built on different levels on the hillside. Chris and Aiden chilled on a seat whilst Evie and I walked about a bit and found an excellent viewpoint of the lake down another road. We went back and asked nicely and our lovely driver agreed to drive Aiden round there. It did end up being only Aiden as the hill was too steep for the poor tuktuk to get up with all of us in it! It’s good exercise right!?
After enjoying the view for a bit, we got back in for the drive down to the village itself. Maing Thauk has two parts, one half is built on the land, and the other half is a floating village built out on the water and surrounded by floating gardens. Connecting the two is a wooden bridge of around 600m long.
At the end you have no choice but to turn around or get in a boat. We were umming and aahing as Aiden was pretty beat, but we really wanted to go on a little paddled boat around the village so we went for it and were so glad. Even Aiden had fun 😊. The long boat, which we sat cross legged on the floor in, was paddled around the narrow waterways between the houses and gardens of this village.
Much better than on the motor boats on the lake, we could really see into the houses, see the tomatoes and other plants being grown, play with the floating plants and watch the many children playing with kites and paddling themselves around on the water. Can they swim? We hope so!
Our paddlers were a man and his son, who was picking water lilies and giving them to us; he even made a necklace out of one.
After a very peaceful twenty minutes we approached the dock and he offered to drive us back along the bridge as Aiden was ill. How nice 😊. Straight from the boat into the tuktuk, we headed for the Htet Eain Gu Caves again. Luckily (or conveniently…?) Aiden was feeling a lot better for these and was able to enjoy exploring the odd passages by torchlight, this time accompanied by our tuktuk driver who provided more light.
After this, we should have been hungry, but weren’t really, so we stopped a few hundred metres back down the hill at the Bamboo café.
Here we tried some of the cookies (chocolate and chilli) and banana cake with a strange aloe drink and watched the local children play at the school opposite. The children were clearly interested in Evie and Aiden. At one point the piece of string one was playing with blew off into a tree where it was too high for her to reach. We went to help but the string was stuck to the tree… wait it was tied around a dragonfly which was grabbing onto the tree! We pulled it down and it tried to fly. A dragonfly on string – a local toy seemingly. We returned it to the little girl who walked off with her pet happily.
We had to get back to the hotel so our driver ran us home. Aiden was knackered! We packed up and checked out and were given a whole bag of oranges which the main reception lady had brought in from her village for us. How nice!
The bus station was about 1.5km down the road and it was hot so we got a tuktuk (and all agreed it was because it was too far for Aiden to walk, which may have been true…). Our driver dropped us off at a restaurant so we could get some food before we boarded. The bus left at 5pm so we weren’t sure what would happen for dinner. Better safe than sorry!
The driver said to contact him when we were done eating and he’d take us to the bus stop included in what we’d already paid. It was not far, but we called him anyway. He said he was coming but actually took ages and we were worried that we were late to the point of thinking about walking ourselves. In the end it really didn’t matter as our bus was actually a 5.30pm bus and was late! We got to spend around an hour sat people watching, and Chris and Aiden joined a local working at the petrol station next door in playing football with a wicker ball.
Finally on the bus where super loud music was playing above every seat – some sort of Burmese karaoke channel. Coupled with the super close seats which Chris’s legs didn’t fit in, this started out as some form of torture and I wasn’t sure how long Chris could last – he was getting super stressed!! Luckily, at around 7pm they turned this off – phew! Time to get some sleep, we hope…
Day 89 – Arriving in Yangon on the night bus and Sule Pagoda
We finally arrived at 7am into Yangon, having spent 13 and a half hours on the bus as it was an hour and a half late by the time we arrived in Yangon. That was mainly because we got off to a super slow start, stopping regularly to load up with things like onions rather than people. The luggage space must have been rammed by the time we arrived! 3 hours in we had covered what should have taken an hour!
We needn’t have worried too much about dinner as the bus stopped an hour into the journey at a service station of sorts. We were all thrown off the bus for 30 minutes. Eating here involved picking a dish of ready made food from the table so service was quick! We just stood around waiting to be allowed back on again so the kids could go back to sleep.
At some point in the morning I needed the loo. The bus stopped and a lot of people got off without their bags so I assumed it was a toilet stop. Chris joined me on the side of the road. But we seemed to be in a queue for some sort of toll booth. The people out of the bus were walking around the booth, and the coach moved on without us. We followed the crowd like sheep until we were reunited with the bus and the sleeping kids again! I think they went through an x-ray machine, which may be why many people got off?? We did wonder whether we should have gotten the kids off (in hindsight although we had no way of knowing!), but not everyone got off. Confusing at 2am or whenever it was…
Arriving late wasn’t that bad for the kids and I, as we were generally sleeping and much preferred a 7am wake up to 5.30am! But Chris really didn’t fit on the bus and likes to have his legs straight, so his sleep had been poor and he just wanted off ☹.
When we finally disembarked we were still an hour from the centre of Yangon. Taxi drivers were hovering, initially asking 20k for the ride, although they dropped to 15k pretty quickly. We had looked on Grab and knew we could get one for 11k. When we showed ours this he agreed to match the price and we were off.
Yangon has a serious traffic problem and so it took ages for us to get to the hostel, much more than an hour. And then our taxi driver ‘didn’t have enough change’ so we ended up giving him more. Grrr.
Our hostel was located down a narrow one way street, with tall houses either side. These are presumably apartments. Many have ropes hanging down from windows and balconies with bags, or clips on the end, presumably to accept deliveries or get their shopping up??
We’d gone cheap in Yangon, and it was a mistake. Our room was the first one in i.e. it had a wall to the outside. No window but possibly a boarded up door which was paper thin. On the street outside our wall there were chairs i.e. the only outside space for anyone in the hostel. We heard many conversations in bed, but mainly the staff playing some fighting game on their phones at super volume. All we could here all the time was ‘the enemy has been slain’ very loudly! Add the lack of windows and Chris really felt like he was in prison. I was also not enjoying the lack of windows. The staff were nice enough to allow us to check in early though, and let us have breakfast (as it was still going when we arrived), but it was only white rice, white bread and butter (jam only comes out some days apparently).
Chris went to bed when we got there and slept for hours – he had most of a night to catch up on! The kids and I sat in the common area, where they had some tv on showing films. He woke up just before lunch so we walked out into the hot streets to get some food from the recommended 999 Shan Noodles restaurant, less than a ten minute walk away. This place is near the Sule Pagoda, which is one of the draws of Yangon, so the plan was to get lunch, and then wander around and see some of the buildings and sights around here, before finding dinner somewhere.
999 Shan Noodles was pretty good, and they actually take your order here on an i-pad which is very advanced compared to everything else we’ve seen. The food was cheap and tasty.
Sule Pagoda was a bit of a let down though. It’s in the middle of a busy roundabout and from the road you can only see some outer apartments. We didn’t want to pay to go in (pagoda fatigue) and so we headed up the street a bit. We could hear a man singing and some music and turned to see what looked like a float making its way down the side street. There was a singing man and a lady sat next to him looking very miserable. A number of police men were trying to guide it down the street amongst the parked cars, but progress was slow as the cars were parked so close. Maybe that was why she was upset.
We walked past and started to climb the pedestrian bridge over the road when a man started full on dancing to the singing. He was really going for it! The bridge offered good views of the road crossing and of the pagoda.
We were flagging, it was hot, we were tired and I was missing normal things. So when we walked past a cinema we all wished we could go in. Could we? We checked with them and the film was in English, and Frozen 2 was starting in 3 minutes. Perfect! Time to buy tickets and a drink – oh how I have missed syrup coke!
Pretending we were back at home for a couple of hours in the air conditioned cinema was just what we needed. That took us up to around dinner time, so we headed for the Sky Bistro, where you can eat on the 20th floor with great views of the city and the pagodas. It wasn’t bad, and the food was ok, but it was pricey compared to our usual budget. At least it was happy hour so Chris got a free beer!
Back home to try to sleep with the paper thin wall…
Day 90 – Pagodas and parks in hot sweaty Yangon
The kids and I were fine, but Chris did not sleep well. None of us were feeling amazing.
Yangon was calling though, so we got a taxi up to the Chauk That Gyi Pagoda, where there is a 65m reclining buddha. The size is impressive, and it’s in a building which fits it well this time, with much space to appreciate the statue from. I found it a little off putting that the statue appeared to be wearing makeup, with blue eyeshadow, very pronounced eyelashes, red lips and pink nails. Online sources say this was done to make it appear expressive. I find that at odds with the idea of the simplistic lifestyle and enlightenment personally.
One thing that makes this buddha special is the feet, which have the 108 engraved segments showing images representing the 108 lakshanas (auspicious characteristics) of the Buddha in red and gold.
Once we’d had our fill of this impressive statue we walked down the side down a covered path to another pagoda, Nga That Gyi, with a large 14m tall seated buddha.
As we walked onwards towards the park, we passed a monastery and heard a monk calling out to us. He said he was a monk anyway, although he was not dressed in the robes… His name was Alexander and he wanted to show us around his monastery. We followed him into the courtyard area to look at the small temple here, but it turns out this site is pretty large, with hundreds of monks in various buildings covering this hill. The monastery has been here for 140 years and has monks from many nationalities apparently.
As we wandered, Alexander shared with us some knowledge from Buddhism. We learned why there are often more than one Buddha image or collection box. There are 7 (or 8) ‘postures’ that the buddha can be seen in, each linked to a day of the week and an animal. You should donate to the posture for the day of the week that you were born.
As we walked we passed a monk with a child (his own??), who spoke English and was keen to chat to us briefly. He also wanted a picture!
After a while, our guide tired and had to have a sit down, he was 77 after all! This was when he asked for a donation towards keeping him as a monk. We don’t fully understand how much he needs, but the $10 (15k chat) he asked for seemed a bit much for 30 minutes of his time! The average daily wage is 5k chat so we felt that this was more than enough!
He was nice enough about it and led us back to the path towards Kandawgyi Lake, which has gardens on many sides. On the way down to the park we passed houses of many forms.
It was so hot in the park, we tried to stay in the shade where we could and looked for somewhere to eat. There weren’t many options but the ‘Best Restaurant’ on the lake shores had promise, and there was some sort of breeze there. It wasn’t great but the location was.
We wandered along the lake shore, stopping at viewpoints for the Karaweik Palace and Shwedagon Pagoda.
The kids played on the play equipment, which looked like it should be condemned, so they moved onto the gym equipment instead. Too hot for that in my book!
Along the road to Shwedagon I got my first proper stare, people looking at me as I walked by like they’d never seen anything like me before. Which was quite fun! I guess not many people walk around Yangon as we were, we’d certainly only seen locals in the park, and the tourists at the pagodas had some in by bus.
The Shwedagon Pagoda is one of the most famous pagodas in the world, and may be one of the oldest at around 2,600 years old. The 100m tall main pagoda is gold plated and topped by a stupa containing over 7,000 diamonds, rubies, topaz and sapphires, including a 76 carot diamond positioned to reflect the last rays of the setting sun.
The main stupa is surrounded by another 69 smaller ones, making it a pretty massive site to explore. We walked up the stairs climbing the hill on the Eastern side (we later found out that all the other sides have escalators!), which are ornate but lined with souvenir stalls like normal. Most seem to sell the same thing! As it was $10 each to enter, which we felt was a little steep, only I headed in.
Inside was one of the biggest displays of opulence I have ever seen, except perhaps the Vatican. There are so many stupas up here that some have to overlap each other, and all are intricately carved, many covered in gold. There was almost too much going on here to really appreciate any one piece, especially when rushing, and my favourite was perhaps the one around the tree in the corner haha. That’s probably because I would rather look at trees than gold anyday!
After making my way out we headed around the side and then down the Southern steps where we grabbed a ‘Grab’ taxi back to the hostel.
Out to an Indian restaurant for dinner to make a change. Myanmar food really hasn’t proved that inspiring ☹. At night the streets were packed with food stalls and other vendors, but also with locals. It was all rather vibrant and the cooler evening temperatures made everything much more bearable.
Day 91 – chilling in Yangon
After yet another night of poor sleep for Chris (he’s always been a light sleeper so the people passing and chatting outside kept him awake) we decided to have a chill day. Yangon was not proving to be a hit with any of us, and none of us had any real desire to go and explore it any more.
We needed a break, so I spent the day rejigging our Thailand travels so that we could have some days by the beach as our next stop.
999 Shan Noodles for lunch again as it’s good and cheap, although Chris had no appetite (not sure if it’s just lack of sleep or some sort of virus, but he’s not right…), with a quick explore of the Mahabandula Park. Yangon is known for its colonial buildings. Many of these have fallen into disrepair and we saw many once lovely buildings with trees growing out of them…
Yangon are supposedly trying to keep as many as possible in good condition as they are part of their history and this park has a few of them around the edge.
In the evening we wandered out in the other direction to a nicer restaurant for burgers for the kids and a chocolate lava cake, which was so nice we ordered a second one! Ah how I miss chocolate – and cake!
Time for one last night before we check out tomorrow and head to the airport. Fingers crossed for some sleep for Chris, he’s a right grump at the moment!
So it’s so long Myanmar. Moving on to Thailand in the next post. Our time in Yangon wasn’t as good as Bagan.