Good morning

If I hadn't known before we came to Inle Lake I do now know it is ranked in Myanmar's top five tourist destinations which means we have been joined by many many other tourists as we zip around the lake in our long-tailed Intha boat.

And if I hadn't known that Myanmar is essentially a vassal state of China I can tell that must be so by the percentage of Chinese tourists versus others. And among us others the Europeans far out number folks from North America. Our hotel manager confirmed that in a conversation...mostly French and German...only the odd Canadian or American. Not only that he told us we hit the 2 week down period of the winter tourist season...December 1-15. Wow...must be mayhem on the lake come January.

Other than Juanita, Jim and Lenore you probably haven't a clue there is a lake by this name and where it is. I didn't until all three said we must not go to Myanmar and miss Inle Lake. The lake is in the Shan State in Eastern Myanmar. We flew here in 30 minutes south east from Mandalay and when we leave today it is about an hour south to Yangon. So far I haven't found a decent map.

Eastern Myanmar is an upland area, the Shan Plateau, divided by valleys. The Inle Lake lies within one of these valleys. Once the forest cover of the plateau was teak, now denuded after many years of stripping the forest cover away. The area is populated by many ethnic minority groups, mostly ethnic Shan-Thai speaking descendants of the tribes who accompanied Kublai Khan on his 13th century invasion of the Bagan Empire....just a little tie in to our Central Asian "Stans" trip a few years ago. The guy really got around we are finding. There is another ethnic group farming the land who we visited for lunch today, the Danu. There are in fact many ethnic minorities in Myanmar (27 maybe), but we are hearing internationally only about the Muslim minority in the west.

The lake is 32 km long and 5 km wide. It has 200 settlements and a population of 150,000 around its edges...a number of whom live on floating islands.

We have stayed where most tourists stay..on Inle Lake. We have not ventured to the north east, "the golden triangle"--where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet and where the poppies are grown and the drug cartels rule. We have seen yellow rape seed fields which is the crop the world is trying to introduce as the option for growing poppies. Not a big seller our guide told us.

We have spent four nights on the lake at the Inle Lake Resort, built in the early 2000's as one of the first out I would think...must be owned by a crony. It is a lovely great heap of buildings and cottages mostly with teak carvings and lined with the lovely 50 gallon pots like we just saw being fired in Nwe Nyein Village, our last stop on the Irrawaddy. The bamboo and trees around the complex are quite amazing. When Gary was asked by our waiter which room we were in...he replied..."the one near the Thai border"....meaning the resort is spread out over a large area and you walk teak boardwalks to the dock or the dining room. Gary has found the SPA is not far from our room and great massages.

The first two days we got picked up by our guide in a "long-tail" boat to zip down to the southern end of the lake. These boats are about 50 ft long, narrow...you sit in a row....and they have noisy 25 hp motors. Plumes of spray follow you...and you look about and see there is a highway of plumes of sprays all heading toward the market at the end of the lake. The market we would recommend giving a miss...more tourists than anyone else; more souvenir stalls than vegetables.

What we loved was the quiet calm morning when we waved our boat to stop and we drifted around the fishermen who were dropping nets and leg rowing. The water was glassy, reflecting the occasional cloud, the green mountains and the fishermen. Our photos do not approach the beauty of reality.

I thought the leg rowers were like a ballet. The lake is very shallow and clear. By propelling their boats from the bow they can watch for approaching patches of tangled weeds and tell-tale bubbles of fish. With only one limb engaged in providing locomotion...the leg...the fisherman can push home the conical shaped net. I did spot one being dropped into the water...so it wasn't all just for the tourists hovering about like they do looking for whales.

However the lake has suffered a drastic change in ph, fewer fish so most of the fishermen seemed to be using regular nets. We spent quite a lot of time trying to get just the right photo...we came close but never succeeded. Except this morning as we were departing, in the early morning fog I got an image that satisfies me...meaning I can look at it and remember the moment. But I do know he was into posing for the tourist...me!

We also spent time going around the Intha stilt villages built around the southern end of the lake. It reminds one of Venice where the canals are the main roads and transportation is by boat. The buildings varied from very old and shabby to new riveted homes in maroon with yellow shutters. All sported a bright orange satellite dish. Then of course there were lotus and silk weaving workshops as well as watching how fast one person can make a cheroot...700 a day.

Gary and I were more interested in how the floating islands are created and work than visiting the Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda or the Nga Phe Kyaung Monastery...so I can't report on them. But we can tell you that the islands are created by matting down weeds close to shore, adding earth, more material and when ready in about 18 months, cutting off sections a couple meters wide and floating it out to a spot, tying it down to bamboo poles and then adding earth and sea weed for fertilizer...presto you can then grow mostly tomatoes, some marrows, beans, cucumbers etc. To cultivate, weed or harvest you just pole your boat along between the rows...much like a raised bed.

The floating islands have become so,popular and numerous that they have changed the nature of the lake and now no new ones are permitted and reclamation action is being taken...think much fertilizer into the water, limited oxygen for the water, a smaller lake surface and fewer fish. Add the silt pouring down from the denuded hills and you have a problem with a shallow lake, even if fed by 20 odd rivers/streams draining into it. When we arrived back to depart this morning we came across the tomato harvest being sorted and getting boxed for shipment to Yangon.

We did travel down the lake and up one of the rivers to the Shwe Inthein stupa complex where we found 1,054 slender spired stupas packed onto a hill above Inthein. Clearly they went on a building craze during the 17th and 18th centuries. We had to walk up a long covered stairway lined with stalls...which is where I went crazy buying scarves. They were so colourful, beautiful and who could resist. The stupas..just in their sheer number were impressive. The crush of tourists seemed to spread out...except when it came to locating your boat and having it manoeuvre to pick you up again.

Thursday we sadly gave up zipping up and down the lake which we thought was terrific fun to a drive north and west to the Pindaya Caves where we found another 8,000 guided Buddhas in a complex of three caverns in a steep hillside. These are from the late 1700's and come in a large variety of sizes and styles, but again the sheer number make an impact, even on a Buddha tired traveller. Fortunately we skipped the stiff uphill walk and drove part way, walked some steps, took an elevator and then walked into a Buddha filled cave. Besides being impressed by another Buddha building frenzy the views over the valley from the top were lovely.

As our last sight seeing day it was terrific...mostly because the ride through countryside was spectacular...a patchwork of crops on rolling red earth hills. Oxen carts lumbering along, road crews out working to widen the single lane road, through little villages when the kids in green and white were off school for lunch or at the end of the day. We had lunch in the village of Thayetpyar, also known as Fita-Mango Village at a local home, around a low table. Delicious Myanmar lunch, after which I was delighted to be able to stand again.

Then a walk with our hostess around town, ending up at the local primary school where the little boys all reminded me of Reggie with their mischievous grins. I took some videos...no one was still enough for even a high speed shutter. Gary, of course, spent time talking photos and showing the kids the photos which they all seemed to think was a hoot. We clearly disrupted the afternoon for a while. We left a donation with our hostess to be given to the school for whatever they need the most.

We again begged off the visit to the Monastary for a blessing as well as to the village with another weaving workshop. We did take in Shan paper making and umbrella construction...I was relieved...there was nothing we could purchase that would remotely fit in our luggage. As it is before we got through the local town we made a stop to buy a bag we can pile all Doreen's scarves etc in to get it back to Yangon. There we already have another gym bag bought for the trip home!

Time to say good night. We fly off to Yangon in the morning, spend half a day repacking for the homeward flight, go for a drink at the Strand Hotel to see how things once were for a few British folks and if we have any energy left may go back for sunset at the Shwedagon Pagoda.

The wifi was down last night so I am sitting in the midst of a mass of people at the He Ho Airport...fog this morning has delayed all the flights. Every once in a while someone marches up and down with a megaphone shouting something totally unintelligible, but fortunately they are holding a black board sign with flights and times marked on it. Good thing we have the whole day to get to Yangon...looks like it may take that long!

Thanks for joining me on our trip around the world. It was great fun for us...it is hard to remember we were not long ago in Rome, then the Suez Canal, Petra, Dubai, Cochin...onto Australia and now completing three weeks in Myanmar. Myanmar has been the high light as I am sure you could tell...and it is the people who have made such an impact. With everything they have lived through and the continuing difficult times they are the most friendly, get on with it all folks we have met. As Gary said in his little speech on the last night on the Pandaw 2..."We have been to over 70 countries and these have been the best two weeks we have been on a holiday". There was universal applause from our group.

And a special thank you to those of you who made comments from time to time...I received them and thought..oh, Margaret is reading this...so is Marlyn since she complained she didn't receive it, and Anne, and Juanita and Barb. And a new reader Mel, a friend of Gary said some lovely things...especially since he doesn't really even know me. I knew our family sort of felt bound to follow along occasionally...and Val who also let me know she was trying to figure out what we had done first, second or third...

The blog did go on and on as we went on and on. And it is highly personal...I only tell you about what I like and/or am feeling...and not too many downs. But in 76 days there really has been only one...when we had to disembark from the Pandaw 2...we would happily have started back down with them to Yangon from Mandalay.

And a very special thanks to Dan Fairchhild who must have spent hours reading the blog and looking at the. Images and then commenting...he is a traveller and a photographer...if you hadn't guessed. He loves all Gary's portraits of the Myanmar people. I might put them all up in one blog entitled "The People of Myanmar".

Hope all is well with you. In our hotel in Yangon tonight there are three lighted Christmas trees and Christmas elevator songs are playing...that seems interesting to us. Oh yes and snowmen sprayed all over the place. But from my window I have been taking photos of the magnificent
Shwedagon Pagoda.

Have a Merry Christmas, or if you prefer...Happy Holidays. Have to admit I am dreading the snow! And a Happy Birthday to Lois this fine December 8...oops I think it is now the 9th this is being posted...belated wishes.

Love Doreen