Day 11-12: Vibes, Inle Lake Fishermen, Power of a Smile

The travel blog has a lot of day to day activities, but it hasn't been capturing the general feel and the small day to day sights we see as we live life out here. As such, please keep the following keywords in mind when visualizing anything we are doing:

quick smiles from locals, exchanging greetings, taking pictures, crazy wiring on electrical poles, stray dogs, garbage piles, diesel, low-power scooters, babies, cats, dust, people commenting on my lungi (traditional Burmese dress, see picture below), street restaurants, other tourists, conversations with no English and sign language, confusion, men with Tatoos, men spitting red from beetle nut, flip flops, heat (35 degrees), humidity, sweat, water bottles, making plans with other backpackers, tea, rice, non-spicy curry, western clothing, smartphones, clash of clans, women working, men lounging, monks in burgundy robes, female monks in pink robes, 1000 dollar bills = $1CAD, smog, sense of community

Day 11

Woke up early for our boat tour of inle lake. Left at 5am to catch the sun rise on the lake. The claim to fame here is the fisherman that use their leg to paddle. They stand on the edge of their hand made canoe style boats (carved from a single tree), and set out their fishing net using both hands. The paddle is quite long and comes up through the arm pit, resting against the front of the shoulder. They wrap their foot around the bottom end and use it to move the paddle. J-strokes, c-strokes, forwards, backwards and sideways, they are very dexterous with this method. They then move around the lake slapping the water with huge double handed overhead strokes to (I assume) scare the fish towards the nets.

Watching the sun rise behind the mountains while watching the fisherman do their thing was quite a calm and surreal experiences. Definitely one of those "oh yea, we are in Myanmar" moments.

The boat we were on was powered by a large and ancient looking loud Diesel engine mounted on a swivel with a very long propeller shaft. They had fleets of these boats (100 or so?) in the area. This was a huge tourist pull, although not many had committed to a sunrise start.

We stopped for breakfast at a restaurant on silts and then toured around a village. All buildings were on stilts and it looked like the only way to get around from place to place was by boat.

We got back for noon and crashed at the hotel for much needed nap. We then proceeded directly to 90min Swedish massages followed by dinner on a terrace with a view of the mountains as the sun set. Adam W had to make a prompt exit to catch his 6pm bus for Mandalay, and we went back to the hotel to chill, watch a movie and have an early night. Quite a productive day!!

Day 12

Slept in (no alarm clock!!!). Packed all our stuff up and checked out. Took a walk around the town which was MUCH quieter now that the festival was over. There was one of the five Buddha's visiting in town, (apparently only four out of five travel, the other is shy) and this was cause or much celebration. There were many more locals in town for this festival of the Buddha then would normally be around. It was interesting to see the local people out drinking and having fun at the markets the previous couple evenings. The contrast of the quieter side was definitely nice though. We later went for a foot massage and pedicure (seems to be a trend) followed by some banana chocolate pancakes.

We went for a tour of the winery here. The view was quite stunning, but the wine was absolutely foul. It took 15min to get there but we were told it would be 40min. Seems to be a trend here.

Met some interesting people that had completely different opinions of Myanmar and the people. It goes to show that the experience is what you make it.

On that note, Sarah taught me the power of a smile. It's so easy to disarm people with a smile and a wave. Perhaps these other tourists didn't know that? I wonder how often I smile at people back home... Am I making the same types of instant connections? It's something that I'll keep an eye on.

We head down from the winery, and hop into a tuktuk that takes us to the bus station. There was another group of travellers sticking together that met in Thailand. They were definitely outgoing and engaging other people. To me it felt a bit annoying. However, the last couple days I was probably exactly the same. It's interesting how our perspective changes depending on what side of the fence we are standing.

The night bus left at 8pm and got us to Mandalay at 3am. The bus was very full and along the way we picked up people who sat on little plastic seats in the aisle. It seems nothing is ever full.