Inle Lake, Myanmar

By the time we reached Nyaungshwe our immediate posse of fellow travelers had grown to about 7, the extended posse to about a dozen. These included our trekking mates David & Valeria from Chile, Aston (USA), Megsi (Australia) and Alfonso (Spain).  We all decided to stay at the same hotel (Nanda Wunn) and spent a couple days enjoying the lazy atmosphere of Nyaugshwe. There isn't an overwhelming number of things to do in Nyaungshwe but we were happy to have some time to do our laundry (hand wash it in the tub and set it to dry on the balcony). 

A pagoda near the edge of the river in downtown Naungshwe

Nyaungshwe is a neat little grid down on the edge of Inle Lake with a well established tourism scene. As a result prices are significantly higher ($3-$6 for dinner!) but there are more options as well. We enjoyed our first pizza since leaving home, and we were impressed. They actually had a wood-fired stone oven and the pizza was good! It was $6/pizza though, so we only went once. There was a Buddha museum in town that we opted not to see; it was formerly the museum of Shan Chiefs but the government took it over (in a crackdown against Shan culture and identity), removed any objects that represent Shan culture and replaced them with antique buddha images. 

Roses for sale at a stand in the Mingala Market. I absolutely adore how they are wrapped up in a damp cabbage leaf to keep them fresh; the whole situation is effortlessly (and unintentionally) stylish.

The local Mingala market was large and bustling and many street food vendors lined up outside. Here you could get curry/rice/soup/salad for about $2 or vegetable-stuffed chapati for a little over $1 (meat would cost you an additional 25 cents). 

Intha fishermen scaring fish into their nets by beating long wooden sticks on the surface of the water

On our third day in Nyaungshwe our group arranged for a full-day boat trip out onto the lake. We hired a boat and driver for 12,000 Kyat (about $15) and set off  at 8:00am ...while the daytime heat was still reasonable. On our way out into the middle of the lake we stopped to observe traditional Intha fishermen.

Dewey captured some spectacular shots of the Intha fishermen with the telephoto lens. 

 

First we visited a busy market and were given an hour to wander around. Our first impression was that the market was mainly aimed at tourists (not what we had in mind) as they were selling all sorts of cheap tourist knick-knacks. Fortunately, exploration a little further into the depths of the market revealed the local side.

A muddy pig makes it's way through the aisles of the market, cleaning up the vegetable debris

Women selling fresh (still flopping) fish on the side of the road by the market

Women selling freshly cooked flat-breads and fried quails eggs

Tomatoes are grown on the floating gardens in the middle of the lake. I think the color of the tomatoes shows how much they like growing in a swamp. In fact, they tomatoes look pretty red compared to others.

A pharmaceutical stand at the market. You could buy pretty much any drug you wanted here (birth control pills included), but some of the packages looked a little dated.

After the market we continued onto a floating silk workshop.You could watch the fibers being spun and then being woven into textiles. If you wanted you could purchase silk items in the floating building next door. They were beautiful, but not inexpensive, and after watching the effort that goes into weaving a single scarf you really don't feel right bartering the price down!

A women making thread from lotus root fibers. We were told that lotus thread is 8 times more expensive than silk because it is more time consuming to make.

A woman carefully re-threads her silk-weaving loom

Men play a traditional Burmese game (I wish I knew the name)

Next we visited a floating cigar factory. The front of the building was a demonstration and tasting room. They demonstrated how the cigars were made and then passed around cigars for us to try; anise-flavored cigars, and sweet tamarind-flavored cigars. I'm not generally a fan of cigars but I loved the anise cigars. They were slightly sweet and spicy and fresh. As a group we bought 50 cigars for 2000 Kyat ($2.50) and split them up between us.

A demonstration of the cigar making process

After, we visited a blacksmith where we watched a demonstration. Aside from watching the free demonstration you could choose to purchase a variety of things; scissors, bells, knives, swords, opium weights, and plenty more. Aston bought a hand-forged knife for his dad. 

 

After the blacksmith we were hungry so our boat-driver dropped us off at a restaurant. We asked him to take us to a cheap one, but I'm pretty sure he would have taken us to the same one regardless; he seemed to be quite close friends with the staff there. We had our noodle soup then walked across the bridge to the local pagoda. We were pretty tired of pagodas by this point in our trip, and I didn't even go in (I wasn't properly dressed and the we needed someone to hold all the shoes anyways). Sadly, there was a large group of children begging for money (and candy) outside the pagoda and for good reason; ignorant tourists would throw handfuls of candy at them (like they were feeding fish). I disagree with this practice as it teaches children to beg. There are so many better ways to help! I read a quote somewhere that I felt was extremely accurate: "don't give candy to the kids unless you can also give them modern dentistry". True. 

After the pagoda we stopped by a floating monstery where the monks had taught their cats to jump through hoops. It was interesting to see, but for some reason we couldn't get the camera to co-operate and so we have no pictures. But the cats jumped through hoops, I swear. It was a bit touristy, but it was free, and unusual. Our last stop on the lake was a craft shop where  a group of Paduang women lived. 

 

This bothered me because while it used to be a strong part of their culture now it is mostly used to impress tourists and it looks so cruel. We took one picture to make our point on this blog, but didn't dwell on it so as to not buy into the tourist exploitation.

A quote from our guidebook about the Paduang women:
 

"Originally from the Kayah state on the Thai border south of Inle Lake, the Paduang tribe - Myanmar's famous 'giraffe women' - have become a victim of their own traditions. The ancient custom of fitting young girls with brass neck-rings has made the Paduang a major tourist attraction - and a major target for exploitation on both sides of the border. Originally intended to make Paduang women less attractive to raiding parties from neighboring tribes, the application of heavy brass neck-rings causes deformation of the collar bone and upper ribs, pushing the shoulders away from the head. Many Paduang women reach a stage where they are unable to carry the weight of their own heads without the rings as additional support."

On  our way back to Nuangshwe we passed by the floating gardens where much of the produce for the local villages in grown.

Tomatoes grow on floating rows

A man harvesting goop from the bottom of the lake to be used as natural fertilizer for the floating gardens.

We also passed through some floating villages. We were amused by the fact that each floating house had a resident cat who could usually be seen climbing about around the frame of the house and on the front step. There can't be many mice in a floating house! Quite frequently there was also a big in a small stilted cage beside the house. 

Flooded pagodas

A young boy getting the hang of the one-legged rowing technique at an early age

Entire villages were built on stilts, like this

Traditional long boat canoes

A man with a mouthful of betel-nut

We stayed one more day in Naungshwe before heading back to Yangon. You could tell that it had been a heavy monsoon season; there was definitely more standing water in town than should be normal. We even tried to find one restaurant listed in our guidebook but it was physically impossible to get there unless you planned on swimming... we tried accessing it from all four possible directions.

Standing water in downtown Naungshwe.

View of the rice paddies from Viewpoint restaurant, where we waited out the rain and enjoyed some delicious appetizers

One of our favorite little things about Myanmar was the money. You had to have perfectly crisp US bills if you wanted to use them, but evidently anything goes with the local currency. We actually received the following bills in change (and managed to spend them again as well). They are completely taped up and wrapped in plastic to prevent them from deteriorating further. 

Another fun thing to find is out of print currency. This bill has an interesting story. Megsi bought it in the market for a couple dollars.

 

A brief history of the messed-up money situation in Myanmar (an excerpt from Wikipedia):  

"In 1972, the Union of Burma Bank issued notes for 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 kyats. In 1985, 75-kyat notes were introduced, the odd denomination possibly chosen because of dictator Ne Win's predilection for numerology; the 75-kyat note was supposedly introduced to commemorate his 75th birthday. It was followed by the introduction of 15- and 35-kyat notes on August 1, 1986.Only two years later, the government demonetized the 25-, 35-, and 75-kyat notes without warning or compensation, rendering some 75% of the country's currency worthless. The resulting economic disturbances led to serious riots (see 8888 Uprising) and eventually a coup d'état in 1988 by General Saw Maung. On September 22, 1987, banknotes for 45 and 90 kyat were introduced, both of which incorporated Ne Win's favorite number, nine. These were later also demonetized."

  

For a highly interesting Wikipedia article on the money situation in Myanmar click HERE