Kalaw, Myanmar

After the slow start to the bus ride from Bagan to Inle we actually made pretty good time. I think the bus driver went extra fast to compensate. To be honest, a large part of me was hoping the bus was permanently broken and that we’d get a different one because it was immediately obvious that I didn’t fit in the seats. My hip to knee dimension is just too long. It is painful to sit straight and impossible to slouch. Dewey and I took turns alternating aisle-seat/window-seat since the aisle you could usually put one knee out, unless someone was sitting there. The last two hours were up steep switchbacks into the highlands, and again, this road was under manual construction, so it was slow at times.

We decided while we were on the bus that we were going to get off the bus early, in a small mountain town named Kalaw (elevation 4356ft), and hike the rest of the way to Inle lake. The bus happened to drop us off right in front of the Golden Lily guesthouse, where we were mobbed by various trekking guides and guesthouses eager to have our business. Trekking is the main (only?) tourist attraction in the town so they all depend on it to some degree.  It was overwhelming and for lack of a better way to decide we just went with the guesthouse right by the bus stop. It happened to be the guesthouse recommended by Lonely Planet and the owners were also tour guides. After settling in we went to chat to one of the guides about trekking options. Because the trails are not well marked, and there are surrounding areas where foreigners are not allowed, it is not recommended to trek without a guide.We were planning on hanging out in Kalaw for a day but were forced to make a pretty quick decision since it is cheaper to trek in larger groups (rather than just the two of us) and there was a group leaving the next morning, but no other groups planned for the next couple days.

We went to have a late lunch at the “Seven Sisters” café nearby, while we made our decision. We had a couple lovely soups (I had Shan “pumpkin” soup, and Dewey had Mulligatawny) with a side of rice and beans. The pumpkin here isn’t like the pumpkin at home. It’s a firm green-coloured vegetable with not much in common with pumpkin as far as I can tell… but it was tasty. The architecture (and climate) in Kalaw was strikingly more European than elsewhere in Myanmar. It looked almost Swiss Alps in way. We found it interesting that there were pine trees and rice patties growing side by side. The air was cleaner and cooler, and things were a little bit cleaner and less chaotic. Kalaw also used to be a British Hill station, and now is an army base for the Myanmar military.

The town has a significant population of Nepali and Indians (Hindus, Sikhs & Muslims) who came here to building the roads  railways during the British period. That evening we went for dinner at the small Everest Nepali Food Center where you could get dhal baht (set menu of dal, chapatti, soup, simple curry & condiments) for about $2. There was some sort of fundraiser/celebration happening on the main street in town and people were making music, dancing, and asking for money. OH and setting off fireworks, of course!

After dinner we went on a hunt for lens solution. At some point mine must have leaked because I started with enough to get me through the time in Myanmar and then all of a sudden it ran out. Funny thing is, you can’t really find lens solution in Myanmar. I had a hard time trying to explain to the pharmacist what I was looking for, so I eventually took out my contact lens to show her. She said I’d have to go to a bigger city to find some.

The next morning we set off on our trek. Harri Singh, a local of Indian ancestry, was our guide. We went by car for a little while until we reached a farmhouse where we stopped to meet up with the group. It turns out that the rest of our group was doing the 3-day trek (we were doing the 2-day trek) so that just meant that we met them on the morning of day 2. The downside to that was that we really just missed day 1. It wasn't just a more condensed version of the same trek.  While we waited for the group a friendly grandfather-type invited us into his kitchen and gave us Chinese tea and bean fry (beans, peanuts, sesame seeds and chickpeas dry-roasted and tossed with lots of oil and salt). In return he asked me to read him some passages from an English book of Buddhist verses so that he could practice his English pronunciation. 

Bean Fry

A kitchen hut

The trek took us through many very small villages; some of which were accessible by road, others not.

Chili peppers drying at the house where we stop for lunch on the first day.

We hike through fields and rice paddies along the way. You can walk along the little ridges of hardened mud which divide the rice paddies.

Boys in the first village eagerly gather around to view the pictures I have taken

The first village we hiked through

A grandmother and her swaddled grandson

An elderly woman sits by the edge of the creek and prepares betel-nut to chew. A betel nut leaf is smeared with lime, then sprinkled with betel nut shavings and wrapped up into a neat little package about the size of your thumb. The whole thing it sucked/chewed on and acts as a stimulant/appetite suppressant. It also turns your teeth, gums, and saliva red.

At one village we were lucky to come across a group of women making glutinous rice. They pound hot rice for about 15 minutes until it forms a sticky mass (seen above).

The scenery looks more familiar here; it could easily be California, or even Europe

The yellow fields are sesame seed crops. I believe the cow in the front is a Brahma (the most common kind of cow around Myanmar).

At one point during the trek our guide turned quickly around to face us and told us to stomp our feet on the path. Confused, we asked why. He said there was a big black cobra beside the path and we needed to scare it away. I was kindof dissapointed we didn't get to see it, but our guide assured us this was best. Myanmar is home to no fewer than 39 species of venemous snakes, including vipers and cobras. They reportedly like to hang out in the watery environment of rice paddies. Our guide told us there was no antivenom available in Myanmar, but I later read otherwise. In all likelyhood, there is anti-venom but no accesibility to anti-venom (after all, the WHO ranks Myanmar's health care system as the worst in the world). So stay away from snakes! We never saw any snakes in Myanmar, but we saw snake-skin.

 

Pink pepper (also called citrus pepper) grows wild here. We picked a few berries to chew on our hike. They are spicy and have hints of citrus. You pierce the berry once with your teeth and the slightly numbing spicy taste will linger for about 10 minutes. It's quite delicious.

Bamboo bridges to cross creeks and ravines

Because of ongoing violence between the government forces and 'rebel groups' (usually indigenous minority groups), there are many areas in Myanmar where foreigners are forbidden from visiting. The entire Kayah state (home to Padaung and Kayin/Karen tribes, amongst others) is off limits to foreigners and is in a constant state of violence. At one point out guide pointed out some trails, and said that they were good cycling trails but that foreigners weren't permitted because of the above reasons, and the fact that there were opium fields growing there. Harri said "if you see poppies, you are already being watched, and you are in trouble". Myanmar is the world's second largest producer of illicit opium (and hence, heroin), and like most things in Myanmar, it is entirely under military government control. Most of the people growing opium are tribes-people living below the poverty line.

You can read a very interesting Wikipedia article on the subject HERE. 

Shortly before sunset we arrived to the small village where we would be spending the night. We were shown to the village monastery/orphanage where we would sleeping. The monastery was a large, rectangular, two-story building, with the top floor being one big room with short bamboo "walls" to divide off the sleeping quarters. Our group of 5 slept on thin mattresses in one divided quarter, and the monks of the orphanage slept in the division next to us.

A woman in traditional dress returning from the fields after the day's work

A young boy cooks dinner by flashlight (and firelight) in a hut

Our feast at the end of day 1: curried chicken, cucumber salad, steamed vegetables, spiced stir-fried okra, rice, pumpkin soup, and papadams

Young girls near the monastery watch us with interest as we get ready to continue hiking on Day 2

There was road work being done nearby and one of the machines had broken down so they spent the night trying to fix it, and it created quite a raucous. Most of our group has a pretty restless night, but luckily Dewey and I had our earplugs in, and therefore slept pretty well considering. In the morning we are woken up by the sound of the young monks chanting their morning prayers - at 5:00am, right next to where we were sleeping.

A group of boys from the village beg me to take their picture, then crowd around eagerly to see the result

The flower of an okra plant

Rice paddies & hills lined with pine trees

A young girl wearing traditional headscarves

Grade two students grouped together at one end of a 3-grade schoolhouse. They all stand up to sing the verses they are memorizing when prompted by their young teacher. Notice that most of them are wearing the traditional white Myanmar make-up, which also helps to protect their faces from the sun.

On the road down towards the lake we pass a number of girls in traditional dress (and make-up) riding water-buffalo. This looks like a scene that has been staged to demonstrate culture, except that it wasn't (this is still everyday life here).

At mid-day on the second day we arrived to a small town at the south end of the lake. It is difficult to tell where the lake begins, and where the swamps that surround it end. There is no defined "shore" anywhere around the lake. In fact, houses on stilts and agricultural plots extend for a long ways into the middle of the lake, "floating" on reed islands. Our guide book put it well :"Inle sits like a puddle on an enormous carpet of greenery".

 

There we had spicy noodle soup with egg (a classic dish) for lunch before catching a longboat to the other end of the lake where most of the budget accommodation is. Before getting into the boat we had to pay a $5 (per person) government fee/permit. We try as much as possible to avoid paying anything to the government, but aside from cutting out a visit to Inle Lake from your trip, this one was hard to avoid. We did however, get some enjoyment out of using our worst US bills to pay the government fees (we did this once before at Bagan). It is next to impossible to use anything other than pristine, new US bills in Myanmar, but for some reason you can often get rid of your otherwise unusable ones at the government fee booths. 

The following is an excerpt from our guide book and helps to explain the following photos.

"Most Intha people get around using traditional flat-bottomed skiffs propelled by a single wooden paddle. The Intha technique of leg-rowing - where one leg is wrapped around the paddle to drive the blade through the water in a snake-like motion - is unique. " (Lonely Planet - Myanmar)

While there were certainly many Intha fisherman on the lake, the predominant type of boat was the narrow long-boats.

The boat ride from one end of the lake to the other takes around an hour and a half. As we neared Nyaungshwe, the town  at the other end of the lake where we were going to stay, we saw many women along the side of the river washing their clothes. 

 

We  arrived in Nyaungshew mid-afternoon and walked to Nanda Wunn Hotel, where our bags had been brought. We were happy to get our packs off our backs and our shoes off our feet!

As an aside, here are some interesting facts about Myanmar:

- Population: 60 million (vs. 33 million in Canada)
- Gross national income per capita (in international $): 1,020 (vs. $38,710 in Canada)
- Probability of dying under 5 years of age: 71 (per 1000 live births) (vs. 6 in Canada)
- Expenditure on health per capita: $23 (vs. $4,196 in Canada)
- The World Health Organization ranked Burma's health care system as 190th in the world (the worst performing of all countries (Canada is 30ths, Haiti is 138th)