The End Of Burma Continued - Jan 26th

The small town on the edge of Inle Lake was great. Again I felt so bad for the people. Inle Lake is a huge tourist destination with few people there. When we went for dinner later in the evening the woman and her children were very happy to have us. The kids were too cute. We walked the entire town chatting with many locals. The next day (Jan 24th) we did a boat tour of the Lake. Inle Lake is the second largest lake in Burma. 70000 people live on the lake. They are known for their famous one legged rowing fisherman and their floating gardens. The fisherman row their boats with one leg while standing so their hands are free to use their nets. It was a great site to see. Addi has a movie of the process. The floating gardens, the people make a mixture of soil and a binder (gum of some sort) and other materials to make the dirt solid and float. They use bamboo poles to hold the dirt in one place. They have huge gardens of tomatoes and cabbage and cucumbers and other crops. So smart. We were also amazed that the children run free on bridges and around the homes. No safety gates there. Side note: It is actually amazing to watch the kids in the entire country. I do not think I ever heard a kid cry. Most kids take care of their brothers and sisters. 6 year olds taking care of 1 year olds like it is nothing. Never crying for toys and things, just living. And their smiles and enjoyment of their days is an inspiration. If we could all only be that content with so little. Playing with a stick or an elastic was hours of entertainment for many of them. But they all seem to stick together and hang out. Even the poor ones stuck selling postcards at the temple always seemed to have a smile for you. It was a great honour to be able to help so many people there. My group kept making fun of me for buying so much. Most things were under $1 so if I bought 2 things a day big deal. I think some of them were a bit too cheap. I think it is great when so little for me can impact someone so much. I think it is the least I can do. Back in Inle Lake…. Our first stop on the lake was to see the long neck women from the Pandoga tribe. They use brass metal rings to protect their neck adding rings through the years. Great photos and an amazing site. They loved my tattoos and I loved their jewelry. A body modification exchangeJ From there we went to a weaving shop. Inle Lake is the only place I’ve ever heard of that does Lotus weaving. It was a painstakingly long process where they break the stems from the lotus plant to pull out long fibres and then weave and dye them into scarves. However, each scarf takes many days to get enough fibers for one scarf. The scarves cost $45-$80 which is an unheard of amount there so you can imagine the work. Of coarse I had to splurge on one. What a cool idea (a real lotus fibre scraf). They also did silk and cotton for much much less. Then off to a blacksmith shop. Watching the men pound and fold steel the old fashioned way. What a physically demanding job (reminded me of the gold leaf place). Great to see. Reminded me of old samurai movies when they make the swords (they were making knives from old engine parts). Reuse and recycle is an amazingly resourceful way there. Then a stop to a cigarette (charoot) making place. The women rolling smokes make $1 per day. They get 1 kyat per cigarette (1000kyats is $0.80) so you can imagine how fast they roll. Gives a new meaning to blunt rolling. We had lunch at a restaurant on the lake. Great views and good food. The tomato salad in Burma was my favorite. I am going to work on duplicating it when I get homw. After lunch we visited a floating Buddhist temple where the 5 main buddhas have so much gold leaf on them they are just blobs now, but the people of Inle love them. Then we went to the jumping cat monestary. The monks have taught cats to jump through hoops for treats. Quite a site. I took a video of this feat! That night we went out to the fanciest restaurant in town. Addi and I wanted some wine. For a bottle of wine and a 5 course first class traditional Shan dinner with an amazing view and setting of the river we paid under $40 (and the wine was most of it). Yesterday we flew back to Yangon early. Addi and I invited Jackie to our date with the monks. The three of us jumped in a cab to make our way to a small monestary we were invited to, so we could teach the monks English. They were very excited to see us and happy we kept our promise to them (how could you not, now that would be some bad karma!). It was a great afternoon. We learned a ton about their way of life and they learned about ours. They could not believe we did not live with our parents still (in Burma you live with your extended family forever). They invited all the locals from down the road that take English there at night too so we met the entire neighbourhood. It was a very moving and fabulous afternoon. We did not want to go but we had to meet out group to tour the Schwedegon pagoda for sunset. We got a lot of e-mail addresses to keep in contact so they could keep learning their English. One example of how great the people were. One girl’s brother died 3 years ago from liver disease and her mother died last year. She is now studying zoology at university so she can teach poor people to fish and have a better life. Talk about not feeling sorry for yourself. Later we met our group for sunset a Schwedegon pagoda. Beautiful. Talked to another ton of monks there. Then off to the famous Stand hotel for a drink and a fancy dinner to end the group tour. However, after many happy hour margaritas Addi, me, Jackie and Anne went to a strange “fashion show” bar to continue our bender. We ordered a bottle of whiskey and some cokes and watch fully clothes Burmese girls walk on a stage and every so often a guy would jump up on stage and give one girl a flower lay and everyone would clap. In between “fashion shows” as we called them, some girls sang karaoke. Very fascinating. We loved it! Then we caught a few hours of sleep before returning to Bangkok today. Now we are going to head out for a 2 hour Thai massage (not sure if the masochist in me is ready but here we go). Then some great green curry and off to Patpong for some drinks. Should be good! Take care everyone and lots of love, Sonya PS. The rest of my posts should be on my blog.