January 24, 2018: Leaving Inle Lake and Going to Mandalay

February 7, 2018 cjbishop@yahoo.com

We had a leisurely morning as our flight to Mandalay is at 2:40 PM. We needed to retrace our steps to the airport in Heho which involves a 20 minute boat ride to the north end of the lake, than a 50 minute car ride to the Heho airport.

It was another beautiful but cool morning but it did not seem as cold as yesterday morning. Still we all had jackets on. Perhaps our bodies are adjusting. After breakfast Gerry and I chose to explore the grounds of the hotel a bit. Although it is built over the water they do have a bridge to reach the shore, so people who choose to drive to the resort have a way of accessing it. We passed a field planted with dragon fruit and bananas. In the distance was a field of sugarcane. Along the access road we passed some new buildings which were dormitories and a dining room for the workers at the hotel.

Enjoying a morning coffee on the veranda.

The boardwalk leading from the resort to dry land and the road.

Dragon fruit plants. The plant looks like a cactus.

Zaw picked us up in a long boat at 11:30 and we leisurely worked our way back to land, passing some fisherman fishing from their long boats and many other boats carrying tourists, locals and produce. This is truly the Venice of Myanmar.

Waving goodbye to Myanmar Treasure Resort.

A real fisherman trying to catch fish in Inle Lake.

By the time we reached shore it was warm enough to pack away the jackets. I had asked Zaw if there was a stall to buy Myanmar soccer jerseys and he had the driver stop at the local market for us to see and experience another typical market. It was smaller than the one we visited yesterday but just as crowded with local shoppers buying mostly food. We spent a wonderful 15 minutes wandering through the area seeing, listening and smelling, and taking many pictures, some of which will find their way into my blog.

Not sure what kind of fruit this was, but they were quite large.

Huge avocados that sell for 20 cents each.

Primitive motorized vehicles in use here.

The Heho airport is tiny and we have an hour wait for our flight. Looking for a snack we found they offered good old Oreos, Pringles and even Kit Kat and Snickers. We missed lunch today but we will not starve!

Reflections of Inle Lake: a magical, unique corner of the world! Life has revolved around the water for centuries and the population has adapted to it and thrived. Riding in the “long boats” was a joy. Seeing the villages built over the water and the man-made floating gardens used to grow crops was jaw dropping. Wow! The visit to the temple complex at Indein was, in many respects, more unique than what we saw in Bagan. I am surprised it is not as renown as Bagan. And to think that I had considered dropping the visit from our itinerary. Thankfully I had not and we are the richer for having visited this wonderful place.

Our flight to Mandalay would take all of 20 minutes. When I asked our guide how long to drive there he said 7-8 hours! Obviously the roadways in Myanmar need some serious updating. Our plane arrived at the Heho airport (on the single runway here); we hopped on and in 10 minutes we were in the air- no messing around.

Our local guide, named Myo (Mew) met us and we were on our way to see the famous U Bein bridge in the town of Amarapura to participate in a daily ritual-watching the sun set. Myanmar natives have a tradition of lining up to watch the sunset each evening. The 1.1km (0.7 mile) teak bridge walkway is supported by over 1,000 pilings and crosses Taungmyo Lake. It is the longest such bridge in the world (a Guinness record). Under normal conditions it is entirely over water but because this is the dry season much of it crosses over exposed lake bed which is used for growing crops during the dry season. In fact the soil is so fertile that they can grow two crops each growing season. We ventured out in a small, questionable quality rowboat to the middle of the lake which is now an island during the dry season. We got out and walked around a bit, even climbing stairs to walk on the bridge itself for a short while. There are NO guard rails so it is a bit “adventuresome” and we carefully made sure we stayed in the middle of the wooden boardwalk which is probably 30 feet above water/land. We returned to our boat and rowed out a bit to watch the sunset( ~6PM) from the water. There were probably 50 other such boats doing the same thing as it is a popular activity for tourists and even locals. Many more people were simply walking across the bridge. It turned out to be a pretty experience seeing the sun set behind this big old wooden bridge. It was even more fun watching the boaters all race back to the single dock to unload their passengers!

Peanuts and other crops are grown on the lake bed during the dry season.

Kids playing the the field. This area would be under water during the rainy season.

The boats used to row out onto the lake to watch the sunset.

Crude oars used by the boatmen. They cross the oars and push to propel the boat.

Fresh water crabs for sale, but we were told not to try them.

Walking the the bridge-with no siderails.

Walking the bridge is very popular with the monks.

This small boy held his own against older, wiser rowers.

It was now dark and we drove about 45 minutes to check into our hotel in Mandalay proper. We were hungry (and thirsty) by this time so we stopped in the lounge for a celebratory Manhattan. The price at this “big city” was $ 7.80 compared to $4 we paid at Inle Lake, but still a bargain when compared to US prices. Besides they were pretty decent and they served local peanuts, popcorn and potato chips. We ordered some tapas and a sandwich while contemplating which hotel restaurant to have dinner, but decided we had eaten enough tapas to satisfy our hunger.