Inle lake

Yet another 4am arrival from an overnight bus to the river side town of Nuang Shwe, so I grabbed a tuk tuk with some new Gernamn friends in search of a place to stay. The first hotel option was full, so the driver pulled a known stunt trying to take us to a more expensive hotel where he would surely get his comission. We insisted on Bright hotel who kindly let us check in to our $15 rooms early for no extra charge, had to laugh when he attempted to charge extra for the stopoff at his chosen hotel.

Crawling out of bed for breakfast I met a couple of french dudes who were off for a boat tour of Inle lake in 10 mins, they invited me and as it was on my to do list, I jumpd on board. We met up with another 3 guys and wandered down to the 'pier' (which was a few broken steps leading in to the water) to our long thin boat, with 6 semi reclined seats that would be our taxi for the day. The guys had already negotiated a rate that would work out $3 each for the lake tour, ending around 3pm as the Frenchies had a bus to catch. We set off down a narrow weed bed enclosed waterway en route to the greater Inle Lake. This lake is the second largest fresh water body in Myanmar and is home to 70,000 people living in the four boardering cities and on the lake itself. The local fisherman practice a distinctive rowing style which involves standing on the stern with one leg and wrapping the other around the oar. Locals also grow fruit and vegetables on large floating gardens on, supported by weed beds collected from the plentiful growth on the lake that allowed the gardens to rise and fall with the tides.

First stop was the local markets which rotates around 5 locations on the lake daily. Here I had the opportunity to try out the very popular Betel chewing experience. When you visit Myanmar one of the first things you will notice are the red blood looking stains all over the footpaths and the terrible stained dental health of most locals, along with their compulsive spitting habit in public. The green Betel leaf is generally wrapped around Areca nut, lime and maybe some spices for taste. Little stalls are literally everywhere selling the concoction which is supposed to offer a mild stimulant and medicinal benefits.  From a foreigners point of view, its a rather disgusting habit but I felt compelled to try. After popping it in to the side of my mouth and a few seconds of masticating, my mouth was bulging with saliva and I let out the rather unattractive stream of red, which was repeated numerous times.  I did not feel any stimulation and although it was not an unpleasant taste, most likely something I would only try the once.

Wanting to grab a few cheroot cigars for the boat ride after the market I offered the dude 200 kyat (about 20c), which to my pleasant amazement he handed me a bundle of around 30 cigars. The other lads in my boat were snapping up some souvenirs,s so in a last moment of weakness and not wanting to be left out I grabbed an opium pipe and  tattoo needle. We also stopped to watch some local weaving, an overpriced lunch at floating restaurant, skipped the blacksmith and cigar factory, instead heading straight to the jumping cats temple. Not wanting to play down the epicness of the jumping cats, I did feel a little disappointed when first we were told there was no cat,s which was followed by waking up a sleeping kitten who proceeded to jump through our guides arms when he cupped his hands together.

The final destination was another temple where people have been laying leaves of gold on what was originally small Buddha statues that have continued to grow over the century, the giant egg looking balls of gold would certainly be enough to retire on these days. It continues to amaze me how a country that lives in such basic conditions with barely any furniture in many households, still manages to donate so much wealth towards honouring their Buddhism beliefs. We wound down the evening with a few beers at a local drinking hole , followed by more beers at the small night markets at recommendation from a couple of Irish blokes. The barbequed fish, selection of barbequed skewers and salad were surprisingly very tasty, possibly a contender for best meal in Myanmar so far!

That nights sleep was not easy as some function across the road decided they needed to blast their performance through speakers in the trees until the early hours of the morning, it wouldn't be Asia if you wernt proving to have the loudest sound system in the neighbourhood. With only a few hours to spend before my bus, I biked up to Red Mountain Estate Winery with John the yank. We Sampled 4 of their wines with the Shiraz being the best of the bunch, however not a drop on the local brews back home. John was excited about developing his grape wisdom before he sets off to NZ for a working visa in a couple of weeks.