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Our two weeks in Myanmar are almost at an end, and I unfortunately have picked up some form of bug which forced us to postpone our boat trip on Inle Lake yesterday until today…something to tire us out before we get the bus back to Yangon - another 12 hour overnight delight.
Myanmar so far has been good, although exhausting and slightly underwhelming in parts. I think we're both feeling the distances we've been covering over the last 6 weeks or so and its taking a little longer to 'recover' from each long journey. We're also finding it increasingly difficult to get excited about temples and stupas after all the ones we've seen since the beginning of December. If anyone has any tips on how to keep up the excitement on the 50th temple, please let us know. It's not that we're not enjoying it at all, far from it. But I think we're becoming a little less appreciative of what we are seeing - rather than seeing these things with a fresh pair of eyes and it becomes hard not to start comparing the sights between others we've seen.
It's sometimes a bit of a double edged sword trying to fit everything into a short space of time as inevitably you end up exhausted and needing to take a few days off, which ends up in then not seeing everything you'd set out to do. I've now been staring at the same 4 walls for about the past 24 hours, except for mealtimes. James has admirably been keeping me company reading a particularly girly book (that he's secretly enjoying) so at least I haven't been lonely! I'm beginning to pick up though, so hopefully all will be well in time to get back to Bangkok on Tuesday and meet Mum.
The people in this country are by far the friendliest race we've ever come across - even the suicidal van driver taking us from Mandalay to Inle Lake was super nice! They are so happy and interested in foreigners, without being creepy about it. We've had so many people just ask us where we are from, for no other reason than just to say hi. And they all, especially the men, love a good old sing song! Walking down the street or showing us to our room…singing along to whatever tune they have in their heads. It was interesting hearing some of the music in Myanmar, some of it typically Asian and some that sounded rather like music we know…a bit of Coldplay, Michael Buble…but all with Burmese lyrics! We're not sure whether they are singing about the same thing or not…or whether they know that these songs are really big in the Western world either.
But the one thing that lets this country down is the food. That is unless you're keen on half a gallon of oil with your food. Most of the food has tasted lovely, once you've managed to cut through the incredible amount of oil though so I feel bad giving it quite such a bad rap, but it's not sustainable eating that much fat and grease every day. Quickly, our diet came to consist mainly of pork fried rice, avoiding too many of the curry options where possible. In Mandalay we sought out some Indian street food that we'd been told about - and finally ready to break our 2 month fast of chapattis and dhal we were more than happy for the change - and the chapattis were amazing! But again, the curry was so greasy - cooked Burmese style. The next evening we tried very small Nepalese restaurant serving up veggie thali plates for about £1 - this was much better! Most of the places we've been in Myanmar seemed to have a good mix of little local restaurants and tea houses and bigger more expensive restaurants, but Nyaung Shwe (Inle Lake) seems to be more geared around the tourists and we've found it a little harder to find cheaper local food. There is even a new gastro pub type bar and restaurant, completely foreigner owned (but employing locals), serving nothing 'authentic' other than some Shan potatoes on the pizza (so as not to provide competition to the local businesses). It's expensive (in comparison to other local places) but it's rammed every time we go past and the food is good. It's taken me a while to not feel like I'm cheating by not eating local food all the time, we're just not enjoying the food here, so why force it? …we met an Australian couple the other day who had been in the country for 3 days and were already not fans! I guess it can't be good all the time.
So, from Bagan we were to Mandalay - which was ultimately just another big city. There isn't much going for it in the centre other than the city palace (which we didn't go to), most of the best bits of the Mandalay are outside the city itself, but as we were only there for a one full day, we didn't get out that far. We decided to take the day bus to Inle Lake as it was slightly cheaper, but also the road takes you through the mountains and we thought it would be a pretty drive….
Which it probably was, except we didn't get the chance to take it all in with our completely mental lunatic driver. James has been fine on all of the transport we've taken so far on this trip, but even he was worried about this guys' driving and after one too many slams of the brakes round a corner, asked the driver if he could slow down which was then repeated by the American couple in front of us, but to no avail. It wasn't enough that a local lady had already thrown up in the front of the van and the driver didn't stop for another hour or so! But, as you can tell, we made it in one piece and decided that the only thing for it was to celebrate life, buy some beer and whiskey and get drunk.
The other day we rented some bikes and cycled out of town to try and get a glimpse of the Lake (we are staying in Nyuang Shwe which is the closest town with budget accommodation! It was a lovely little cycle through the villages for about an hour, we parked up and walked across a very long wooden bridge, but this still didn't take us as far as the lake. We caught a glimpse through the haze from the forest monastery though - after abandoning the bikes and walking up the hill with an Aussie couple who'd had enough of the gentle incline as well! We didn't hang around at the top though as we wanted to get some lunch and get to the Vineyard before it got too busy - and wow did it get busy, with stunning views over the valley and a perfect spot for sunset.
Myanmar is not the first place that springs to mind when one thinks of wine, but it was surprisingly good! They have imported their vines from France and have produced quite a variety of different wines. We chose the 4 glass sampler (6000Kyat - about £4 each) and they slipped down a treat. We caught back up with the Aussie couple (Hamish & Kate) and ended up buying another 2 bottles of their Inle Lake dry white (£5 a bottle!), watching the sunset and then cycling the 3km back to town with nothing but the light of a head torch and the odd kind car that drove behind to show us the way!
We had initially booked only 2 nights in our hotel, so extended it for the full 5 nights we were there (ok, it wasn't the cheapest, but it was comfortable and the breakfast was good). However after our 3rd night, they asked if we were checking out - apparently the people that we'd agreed the extension (and subsequent discount with) were not reception staff at all! We tried the first place we could round the corner (Remember Inn, where Hamish and Kate were staying for a few more nights before doing a 2 day trek) and thankfully they had rooms going - and cheaper as well. That pretty much brings us to now!
We were up early to get our boat out on the lake and randomly spotted Hamish and Kate at breakfast, thinking they'd left for their trek yesterday - but apparently Hamish had been sick too, must have been something in the air! The boat trip was good, it was pretty chilly first thing in the morning and the haze didn't really clear so we couldn't get a full view of the surrounding mountains, but we were taken round a number of local craft shops (silk and lotus weaving, silver handicraft and cheroot rolling) which was interesting to see, although we declined to buy much in most of the shops - if we were here on a holiday, we probably would have brought quite a bit! It was slightly disappointing in some ways though to see the iconic fishermen there waiting for the tourists boats to pass and then doing their thing (standing on one leg and using the other with the paddle, while feeding out the nets) and the sheer number of boats on the lake - with all the motors and thick clouds of diesel smoke, it didn't make for a peaceful crossing But that's what tourism does to a place though, especially where not everywhere in the country is accessible to foreigners - the tourist hotspots really are the hotspots. It's clear though that they are building to cater to hold more tourists though with a number of big high rise hotels being built - blocking the view of the mountains in turn! There are loads of big signs up about preserving the Lake and wildlife etc, however I can't help worry that unless they start addressing the diesel motors and sheer number of boats out each day, it will be almost counterproductive - we booked a boat and were surprised when we paid the price for the full boat rather than just per person - although this meant that we could go at our own pace, it did mean that we were a whole boat for just 2 people. We saw a number of single or couples with boats to themselves - maybe if they gave the option to group into another boat, this could go some way to reducing the traffic.
But I digress. It was great to get out and see some more of the local life and it feels like the most 'touristy' thing we've done in a while! Now we are back at the hotel waiting for our bus to Yangon, pick up is in a few hours. We've booked into an airport hotel as we have an early flight to Bangkok on Tuesday and as I mentioned before, traffic is awful! So tomorrow will probably be another relaxing day, readying ourselves for Thailand and one very excitable mother!
Overall, we have enjoyed our time here - it's flown by though. Definitely another country put back on the list to visit again!
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