We all agreed on the 3 day trek from Calaw to Inle Lake and 3 other girls, Rose and Christina, also joined us. The trek was really nice and our guide was young and chipper.
The first night, we did a home stay in a small village along the way. We had a nice dinner and felt like little kids when our guide sent us to bed at 7pm. It was probably the best, tho.
The next day was my favorite day of the hike. We woke up and had breakfast at 6:30 and were gone by 7.
Along the way, we heard some music. We asked the guide what was going on. He told us that it was probably a wedding and took us there to check it out. When we got there, we were greeted by the bride and groom and invited inside by many of the guests, where they made sure that we had plenty to eat. We wouldn’t even be half way done with our plates when they would come in and fill it back up again.
After we were stuffed to the max, we were about to leave when we were dragged over to the tea house. There they gave us tea and offered us cigars, beetle nut tobacco, and small pieces of candy.
I liked these people a lot. Since they are not too used to seeing tourists, instead of asking for money or food, they offer everything to you since you are a guest in their country.
We stayed that night in a monastery. There was no running water, but there was a brick building with a barrel of water and a little bucket, so we all lined up to take a ’shower’.
I have never seen so many stars as clearly as I did that night, along with multiple shooting stars. They seemed to be even more visible then they were in the middle of outback Australia. Not a cloud in the sky and no lights to be seen within miles and miles.
We got woken up around 5:30am the next morning by the little monks practicing their chants.
When we finally got to the lake, we had to take 1.5 hour boat ride to the town. The water was so clear and I loved watching the little villages and fishermen float back.
I shared a room with Christina and Rose, so when they left, I found another guesthouse to stay at. The workers were really nice and funny and we connected right away. (If anyone happens to go to Inle Lake in Myanmar, stay at Joy Guest House!!!)
I stayed the rest of my time there in Inle Lake, joking with the workers at the guesthouse, walking and biking around seeing what I could discover.
I discovered that my 12 days spent in Myanmar was nowhere close to enough time there. In case I didn’t mention before, I fell in love with the country. I thought I loved Thailand, but that was until I met Cambodia. I thought that I was in love with Cambodia until I met Laos. I thought that Laos was the one, but nothing compares to Myanmar. Everyone smiles as if they are so happy to see you and love to stop and chat, usually asking “are you only one?” They were so amazed at how a woman would travel alone. They were also amazed at my hair and skin. They would grab my hair, examine it, take my arm, examine that too, and then ask me how my hair could be so light when my skin was so dark.
I was so sad to leave Burma! There were times when I was there, where I thought that I could live like that forever. I never once felt the need for a cell phone or facebook. I loved that, for once, no one knew exactly where I was or what I was doing. I felt so free and independent! thought, I’m sure my lack of communication may have driven one mother a bit crazy, and because of this, I was not able to get my flight to the Philippines figured out, so had to unfortunately go back to Bangkok to get that all worked out.
No comments:
Post a Comment