Inle Lake, a time to unwind on the serenity of the water

A peaceful day zipping along in a long tail boat, the calm only disturbed by the noisy engines of other long tail boats passing by. This is the area famous for the Leg Rowers (can't see the point of it but they've been doing it for centuries so it must suit them).

It's also an area for seaweed fishing, this is used for fertiliser I believe not cooking:

They have to keep bailing out or the boat would sink. The seaweed appeared to be incredibly heavy as it took a huge effort to haul in on board.

Not an occupation for the weak or faint hearted!

Needless to say there was a large temple/monastery to visit on the river bank but first we had to navigate our way through the entrance gate:

Inside it was the usual shoes off, Buddhas everywhere:

The boat parking area:

The definitely organic garden:

Acres of it:

With a form of greenhouse for growing gourds of some sort:

More riverside architecture including a bit of a traffic jam:

Note the bamboo poles used as scaffolding in the above photo.

All this fresh air makes you hungry so it was definitely time for lunch:

Great setting but getting the boat tied up might not be so easy:

Suitably watered and fed it was time to glide off to the local handicraft houses:

Weaving

And boat building

And cigar making

One more temple then time to head back to shore:

An overnight stop in Inle, not exactly the centre of the universe:

But it has the advantage of being one of the starting points of the lake so is an important stop for tourists:

Now back to Yangon from He Ho Airport (I wonder who came up with that name) and flew on my favourite little plane:

On the journey from the airport to the centre of town we made a detour so we could be nosey and see the front gate of Aung San Suu Kyi's house: how depressing to spend so many years of house arrest barricaded behind all that steel!

Final night in Burma and had dinner overlooking the lake in the park that I visited the afternoon before I set off on my trip round the country:

And the following morning gave me a couple of hours to stroll round town for the last time. Was surprised to see that the entrances to the town centre park were almost impossible to access due to the deep trenches that were being dug round the perimeter, maybe something to do with the drains or the water supply. I had posted a photo of this area before, showing a group of tourists being guided into the park, how different it looks now!

So time to leave, farewell to Burma and back to Bangkok. I do hope you'll join me there.

Climbs, cabbages, caves and Kalaw

A stop off on the way to Kalaw found me at what was promised as the highest temple/pagoda (still haven't worked out the difference!) in the area. What I wasn't told was that there is no lift and you have to walk up hundreds of steps, in your bare feet of course. You can see part of the stairs winding their way up the hill in the photo. There is a vantage point on another hill which itself was worth a visit:

That's the temple perched on the hill, it reminded me of Meteora in Greece, where Fiona and I spent a magical couple of days a while back. And shown below is the what greets you at the viewing area:

A short drive from here brought me to the base of the hill upon which the temple/pagoda was perched and armed with a resolve not to be defeated I set off up the steps. At the first flight you are asked for a donation for the constant sweeping of the steps, undertaken by volunteers. This you happily give - but then discover as you climb up some 15 (yes, 15!!!) long steep flights of steps that each flight has a sweeper expecting a donation. My sense of humour deserted me at about flight 4 and my wallet stayed in my backpack after that. The worst part of the climb was when an old boy of about 80 offered to push me up as he could see I was struggling and he wasn't even short of breath! I declined his kind offer and hid behind a pillar until he had gone skipping past me.

I would like to tell you that the torture of the steps was worth it for the view but sadly that would be a lie. I was more interested in the Burmese way of the disposal of rubbish than I was in the frankly not very impressive view:

But I came across this on the way down which made the morning seem a little less of an exhausting waste of time.

And this by one of the stairs entrances cheered me up a bit as well.

So, on to Kalaw where I was promised an authentic experience.

The first point was to visit the 100 year old monastery. Unfortunately no-one told them we were arriving as this is what greeted us:

No longer 100 years old but at some stage going to be brand new!

Never mind, I was looking forward to the authentic experience.

What I had not been told was that this involved a long uphill trek to a hill top village, admiring  large fields of cabbages on the way:

OK, enough cabbages, thank you.

But it was a great view and in the distance the village we were aiming for:

But I preferred it when the village was just around the corner!

Lunch was prepared for us and it was one of the best meals I had in Burma:

And that was before the fried rice arrived.

With not a bad view from where I was sitting:

Of course someone had to volunteer to be dressed in the local style and I made sure it wasn't me:

The trek down seemed harder, maybe because there were no cabbages to admire, or more likely as there was no shade and the ground was more uneven than the path we'd taken going up but eventually we got back to ground level and prepared ourselves for the next treat: a huge cave with over 5000 Buddha images (I warned you that there were plenty more to show you!)

But first we came across another parade - it's the time of year. This one was so long that we all assumed that it was the same people going round and round, but it really was not, it was just a cast of thousands, reminiscent of the crowd scene from Ben Hur!

Not sure where these 2 fitted in but I'm sure they felt the most with-it pair there:

And because the parade was in town there was a market, lots of it: 

Watermelon anyone?

Or how about a football shirt?

Or maybe a new saucepan?

Or possibly a new metal trunk? Useful for getting rid of those guests who won't leave at the end of the party!

And a treat for my son-in-law:

No more from the parade or we'll be here all year!

So, on to the cave, I promised you Buddhas so here they are:

And this is the cave I crawled into, my backpack got me stuck as I was half way in so rather embarrassingly I ended up with one person kindly pulling me in and another the other end pushing me in, oh dear! Possibly not the brightest idea I've ever had but I saw others managing to get in without difficulty so I assumed I'd manage. The moral to this story is: never assume, always check.

Still, I could always pray to Buddha:

And so on and so on..............

Enough, now on to Kalaw for a brief stop.

Kalaw's main road, exciting isn't it? David would probably think so as it's a trekking centre:

And the local shops:

And the local bus:

But of course they are building a new temple:

Definitely a one horse town, not exactly the centre of the universe but a quiet town in which to rest for 24 hours before the next adventure. I hope to see you there.