Inle Lake

Note: Things are getting busy here. We move to Thailand on Thursday the 29th. I (Ben) am still somewhat sick after our trip. It is frustrating to be unable to help very much with packing, etc. Hopefully I will be better soon. Today I am resting and reading The Hobbit while the Garrisons prepare to move to a hotel for the last couple days before we move.

While at Inle we stayed at a hotel called Golden Island Cottages (GIC), which is built entirely built on stilts in the middle of the lake. The lake itself is 22km long (roughly 14 miles), the northern portion is open water while the southern part is more marshy (usualy ~4-8 ft deep) with channels and many villages built on stilts. The weather on the lake was nice and the sunsets were beautiful. Everything on the lake is done by boat. We saw four year olds paddling canoes to the neighbors a few yards away and schoolboats taking kids home after school let out. Women paddling back from market and cargo boats hauling rice. It was interesting to spend almost two full days going everywhere by boat.

We saw many children waving and yelling to us out of windows and from boats as we went by. It seemed odd, yet very nice, that they were so excited to see westerners when Inle seemed to be the most heavily touristed region we have experienced. The villages have many small shops of which we visited many. Blacksmiths, weavers, cigar makers, potters, and more. We were like Berenstein Bears and too much shopping by the end of our time there.

We were saddened at times by the huge number of very poor vendors who were waiting for tourists to pass by so they could try to persuade them to buy just one more souvenir. In particular, Inn Daing, a millennia old group of stupas, reached by a 1/2 mile long road from the river’s edge to the pagodas on the hill, was a place where we felt saddened the most while in the Inle region. Most of the road from the river to the pagodas is enclosed in a long arcade. This arcade from start to finish was lined with several hundred tables, filled with lacquerware bowls, silver jewelry and pipes, clothing, carvings, metal work, gems, pottery, knives and more. Most of it was extremely beautiful, exotic and inexpensive. The sad part was that as we walked this long road we were pleaded with to buy something, anything and the only other tourists we saw were one couple who were just getting out of their boat when we arrived back at the river-side landing. To make things worse, the vendors only know several phrases in english. The most common was “lucky money” with “just looking” and “no problem” close behind. Other phrases were “do you want a souvenir” and “you like?” Some of these phrases they don’t even understand, such as “just looking”. It was easy to figure out that English speaking tourists tried to communicate their lack of intention of buying, and the vendors picked up on that phrase. One saying that is said frequently is “lucky money”, which we found out later is a tradition they have that says that the money from the first sale of the day will give you good luck selling more that day. Apparently there is a little bit of truth to this since many tourists in groups tend to buy from the vendor that the first person buys from since they feel more sure that they are not being ripped off. After being bombarded with this type of solicitation we were tempted at times to respond with frustration and ridicule instead of mercy, pity and love.

However our time in Inle was enjoyable and the parts that were hard were enlightening. We enjoyed the region, although if we were to pick a place to live in Myanmar long-term is would be the Kalaw area, particularly the country in the mountains between Kalaw and Inle.


Morning at Inle Lake from GIC

A water buffalo we came upon while out on the lake

A boat across a patch of Lotus

Sunset on Inle Lake

Inle is known for it's "foot paddlers." People paddling across the lake often switch to paddling with their feet to give their arms a break. This kid was showing off for us as we rode by.

An old lady potter

A river full of water buffalo at Inn Daing

Looking at the mountains from Inn Daing

Sunset on Inle Lake from our room at GIC

One last thing... We really want to hear feedback on which of all these pictures you like and think are the best. Please let us know either by email or comments if you can. Thanks! --B&C

"I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas?!? "

Merry Christmas from Myanmar!

It has been pouring down rain all night, and by the looks of the sky
it won't be letting up for a while! If we can't have snow, at least
we can have lots of precipitation! I guess this much rain this time
of year is almost (not quite) as rare as snow. God has a sense of
humor...

Our prayer is that you all may reflect on how great is Jesus' love
that he came to earth as a poor, humble, vulnerable infant to save us.
God help us to never lose our awe of that truth.

And our prayers for those of you who don't know Jesus intimately -
We pray that today, you would know that there is no greater love than
the love of Christ, and that God lavishes His love on us, this day and
every day.
If you seek Him, you will find Him...

Blessings...
Catherine (& for Ben).

Cold in Kalaw

Cold, is something we have missed lately. Here in Yangon it is the cold season, and dips down into the the lower 80s quite often during the day. It sounds odd perhaps, missing the cold, but after leaving the States just before any sort of Autumn chill set in we’ve now had summer temperatures since last May or June. Seven or eight months of summer is a lot and Catherine and I were wanting some cold. I don’t think we’ll ever retire to Florida for this reason.

Our first destination on our trip was Kalaw, an old British hill station of twenty thousand people, 17 hours by bus northeast of Yangon. Myanmar highways are similar to our old country back roads that haven’t been repaired for quite some time. So the ascent up into the mountains in which Kalaw rests was beautiful yet somewhat terrifying. The road to Kalaw from Thazi in the plains ascends roughly 4,000 feet via mountain valleys and switch-backs just big enough for our bus to fit around. We arrived in Kalaw at 6 AM and got out into a chilly night, shivering. I came down with a head cold on the bus trip and we slept off the trip until the afternoon.

The rest of the day we spent hiking to a nearby Pa Laung village on top of a mountain with a guide named Aung Nine. The Pa Laung mainly grow tea and oranges and do some weaving. We had tea and oranges with a couple ladies which was really nice. They decided to dress us up in Pa Laung traditional dress (yes we have a picture). On the way home we caught a ride with a Myanmar truck driver back to Kalaw in his big rig.

Here are a couple pictures from our time in Kalaw.

View over part of Kalaw

Pa Laung House

A man coming back from the market in Kalaw with a pig he bought

Dressed up, Pa Laung

Clouds coming down on the mountains as we hiked home

Wrapping things up

We are preparing to travel for a week. We will take an overnight bus to Kalaw, an old British hill station, to do some “trekking” in the mountains. I’m not quite sure how mountainous these mountains will be, but it should be fun to hike some and get out in the countryside on foot. From Kalaw we head to Inle about 2 hours away. We’re staying in a hotel that is actually built on stilts out in the middle of the lake. All the hotels here have small bungalow type buildings that you stay in and then a separate main building where you check in and eat (breakfast is included everywhere), etc. While at Inle, we will go everywhere by boat, even between our room and the main building. We are told it will be chilly at night, we might even have to wear a sweatshirt! We are looking forward to this. After Inle we will visit Bagan, a valley that is home to literally thousands temple ruins that are up to about a thousand years old. We plan to rent bicycles while there and explore some of the valley at our own pace.

Because of the trip, this week is our last normal week in Myanmar. Once we get back it will be Christmas and then packing up to go to Chaing Mai. So I had to say goodbye to our english students at CMC (Catherine was not feeling well) and tomorrow we visit our last children’s home in Myanmar. We took some pictures at CMC and the last children’s home that I am posting.

CMC English class

A little boy at a children’s home

A little girl at a children’s home

A “side-car,” pronounced “sy-ca,” carrying a lot of potatoes and onions

Note: After being messed up by a close to non existent internet service last night, I think I have this blog post right. Hope you like it.... it took me several hours to get working :-)

Moving!

Hello Friends:

 

We wanted to let you know of a new development in our surrondings.  Due to many reasons (including the visa issues we've talked about), the Garrisons (the family we are living and working with) have decided to relocate to Chaing Mai, Thailand and we will be going with them.  We are sad to leave the relationships we have built here, but feel excited by some of the new posibilities in Thailand.   It is also hard to leave a culture just when you are starting to feel at home in it.  We will be leaving Myanmar the 29th of the month.  Please pray that this transition goes well, as there are many factors that will have to come together to make it smooth.  Before we go, Catherine and I are taking a week to travel up country by bus and see some of more northern Myanmar.  We will be visiting Kalaw, Inle Lake and Bagan if you feel like looking us up in an atlas.  We leave Friday the 16th and will be back on the 23rd.  Email access will be intermittent (as we find internet cafes), but I hope to possibly post some additions to the blog as we go.

 

All our love,

 

Ben & Catherine

 

Shwe Dagon II

Yesterday we went to the famous Shwe Dagon Pagoda and played tourist
again. It was the first pagoda we had visited, and I found it to be
an interesting experience. The sky was bright blue, it was a
beautiful sunny day with a nice breeze. We walked up the stairway
past many vendors selling what? Souvenirs? Worship aids? Maybe both.
Snacks and cigarettes too. The floor was made of some smooth tile,
and we were barefoot after having left our shoes at the shoe check for
a small donation. At the top of the stairs, we paid our 5 US dollar
admission fee and walked in. There were many shrines/chapels, I don't
know what they call them. There were even individual chapels that
were numbered, and you could go to a counter and get assigned one of
those to worship. The outer court made a huge circle, so we walked
around the entire circle. In certain places people could burn incense
at the altar. It was very pleasant smelling incense in my opinion,
but I'm prone to liking that sort of thing. A monk approached me and
asked me if he could take a picture of me with his two young students
(age 10 or 11 I would guess). They were shy, and didn't speak much
Burmese as they had come from Shan state near the border of China.
Ben and I also had a man approach us who wanted to help us find out
our correct animal (based on what day of the week we were born on).
Hmm. He had a calendar and looked it up for us - Ben was a rat
because he was born on Thursday and I was a lion (Tuesday). He then
wanted to show us the right place to go to put water on the buddha. I
said thanks, we can't do that. He then asked if we were Christian,
and assured us that we could do it as well. Ben clarified that we
chose not to do so. He was a pretty friendly man.

-Catherine

Shwe Dagon

Today we went to Shwe Dagon Pagoda, which supposedly houses 8 of Buddha’s hairs and is THE tourist attraction of Yangon. We have been going to so many places recently because of friends here as I’ve mentioned before. Afterwards we went and got a massage. For the first time I talked to someone completely in burmese with out any English being thrown in. The conversation did consist of me saying “I don’t know” a lot. Here are some pictures from Shwe Dagon:

The "Stupa" of Shwe Dagon Pagoda

Three small temples at Shwe Dagon Pagoda

A Palm tree at Shwe Dagon Pagoda

An old Mazda truck that I thought was interesting

On the Lake

Last night we went to a cultural show at the Kan Daw Gyi Hotel with Angie, Daniel and Talinn who are visiting here for a short time. Angie left to go back to Athens today while Daniel and Talinn are still here through the 15th. The show was quite interesting, albeit quite touristy which I am not overly fond of.

After the show I took some pictures of another hotel, the Karawik that is located on the opposite side of the lake. It was either built to look like the old royal barge or it is the old royal barge and was converted into a hotel, I'm not quite sure which, although I tend to believe the former rather than the latter. Here is one of the pictures:

Karawik Hotel