Inle Lake

This past weekend, I was privileged to go with Ryan and Mary, and the other two interns to Inle Lake in Shan State.  It was 12 hours by bus to get there, but man was it worth it!  We started out by going to an orphanage and visiting one of the businesses that a graduate of Opportunities Now! has started there.  It was such a great experience in itself, but our experiences were only about to start as I would soon find out.  

After we finished playing some games with the orphans, we were taken away in a van back into town and found a hotel for much cheaper than the one we had originally booked.  This hotel was phenomenal, worth way more than the measly $35 a night I paid for a single room.  We went out to dinner at a place called The Golden Kite that had the best pizza I may have ever had.  The owner started by showing us the kitchen and how many ingredients were straight from Italy and showed us the wood-fired stove where the pizza was made.

On our way back to the hotel, we got to talking about malaria meds for some reason.  My friend Ryan said he had never gotten malaria which is really saying something as I'm pretty sure he's traveled more than I have.  He doesn't take malaria meds because he says he'd rather have malaria than the hallucinations that they're known to cause.  I said I would much prefer the hallucinations after having had malaria before.  Little did I know that I would be tested on that little theory very soon indeed.  I dreamed that I was hallucinating, which I'm pretty sure I was in my dreams, and it was the craziest thing I've ever experienced.  I mentioned on twitter how that may make some people stop taking their malaria meds, but it made me want to double down.  This of course made my mom worry, but I called her and assured her everything was okay.  A little drug-induced hallucination never killed anyone, right?  Oh wait, you mean it has?  Hopefully not any from malaria meds.

Yesterday, on Sunday, we got to have an incredibly rich, cultural experience.  We were whisked away on a boat and first stopped off at Ryan and Mary's hotel that was on the lake, they had a voucher from another couple so they got a free room for a night, how sweet is that?!  And the hotel was very sweet indeed I might add, looked amazing to say the least.  After that, we went on our way to the rest of the boat tour that took us to a bunch of different shops along the way that were part of what was called a 'floating market.'  It was so amazing and encouraging to see people still using the ancient ways of making various crafts and being able to make a living off of their craftsmanship.  We were reminded however, how some art has been lost as in every civilization when a lady informed us that that made the pipe handle but the part where you put the tobacco was found and they don't know how to make that part anymore unfortunately.

Our first stop was a silversmith, where the entrance lobby was used by the craftsmen purifying the silver by fire and shaping it into many different types of jewelry.  Their craftsmanship was superb and definitely to be applauded.  However, with good craftsmanship comes a high cost, so I wasn’t interested in trying to buy too much there.

Next up was a hand made paper shop.  Now, I’ve always had a special liking for hand-made paper from different places in the world for some reason, some might call it a hobby or something.  I was enthralled when the lady showed me how they make their paper.  First they soak the tree bark, followed by hammering it out and then spreading it across a board by hand.  They then add some local flowers to it and dry it in the sun, very cool indeed.  They also had some kite lanterns made from the paper that you would put a light bulb in to light them up.

After the paper shop we went to another place that I’m not exactly sure what it was called but it had many different things.  We started by getting our pictures taken with a couple of ladies there who had the bands around their necks in order to lengthen their necks.  I was literally twice the size of these ladies, but one of them definitely had a longer neck.  The shop had many different things, from woven goods to a bamboo stick used to make tattoos.  We men found ourselves especially interested in their collection of swords and knives, naturally.  There were some really cool knives and swords that were unique to the area.

Lastly, we went to the cigar making shop.  We saw these ladies making cigars from cigar leaves and tobacco, both of which were harvested on the nearby mountains they informed us.  They were surprisingly efficient at making them, and when I was offered a sweet tobacco cigar I politely partook, even though I had never smoked a cigar before.  My friends laughed at me as I attempted to smoke it from the wrong end before it was lit; as I stated before I had never had a cigar but nonetheless it was pretty funny when I realized my faux paux.  It was a surprisingly pleasant experience, but I passed on the strong tobacco cigars she offered next.  I bought a box of sweet tobacco cigars to share with friends when I return home that I’m sure they’ll appreciate.  As a side note, I had a nightmare of sorts when I dreamed last night that I opened the box when I returned home only to find crayons and sticks in place of the cigars.  I remember being furious in my dream, thankfully it was only a dream.

The boat tour was amazing to say the least, and one not quickly forgotten.  I will cherish that particular memory for quite some time to come I’m sure.  It was so fascinating and I can’t wait to return some day.  It was well worth it to catch an overnight bus ride for 12 hours, although I definitely had my doubts on the way there.  Later today we will take the bus ride back to Yangon, something I’m honestly not looking forward to all that much.  Like I said before though, it was and will have been well worth it in the end.