Tag: Burma

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Travel

Incredible Inle

Tucked away in Myanmar’s Shan State, Inle Lake is a whole world on water. From houses to restaurants to monasteries, buildings are constructed on stilts, directly over the freshwater lake. Produce grows hydroponically on “floating gardens.” A market rotates among five communities situated around the 116 square-kilometre (44.9 square-mile) lake, bringing with it necessities like produce and dry goods, a barber shop, and even dental services, complete with a foot-powered drill. (Check out photos from the market in my earlier post.)

Boats transport everything and everyone; I never got used to their noisy diesel engines, and wondered if the residents of this area ever did. It was a contrast of old and new: satellite dishes proliferated and cell-phone reception was great, yet I saw laundry being done by hand and few windows seemed to have any panes. Men with traditional fishing foot oars and wooden baskets were apparently strategically stationed especially for tourist photo-ops, although “real” fishing is still done, with slightly more modern gear.

I took a couple of videos to make sure I remembered the sound and feel of moving along Inle’s waterways.

Pindaya Cave

Before hopping a boat to Inle Lake, we explored the huge nearby limestone cave at Pindaya. Packed with thousands of images of the Buddha, we were told it’s one of the few places in Myanmar where women are allowed to add squares of gold leaf to the Buddha figures.

Don’t even think about smoking
Shan women waiting to put gold leaf on Buddha figures

Making Things

We watched demonstrations of lotus-fibre weaving, along with the making of cheroots (a type of open-ended cigar), mulberry paper, parasols, and silver jewellery. Touristy? Absolutely. But the crafts were gorgeous and made great gifts – and who am I kidding, I have a weakness for beautiful scarves.

(Mostly) Monastery Cats and Dogs

I never got used to seeing so many stray cats and dogs everywhere I went in Myanmar. At least the ones we saw at some of the monasteries appeared to be cared for.

I was seriously tempted to come home with a number of these furry cuties. I settled for photos instead.

This is the third and final post about my fall 2017 trip to Myanmar. Missed the others? Here’s one focussing on food and markets, and another about my adventures in Mandalay, Bagan, and Yangon.

Categories
Travel

More Myanmar Memories

I never would have thought of visiting Myanmar (Burma) if my friend Alex hadn’t raved about her first trip there. The place really made an impression on her, and her photos were stunning. So when we were planning a trip to Thailand last fall and she suggested tacking on some time in Myanmar, I said “Why not?”

Myanmar is the first place I’ve experienced legit culture shock, but after a few days I adjusted, more or less. Though its sights and sounds were so utterly unfamiliar, I never once felt unwelcome or uncomfortable. I arrived in the country expecting to find little Internet, cell phone connectivity, or acceptance of credit cards – but was proven wrong on all counts. (Things had changed quite a bit on the technology front since Alex had been there.) My tourist SIM card was a better deal than I have here in Canada!

While my last post about the trip focussed on its markets and food, this one collects some of my other images from Mandalay, Bagan, and Yangon. Our time on Inle Lake was an experience unto itself, and with 600 photos to go through, it’ll get its own post.

Mandalay

We didn’t spend much time in Mandalay, and it poured rain. Our hotel was an entirely analogue world replete with 1970s decor, and felt like stepping back in time – not necessarily in a bad way. We watched gold leaf being made by hand and visited Kuthodaw Pagoda, home to “the world’s largest book,” consisting of 729 marble slabs inscribed with text, each housed in its own kyauksa gu (stone-inscription caves). It was a marvel to see, even in the rain.

Bagan

From Mandalay, we had a very leisurely boat ride up the Irrawaddy River to Bagan, which took all day. The route of this boat ride is also the main reason I opted to take the recommended anti-malaria meds – fortunately, no side effects.

The ancient city of Bagan boasts a unique landscape, dotted with the remains of 2,200 Buddhist temples and pagodas. We explored many of them, and I will confess I started to feel a certain pagoda fatigue after a while. But boy, did they make for some gorgeous vistas.

 

Yangon

You may be more familiar with the old colonial name for this city, Rangoon. Myanmar’s largest city and former capital, Yangon is a bustling metropolis – a complete contrast to Bagan, where horse and carriage was a common mode of transport, and cars went about 20 km/hr due to poor road conditions. Crossing the street in Yangon was terrifying, so I would grab my petite guide’s hand without hesitation and fully put my trust in her ability to get us safely and expertly to the other side. I have no idea how she did it.

Categories
Food Travel

Myanmar Markets and Meals

tea leaf salad
tea-leaf salad

I’ve finally dived back into the photos from my trip to Myanmar and Thailand last fall. In this post, I’ll be focussing on the food and markets of Myanmar.

Mandalay

We arrived in Mandalay via Bangkok, and the second-largest city in Myanmar gave me my first taste of Burmese food. It was here that I first noticed a beautiful quality to the light, and here that I first tried Myanmar’s famous tea-leaf salad. Verdict: unique.

vegetables with dipping sauce
tea-leaf salad

Bagan

On the boat from Mandalay to Bagan, we happened to run into another Canadian. I asked what she’d be doing in Bagan, and she told me about a cooking class she’d arranged via Facebook. It was called Pennywort Cooking Class, and May, the owner/chef/teacher puts part of the proceeds toward a community library run out of her house. I was intrigued. Since my travelling companion Alex and I had some upcoming free time, we decided to look into the cooking class.

Am I ever glad we ended up doing this. Accompanying May to her local (tourist-free) market and then walking over to her home to cook up a feast with all the fresh ingredients we’d just bought was a highlight of the entire trip. The meal was full of herbs and vegetables I’d never tried before, including tamarind leaves, wing beans, pennywort, and custard apples.

The Market

The Class

The Library at May’s House

When I asked if the library had opening hours, May said that technically it did, but she’s never turned anyone away no matter when they showed up.

Garage library
More books in an old commercial fridge

Inle Lake

A unique set of communities live on this lake in Myanmar’s Shan State, in stilted houses only accessible by boat. We had the opportunity to take another cooking class here, but this time in very different, more formal context: a resort chef guided us through making some local dishes, including delicious chunks of shan tofu – made from split-pea and chickpea flours, instead of soy.

Later on during our stay, we visited Thaung To market, part of Inle Lake’s rotating five-day market system. We arrived early since it closed at 9am, and I spotted no other tourists. What an incredible experience. Apart from all the cellphones, I felt like I’d gone back in time. I forced myself to take photos of people — which I’m usually too shy to do — and I’m glad I did.

kids on the way to school
barbershop

Lastly, I’ll leave you with two more things I ate in Myanmar: one I’d love to have again, and one that I did not enjoy. I’ll let you guess which is which.

woman cooking rice crackers in hot sand
fried shan tofu with dipping sauce