Tag: Inle Lake

Categories
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
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