Day # 10 Mandalay to Inle Lake

Day #10 Mandalay to Heho – Pindaya Caves– Inle Lake 

January 13 

Today we fly to Heho airport and then take a 2-hour bus ride to to Pindaya and the Shwe Oo Min Cave. Unfortunately I came down with the typical tourist gut disease and lay most of the way on the seats at the back of bus.  Apparently I missed great views of sugar cane trees, ginger growing and fields of mountain rice.

 I did make the effort to get out of the bus to watch the wheat thrashing and found it fascinating. 

Men and women were madly banging wheat stalks on the ground that they had previously cut into 3-foot lengths. 

 

The wheat kernels were then swept up and sifted by a gorgeous woman using a flat bamboo tray. 

Real Teamwork 

There is a timeless, collaborative quality to this. I imagine this is the way wheat has been harvested for centuries.

Wine Break

 We stopped for another bathroom break where Oo Myint bought wine for us to try. While I forced myself reluctantly to take a sip since he seemed excited about this offering, I was too preoccupied with my rumbling GI to appreciate the fine wine. Or was it fine wine? Apparently there are two Shan state wineries founded by a German entrepreneur in good growing conditions at producing Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chenin Blank and Moscato grapes. Our group did not seem excited by the wine and most of the glasses went back mostly full. Instead the women were shopping ~ 

Eva, Nicole, Janonne  negotiate 

 necklaces and scarves were the highlight for most. Nicole and I bartered for two heavy necklaces made of small rocks and felt pleased with our price. (we later discovered we paid far more than the same necklace in Inle lake.. although with smaller rocks! Maybe it is like diamonds.. bigger is more expensive.) 







Janonne tries on a hat good enough for an 
ambassador but she doesn't seem tempted.






In this small town we saw many 
forms of transportation. Horse buggies delivered supplies to this small market. 






Then there were the  more
 advanced power driven trucks.

Tea & Tea Salad
Finally, Zanny managed to find the right salad tea ingredients at this stop.  She had been requesting this at each of our meals from Oo Myint but this dish did not seem to be part of standard dinner fare for tourist groups.  Having tea salad has been a preoccupation of Zanny’s since Yangon on this trip because previously she had been introduced to this dish by her son after he visited Burma. 

Coincidentally I have had an email from Anna who was here last year telling us that the one thing she wanted from Burma was the tea salad ingredients.  This dish called laphet, is fermented green tea leaves mixed with a combination of sesame seeds, fried peas, dried shrimp, fried garlic, peanuts and other crunchy and spicy ingredients. We were offered this dish the day before and I was not impressed with the look of this slimy-looking mass of leaves which reminded me of cow cud or baby food or something worse. Zanny said the dish she has previously tasted had fermented tea plus nuts along with slices of tomato, cabbage and a squeeze of lime.  She remembered fewer tealeaves and more cabbage in the dish she had tasted in San Francisco.

Pindaya Cave and Spider

 We continued to the cave and were greeted by Disney-esque sculptures of a gigantic black spider and prince with an arrow at the entrance to the cave.  Oo Myint tells us that there is a legend that 7 fairies (or princesses according to my book) took refuge in the cave during a storm. They were imprisoned by an evil Nat in the form of a spider. Lucky for them a heroic prince killed the spider with an arrow and freed them.  I think about staying on the bus due to some nausea and because this place seems just too touristy. However, curiosity and the prospect of a better toilet propels me forward ~ or perhaps being sick in a dark corner of a cave where no one can see me will be a good idea. Apparently our guide tells us this is supposed to be one of the most impressive golden cave temples in Shan State. 

I was surprised to see set in white limestone in a series of winding caves over 8,500 Buddhas in a variety of sizes and materials such as cement, marble, and teak wood. Some of these were very old and others placed there rather recently from places such as US, UK and Singapore.

The view outside the cave of the stupas was even more incredible. 

View from cave 

Umbrellas and parasols

 We continue a 3-hour ride to Inle Lake. John and Skip have their earphones on and I discover that John is listening to the Beattles ~ somehow this doesn’t seem to fit the context for me. But they both seem happy being able to listen to music and block out some of the noise of the very bumpy ride.  We stop at a place where Shan people are making parasols. 

Several women start with first designing and 
making the paper, 
which is embedded with local flowers and dried in the sun on wooden flats. 




Another man hand carves the wooden parasol handles including making the switch out of bamboo which opens and closes the parasol.

 

Everything local and organic seems to be used without the help of electricity, power tools or technology for this transformation of nothing into something spectacularly beautiful. Maybe you really can turn a sow’s ear into … a gold purse.  I am tempted to buy one but wonder how waterproof they would be in Seattle?

We meet the owner who is a
woman and I am happy to see women in leadership positions in Burma. Suu ky is a powerful model. 

We arrive at Inle Lake in the dark so we aren’t able to see the lake but we stay in a lovely hotel Pristine Lotus Spa Resort.  The group is a bit dismayed to find at dinner that internet here is quite sketchy and they have not been able to access emails.  Internet connection or lack of it has been an ongoing discussion throughout the trip. Nonetheless I am sure this Internet is much better than was even possible 2-3 years ago.  Nevertheless we all seem to have trouble unhooking ourselves from our technology. I think about how I am intrigued by the teamwork of the wheat and parasol workers I have seen that day and their reliance on their own power rather than technology.