Gone Fishin’ By a Shady-Wady Pool

I’m wishin’ I could be that kind of fool. We drove 45 minutes to get to the Yangon bus station from our hotel. Neither one of us knew what we’d find there. Myanmar’s accommodations are modest at best, and judging from the vintage cars on the road, we braced ourselves for a clunker of a bus. However, when we arrived at the bus ‘hut’ (because that’s what it was), we were pleasantly surprised to see a very modern bus awaiting us.

Inside the bus, we were given Coca Colas, pastry snacks, water, and a blanket. The chairs were like a Lazy-Boy recliner – and yes, they actually reclined and had foot rests. Not bad, Myanmar! We settled into our seats nicely and took turns reading Shantaram on the Kindle (thanks Evan!) We made stops along the way for bathroom breaks (there are no bathrooms on said luxury buses) and we also made a dinner stop at this random place in what felt like the middle of nowhere. My sensitive stomach dictated that I only get vegetarian fare, while Shiv heartily helped himself to some yummy chicken dish.

For all of the comfort that the bus offered, we still found ourselves unable to sleep throughout the night. Driving in Myanmar is a bit of a curiosity. There are often no street lights (and certainly no crosswalks for pedestrians – it’s like a real life game of Frogger) and the roads are in bad disrepair, which means there is a lot of frequent breaking, a lot of jostling of the bodies, and so much honking. At first, I thought the honking was just random, but after several bus rides in Myanmar, I came to understand that there is a method to the honking madness: it is to let other drivers know that you are coming around a turn and/or are going to be passing them. And it happens just about every 2-5 minutes. Honk, honk!

With the breaking and the jostling and the honking, we fell in and out of sleep until we finally arrived at the Inle Lake bus parking lot around 6am, 12 hours after we left Yangon. There were a host of rickshaw drivers there awaiting our arrival, ready to take us to our hotels. We threw our bags on one, and sped off to the Golden Dream Hotel. Tired, we couldn’t wait to catch up on some solid sleep. And sleep we did – all the way through to 10am.

And it was in Inle Lake where Shiv discovered that his tendency to plan when we get there, wasn’t going to work out so well. We were in a time crunch to get out of Myanmar before the elections (US gov posted a warning regarding travel) and we realized we weren’t going to be able to do all the things we wanted to do in Myanmar. Some tough decisions had to be made.

But first, lunch. We ate at a great Myanmar-style place called the Unique Superb Food House. I had pumpkin and chicken curry, Shiv had fish curry, and we shared some shan-style rice. The young daughter of the owner came up to us with a plate full of those little bananas they have here and proudly announced, Banana! to us. We thanked her in our best Burmese: jay su bay tin baw day.

With some delicious food in our tummies, decision making became a little easier. We decided we’d explore around the lake today and then we’d get up early to catch a sunrise on Inle Lake. This plan also helped us to avoid the tourist traps around the lake area during peak hours. Again, we relied on the friendly help of the hotel staff to help us out. We rented bikes to get around the lake and then we arranged for another bus the next day to take us to Bagan.

We pedaled to a winery, Red Mountain Estates and Vineyard, to enjoy some wine tasting and a nice view. We certainly enjoyed the nice view, but I can’t say we enjoyed the wine. It wasn’t terrible, but it did lack a depth of flavor in all of the wines we sampled. Or maybe we are just California wine snobs? In any case, it was a nice rest after pedaling for a while. Recommended regardless for anyone who finds themselves in the area.

We pedaled back to our hotel and dropped off our bikes. Shiv found a great place to eat, Thanaka Garden, so we rested up a bit and got ready to go out. We had the freshest fish with delicious herbs on top and the best tea leaf salad in all of Myanmar. We ate it too fast to even get a picture! Cute little Myanmar-style paper parasols with lights behind them and open deck made for a great atmosphere too. We were sad we couldn’t eat more here. Again, if you are in the area, we highly recommend this restaurant, especially if you have a free afternoon to enjoy the outdoor seating and hookah available (if you’re into that). They’ll even put thanaka on your face!

Knowing that we had an early day in the morning, we got to bed early. Our boat driver, Ko Pu, was going to pick us up at the hotel at 5:15 am. We arose early, dressed in our trusty Uniqlo jackets, and followed Ko Pu to the docks. The boats they have are long, black slivers that are tipped up on the ends. The inside is planked and they are colorfully painted. The motors to these boats are not covered which makes for a very load and very smoggy morning on the lake.

The lake is Myanmar’s second largest and it’s not very deep, averaging about 7 feet in depth. Most of the people who live in the area do so in stilted bamboo huts. We were up so early in the morning that we got to witness how people start their day, often by fishing or by delivering goods (picture stacks and stacks of rice bags) to and from places in the lake via boat. The people here have developed a unique way of fishing due to the large amount of plants and reeds. Standing on the stern of the boat, they wrap one leg around an oar to paddle while both of their free hands hold a fishing basket or net to scoop up fresh fish. I really had to marvel at the sheer grace demonstrated by these fishermen. This style of fishing demands a lot of balance and control… I couldn’t help but think of my ballet girls. If they were about to fall into a lake on the edge of a boat, would they find their inner grace?? Me thinks so.

We told our boat driver that we wanted to avoid the touristy places, and he obliged us by taking us to a little, remote village. While we got some friendly smiles, we were also met with some looks of outright disdain. It made us feel uncomfortable because we didn’t want to make others feel that way – we were just curiously enthralled by this incredible way of life. It inhibited us from taking any pictures. But, we did get in some snaps of the famous floating gardens. Huge rows of dirt collected from the lake bottom serve as the soil for growing lusciously red tomatoes (some of which we sampled in our delicious tea leaf salads!)

At about 8:00 am, we headed back to the dock. We had to check out of our hotel and then hop on a rickshaw to get us to the bus station so we could get on yet another bus to Bagan. Shiv and I decided that it would have been nice to spend one more day at Inle if time had been on our side. A sharp contrast to Yangon, it offers a sleepy lake village vibe with few touristy distractions (contrary to what we had read online).