I was still waiting – and so was he

As the sun was going to leave this part of the world for a few hours i climbed up to the temple on the hill – and it was full of dogs.

Good night Kalaw – only 2 more hours till the bus…
I told the woman i want to go with the new company – with the new bus – the good one! Well she put me in the bus from hell – so no sleep till Brooklyn and Mandalay. There i have a Trisha driver that pedaled me for 70 minutes to my guesthouse. Finally in the bed at 5.20 in the morning.

After the quite days hiking and at the Lake Inlay this was a culture shock. Cars, trucks, buses and everywhere noise noise noise – other than in Yangon where motorcycles are not allowed – here they try to catch up with Saigon and Hanoi.
So i was not really pleased with the start of the 1st day here.

Good old Mrs. Show – when i was 1st here 10 years ago she was here as well

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Hiking down to the lake we did cross the rails at the 1st day. Thinking the train takes that route up to Kalaw i decided to take it.

That includes getting up when the monks collect food in the very early morning. I went out of the hotel and a taxi dropped 2 guys at the hotel. Good – i took it to the train station. Saves the walk to the Tuck Tuck station, a cold ride in the open car, changing to another Tuck Tuck at the junction – and best of all – i have a lot of space instead of way to less.
The car was an old English model build in 1960. Had a 6 in a line that sucked to much gas so they put a Toyota diesel in it and while doing so replaced the whole cockpit with the one from the Toyota as well.
Nice ride – short distance and only flat – other than that this would be a nightmare, mind you, at 6 in the morning.

At the station i learned that the train is at 9 – WTF??? I was way to early. So i did search a spot in the rising sun and read. And waited and read and waited.
Later i could get the ticket. This takes ages as they have to write down your whole passport for what ever reason. And than the old “i do not like this dollar note cause it was folded” game started.
After that it was more waiting as the train is never in time. So lets inspect the other one.

This looks good – yellow plastic on top and the red down – like the manual said!

Fresh cleanded

The bistro in place – ready to go!

After more than 90 minutes delay we took of only to stop at every bamboo house on the way. At the stations you get all sorts of food.

You do not even have to leave your seat.

At noon we had a lunch break – like it was a bus! 45 minutes – so everybody can get something to eat. The train was inspected and here and there they fixed something. The guys on the roof check how much diesel is left.

Only 2 and 1/2 hours later as scheduled we arrived finally in Kalaw. 4 more hours till my bus to Mandalay. Enough time for tea and than a cold Tiger. After this train ride i shall never take the train in Myanmar again. Looks like i did not remember the ride a few years ago…

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One of my personal favorites on the lake is feeding the sea gulls. It is one of my favorite animal – nice build – form follows function, this bird has it all. I could do this every day – at Inlay at last

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There are loads of “tourist” workshops on the lake – selling products that where made in the shop and elsewhere on the lake. at last most of them?? When you go with the boat you hear the weaving machines all over in the villages so i guess that a lot of the stuff they sell is really from here.
this one is a newer and big place. They make cotton, silk and lotus flower fabrics. You can than buy scarfs, trousers, blankets, shirts and what not.

This is the stem of the lotus leave. inside are a few very very fine threads – if you would not know better you would think it is a spiders work. Of course you need loads to have a thread ready to weave…

Here you can combine different colors or materials into one thread – if you like fabric that has a different shine than a single color one would have.

Grandma gets the material ready to use it in the machine.

This is where grandma’s work ends up – in the hand of the weaving machine operator (sounds good??)

With the pedals you can make pattern – the more pedals are installed the more complex the pattern can be.

Of course – i was waiting for that. The Long Neck do actually come from 200 km away. But now – took them quite a while – a few of the shops have “Long Neck products” along with original long necks. Guess still better than in Thailand where they have Long Neck zoos even in the south now…

Gabi – this one is for you. The Jumping Cat Monastery – where they have them jump every time there are enough visitors there. The last few years it where the monks that did the show. guess they are to lazy now – the boss monk rings a bell and than the boy does the show. now i do not see the big difference with a dog show here – and all the cat people tell me the cat has a mind of its own and all the bla bla

Enough for one day – lets get back home

Truck Engine Wash Center

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Floating Garden

There are a few villages on the lake

Temples as well…

Raw material for the many tourist shops

The most important temple

And the 5 Buddahs in it. Over the years people put so much gold on it – you can only imagine how they looked

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Marius – why not start a biz over here???

The lake is still misty – birds…

The famous Inlay Lake rowing

Different technique

Monk Express

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Nice to go for sun set with a small boat into the channels

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On the way to work

It is not allowed to cut trees anymore – and did you see a lot left on the pictures?? so now the people build stone houses. Looks not so nice – but much better for the environment. Good thing that they have everything they need in front of the villages. They shred the stone and mix it with water and chalk – leave it overnight and press it the next morning. Than they let it dry for a week or longer – voila – ready to build walls.

Ricecake seller

We made it to the lake and go with the boat to the other end. That was a nice 2.5 days tour. Next time i might do this in 4 days to see some more…

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Afternoon at the second day. This is chili country!

These guys make nothing than bamboo baskets – smoke, chat and laugh. At last it was like that the last time i was here and this is years ago!

Sesame

After another 5 star meal washed down with chinese beer, and a few tea n’ rum later we went to bed – no power anyway and what to do in a monastery??

Waking up at 5 to the monks chanting it still was to early to do anything else than dream away again. At sunrise we got up and had another very good breakfast!

The highlight of every day – people and nature

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Nothing changed in Yangon so i did not bother to make pictures and i do not want to bore you with the same same to much – at surfdog.de you find a lol of them
Did take the bus up to Kalaw with a stop in Pyai

Hanging out near the river

This time i hiked down from Kalw to the Lake. Together with a german girl, our guide and a cook. This was in the morning the view from our window.

Breakfast

Truck

A camera friendly water buffalo

friendly kids all over the villages

i have a few nice pictures of the baby buffalo

before

after

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