On the 20th I took a 10 hour boat ride through Pioneer Cruise, from Mandalay to Bagan. Initially I was disappointed to board because I'd read that the boat was a place to mingle with locals, but there were none. I enjoyed myself though and made friends with Eoin from Ireland and Phil from Germany. We ended up linking up later that night with Tammy, who I'd met from lonely planet and shared a room with. We all ate dinner in Bagan and heard live music coming from a shop next door. Curious, we peeked inside and several men waved us in enthusiastically. We spent a couple of hours with them, drinking beers and fully entertained by their characters as much the music they played on acoustic guitars. The following day was spent on an Ebike (these should be offered everywhere!) with Tammy, seeing pagoda after pagoda and Buddha after Buddha. I needn't go into detail about the rich history and religion that permeates Bagan, but it almost felt like time forgot about this place. Incredible. We met a teenage boy named Zaw Zaw who insisted we come to his bamboo home in the Myin Ka Par Village for tea/dinner and there we met his parents, U Ko Ko Oo and Daw Khin Mar Yee, and younger sister Su Su. The family was so excited to have us over, though the parents spoke no English, the kids were decent translators. We swapped information about our backgrounds and cultural norms, while trading paper hand held fans back and forth to keep from melting into the floor. The parents insisted on giving Tammy and me bags of tea and a couple other trinkets when we left.
The next morning I was up at sunrise to catch the hot air balloons over the pagodas. I managed to crash the Ebike in the sand, just when I was getting confident in my abilities, luckily only several people saw and I hopped back on with a scraped knee. Later I met up with Phil and Eoin again and visited a few more pagodas, had lunch, and kicked it outside of their hostel until I caught the night bus to kalaw. Initially I sat in the front of the bus but they Rosa Parks'd me to the back, which was fine because I caught all the bumps, comparable to a roller coaster! I was on cloud 9 by this point in the trip and thrilled to start the 3 day trek the next morning Kalaw>Inle lake@9am. The bus was supposed to drop off in kalaw at 4am but it was actually 2, so I walked to the only place open, a 24 hour cafe. 7 hours to kill, still exhausted, what would I do? I ordered black tar, I mean tea, and some eggs. I vomited them up in the back alley maybe an hour later and fell asleep on a stool with my head on my bag on my lap. (My friend lauren has commented my ability to fall asleep anywhere impresses her). The next few hours were spent rearranging my sore body, earning small windows of delirious sleep, and regretting eating those damn eggs, or the tea, whatever it was that had me feeling like shit. I'm a stubborn gal though, and was not about to miss this trek, so I checked in with the coordinator, had my most unpleasant squat toilet experience yet, (the title in my memory bank as 'poop soup') and hurried to find some obligatory breakfast before the trek began. Of course the ONLY other open establishment besides the eggs of Satan (DIE IER VON SATAN) was Indian food. This has always been one of my favorite ethnic foods, but it wasn't appealing at 830 am with a rumbly tummy. However, I was wise enough to know not to go hiking all day in the sun on an empty stomach so I scarfed down what I could of the potato curry and hurried to meet my trek group. There were 10 of us including the guide, and we were led out of town through forest and hillside. The views were outstanding and it felt serene to be back exercising in nature with only the sounds of wildlife, but I couldn't fully enjoy myself because I felt so hellish. We stopped for lunch at a small home cafe that serves- you guessed it- Indian food! I wasn't going to have any, but I WAS going to run around back and projectile vomit several times through mouth and nose next to a pile of logs. A stray dog intently hovered close by and I tried to shoo him off without calling attention to my glamorous situation. It didn't matter, people saw anyway. But at least I felt better and there was an abundance of watermelon ! The rest of the trek was memorable for the beauty we passed, averaging about 7 hours of hiking per day; also memorable because I had forgotten TP and soap, which was fine because there were no showers anyway. The first night we slept in a family's home in a village and there was a bucket of water in an outhouse available for bathing, but by the time we reached there it was dark, cold, and my body demanded rest. I intended to bathe the next night, then we were told there would be no bucket, as the people in that village have to trek via cow and cart several times a week to a creek to get water for their families, and we didn't want to use their hard earned supply. On the final day of the trek, our guide Itun left us at the southern base of Inle lake and we took a small boat about an hour up to Nyaungshwe, the town at the northern tip. It was fascinating to see all the locals working in the lake, their livelihoods depending on different elements such as boating their produce to different villages up and down the coast.
Once in Nyaungshwe, I departed from my trek mates and who should I bump into but Eoin and Phil! I took a much needed shower in the room I would share w Tammy, and we all rented bikes to cycle up to Red Mountain Vineyard. Sauvignon blanc was devoured as we worshipped the sun set on the hill. Later we watched kids roller skate at an outdoor rink in town, highly impressed with their skill and dedication to the craft lol. I said farewell to Phil and Eoin, for we were all leaving the next day; I wanted to join them at Ngapali beach but it would've been too expensive for me to get to. Hsipaw was top on my list to visit, but I was pressed for time and would have to backtrack across the country again. Where would I go? It was exciting to not have a plan, back on my own
