I‘m crazy paranoid about our luggage, given what happened on day 1, but it all goes smoothly.  We land in Heho airport, high in the southern Shan hills. Our next three days are going to be spent exploring and learning about the Shan state.

We first stop at a local store.  I’m not sure if this is really on the tour, or if Nyein Nyein just wants to do some shopping.

Mark loaded up on spices and tea.

As we were driving, we came upon a bunch of people harvesting cabbage and loading and transporting it by truck.   A city boy like me doesn’t get to see rural sights like this very often.

A few yards up the road was another cabbage cart, and a truck alongside of it.  It never ceases to amaze me how they transport people in this country.  People just pile on a truck, and off they go.  There’s no such thing as “capacity”.  The more the merrier.

We got to taste ’em right out of the oil.  They were awesome.  We bought a package.  They were gone by the time we reached Pindaya.

You drive up, then climb up one of the covered walkways, to the entry level.

You can continue the climb, or you can take the elevator.  We took the easy route.  So did most of the visitors.  Nyein Nyein led us to the larger capacity elevator, so we got up more quickly.  the elevator bypasses 130 of the steepest steps of the covered stairway. (There are 200 steps total, not as many as the 777 of Mount Popa, but still not easy, due to the steepness.)  To climb up by stairs takes 30 minutes.

There’s a nice terrace when you get off the elevator, and you get a nice perspective of the covered stairways flanking the elevator towers.

Time to go inside.  Lots of people heading up.

The cave itself is spectacular.  It is literally CRAMMED full of Buddha statues.   The sight of almost 10,000 golden statues  (Shwe Oo Min means “golden cave”) illuminated against the cave ceiling is something you never forget.  More statues are being added all the time by Buddhist pilgrims and an assortment of international organizations.  The cave is ancient, but the statues date back only to the late 18th century.

Sorry if the next bunch of photos seem repetitive, but this is what it was like in the cave.  Endless Buddhas.  They come in a variety of styles and sizes.  Some are wood, some are marble, some are stone.  It is the entire ensemble that really makes the impact, though.  The brain just can’t compute this much gold and these many images in one place at one time.

A few minutes later, who do we run into?  Renee, the woman we met on the second leg of our departure flight (from Beijing to Rangoon)!  She heard our voices, of all things, and came over to say hi.  While we were chatting, some Burmese visitors to the cave asked if they could take a photo with us.  This happened to us a few times on this trip.  The Burmese are still thrilled to see tourists and they want pictures with us.  I took a picture of them being photographed with Renee.  This love and fascination with tourists is another reason to see Burma now.

A couple of Buddha images had Naga, the serpent that protects Buddhism.

We finally exited the cave.  At the base of the stairs leading up, we encountered the famous diorama “The Archer and the Spider”.  This recalls the legend of the giant spider that captured seven princesses who were bathing in Pone Taloke Lake and imprisoned them in the Shwe Oo Min Cave.  Prince Kummabhaya of Inle Lake (that’s him with the bow and arrow) bravely battled the mega-arachnid, shooting it with a single deadly arrow.  The name of the city, Pindaya, is derived from Pinguya, which literally translates to “taken the spider”.

Very popular.  Lovely decor.  And again, the prices were amazing.

 There’s a page from the menu.  All of the beef dishes were 4200 kyat.  That’s $3.50. This entire meal for the three of us, with drinks, was about $13.

While waiting for our food, we went around the back to check out the scenery.  The restaurant borders the lake.  Beautiful scenery out back.

At the back of the restaurant, I spotted a kitten out back.  She was a very pale, dilute torte.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with the colors so diluted.  She was beautiful.  She was timid, but I rustled my hand in the grass, which got her attention, and I put my camera down at the level of the grass and took what I think is my best cat photo of the trip.

After lunch, we went to a paper-making place and saw the entire process.  A woman pounds the pulp until it’s soft.

She then spreads it out in this large square tray.

They apply petals from flowers to the wet pulp, making a nice design. The petals come from real plants, which you can see nearby.

Once it’s completed, they take it out of the water and let it dry.  Then then peel it off and voila!  A big sheet of parchment type paper, from which they make all sorts of pads, journals, and parasols.

These women must perform this demonstration countless times for tourists, and yet you can see how enthusiastic and friendly they remain.  This is just the nature of Burmese people.  They love life and they treat visitors and guests with kindness and generosity.

On the premises was also a guy who makes parasols.  We watched him very skillfully whittle out a parasol.  Amazingly precise and talented.

Nearby was a pile of parasols that he had recently completed.

The shop nearby had a variety of different parasols that were made on the premises.  They had a good business going.  There were loads of tourists buying them up.

Our destination isn’t actually Inle Lake.  While it’s possible to stay at a hotel right on the lake, the de facto base for most visitors to Inle Lake is the small town of Nyaungshwe.  This little town is a beneficiary in the growing tourism trade, with hotels and restaurants popping up like mushrooms.  The town has handled it well, though, and the small-town charm hasn’t been diluted at all.

As we approached Nyaungshwe, we saw one of the prettiest of all the monasteries in the area, the Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung.  It’s about 1.5 miles north of town. Before we went to the monastery, however, we checked out the white building next door.

I cannot find, on the internet or in any book, the name of this building, but it was very unique.  The walls are lined by tiny cells, each containing a small Buddha.  The walls themselves are decorated with glass mosaics.

This was another situation where we had the entire place to explore on our own.  We were completely by ourselves.  Again, if you visit Burma, do it soon, before this becomes impossible.

There were deserted hallways and quiet empty courtyards.  When you went through, though, you encountered more walls with more cubbyholes with more Buddhas.

A peek out one of the doorways revealed the Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung (monastery) across the way.

I saw a very cute scene as we approached the monastery.  As with all holy places, you have to take off your shoes before going in.  Here’s the stairs leading to the monastery.  You can see all the shoes.

Well, I spotted a little puppy nearby, with something in his mouth.  I got a little closer and discovered that he was proudly parading around with someone’s sandal! Too cute!

It really is the little things like this that make traveling so wonderful.

We entered the monastery.  Note the splendid carved teak eaves.

The monastery has a traditional thein (ordination hall) which is lined with unique oval windows.  Young monks happily pose for photographs when foreign tourists visit the monastery.

It actually looks better when you take the photo from the outside, looking up. Makes for a more dramatic photo.

And on a terrace outside.  This little calico was keeping herself entertained by batting a little pebble across the deck.

She was soon joined by a friend.

He got bored, though, and retired to his little cushion.

 We finally arrived at our hotel, the Mingalar Inn.  This was a family owned place, and you could feel the warmth and hospitality the moment you check in.

The hotel itself is a tale of two cities.  Or two wings, actually.  Rooms in the old wing are huge, with a no-frills, authentic, homey feel.  Rooms in the new wing are gorgeous, with fancy coffee tables, bathtubs, and balconies with deck chairs overlooking the pool.  We went with the old wing, and not just because of the better price (we’re talking only $65 a night for this room!), but also for the more low-key, genuine feel.

  The room was really enormous.  There were two beds, a coffee table, and three leather chairs, and a few dressers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We rested up a bit, because we had a big night ahead:  The Taunggyi Fire Balloon Festival.

I had read about this festival in guidebooks, and I had our travel agent arrange the itinerary so that we were in the Inle Lake area on the day of the festival.  Taunggyi is about an hour and a half away from Nyaungshwe.  Taunggyi is famed for their balloon festival, which takes place very year in October or November, at the end of the rainy season, when the chill of winter is about to abate.  This is the most famous, colorful, and potentially lethal celebration in Shan State.  Legend says the festival originated 1000 years ago, although the balloon part is a more recent addition.  Seen as offerings to the Sulamani memorial in one of the heavens of Buddhist cosmology, extravagantly decorated giant unmanned hot air balloons made of rice paper are lit and released over a period of three nights, watched by crowds of thousands of people.  The balloons have fireworks attached to them, and the more the balloons explode, the louder the cheers. As they explode, they shower the crowd below with fiery embers. Last year, four people died after a balloon mishap.  It’s a day trip by taxi from Nyaungshwe, and traffic can be bad coming back in the late evening, partly due to the fact that many on the road are pretty drunk. There is no shortage of YouTube videos of the mayhem that can result.  Our tour company stressed that we go at our own risk.

Because we had to leave early, we didn’t have time to eat at a restaurant.  We stopped at a place called Disney (still not sure if this place is actually owned by Disney – the sign on the store was done in the classic Disney font – or if they just appropriated the name) and got some fried chicken and beer to go.

There was a huge number of people on the road going there.  Lots of young folks on motorbikes.  Sometimes three or even four people on one bike.  We passed trucks that were unbelievably loaded up with revelers.

As we approached the festival site, we could see the lights from some rides.

The festival takes place in an enormous field.  Our driver apparently had special privileges and was able to park in a special parking lot that was overseen by the tourist police (yes, there’s a police squad whose job it is to make sure us tourists are safe and happy.  Seriously.)

There was also a viewing stand for tourists only.  That’s where we ended up. That’s it, in the photo on the right.  It has a covered roof.  It was like sitting in the bleachers at a ball game.

There were entire families there, spreading out their blankets and just hanging out, eating, napping.  They spent the entire day there.

I expected to eat there, but Nyein Nyein said that the food there was twice as expensive as the regular price, because you’re a captive audience there.   I would have rather eaten there, though.  They had a huge selection of food, as you can see.  A lot of it looked really tasty.

Not sure what this was, but I definitely wanted some.

Don’t forget the bubble tea!

We ended up wandering into this beer station and ordered some food to accompany our fried chicken.

I forgot what we ordered, except for the Myanmar brand beer.

The good thing about this beer stand is that you have a decent view of the balloons going up without having to be in the huge mass of humanity on the field.

These balloons are really nice, but they’re not the star attraction of the festival.  The ones that get the crowd excited are the rice paper ones that are ignited with fireworks.

Designing, constructing, transporting, and then flying each enormous (some of them are three stories tall!) balloon is quite the undertaking, considering how fragile these paper balloons are.  It can take a group of six to ten people up to two weeks to construct a single balloon.

I don’t have a still photo of this balloon ascending, and then exploding as the fireworks attached to it were ignited.  I took a video, but it’s too big to upload to this blog.  But if you go to YouTube and type in “Taunggyi Fire Balloon Festival”, you can see the mayhem and destruction for yourself.

I kinda regret not being able to experience this to the fullest, like we would have if Mark and I were on our own, without a guide.  We would have meandered deep into the crowd and really experienced this annual, wild Burmese festival ’til the wee hours of the morning.  Alas, logistics prevented this from ever happening.  But Nyein Nyein did take us reasonably deep into the fairgrounds.  She said a police officer said that there were 200,000 people there!

 To end the evening on a wacky note:  I was standing at the festival with Mark and Nyein Nyein, taking it all in and chatting away.  I looked down, and saw Nyein Nyein’s feet.  I knew I only had one beer, so I wasn’t drunk and imagining it.  She has six toes on each foot!  How crazy is that?!

After watching a balloon explode and rain dangerous sparks onto the delighted crowd below, we made our exit.  We arrived back at the hotel around 2:00 a.m.   More adventures tomorrow!