Another early start to drive back to Heho for the flight to Yangon and the end of our Myanmar trip. In the afternoon we head to the Shwedegon Paya – the grandest and most sacred pagoda in Myanmar.

Shwedegon Paya — We have seen lots of incredible pagodas, but nothing yet comes even close to the magnitude and majesty of Shwedegon!

The Shwedegon Paya sits on top of Singutarra Hill at what was originally the center of the city of Dagon when King Alaungpaya conquered it and renamed it Yangon in 1755. By legend, 2600 years ago two merchant brothers gave the King eight hairs given them by the Buddha for which the King built a gold temple on this hill. Evidence of the original stupa dates to the 6th to 10th centuries, and a dated brick on the site is from the 15th century, when gilding of the stupa began. Over the intervening years, the main stupa has been repaired several times and the site has been populated with a host of additional shrines and stupas.

Shwedegon’s main terrace sits on the Hill which is 167 feet above sea level and the stupa rises another 325 feet above that. The experience of the pagoda begins with entrance to one of the four grand, covered staircases (East, West, South, North) climbing to the terrace. Each staircase is unique in design, and one, the western entrance, has a series of escalators.

The exit from the western staircase onto the terrace takes your breath away. The incredible array of shrines and stupas all set around the central pagoda, which itself is immense, covered in layers of gold leaf (27 metric tons of it), and topped with an umbrella-liked “hti” loaded with thousands of diamonds, rubies, and other precious gems set on bracelets and necklaces donated by the faithful.

Farewell Group dinner – LinkAge — We leave the Shwedegon Pagoda as it grows dark and head to our farewell dinner as a group at LinkAge, a non-profit organization supported by GAdventures our tour company. LinkAge provides young people in need training in the restaurant business — serving, cooking, and managing — and helps place them in jobs at the end of their training and certification.

The dinner is a well-executed mix of Middle Eastern, Thai, Myanmar, and Chinese dishes that highlight features of each cuisine and bring it all together enjoyably. We start with an excellent smoky eggplant spread reminiscent of a good Baba Gannouj and a Myanmar salad of tea leaves with lots of crunchy additions; followed by a very spicy Thai vegetable soup; Myanmar curried prawns; Chinese sweet and sour chicken and vegetable; topped off with a semolina cake with vanilla and coconut ice cream. An enjoyable feast served with skill and smiles by the trainees.

Farewell to Myanmar — So now we must say farewell to Myanmar and to our fabulous GAdventures leader Chit Htut, who made all of our travel so much richer and enjoyable. We are on to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, but we will always have a special place in our hearts for the warm and friendly people of Myanmar.

All along the way, the people we meet in Myanmar are gracious and beautiful, with a ready smile and a friendly disposition. As the Myanmar part of our trip comes to a close, we want to take an opportunity to share photos of some of the people we met or saw along the way.

There are things about Myanmar that make it truly different from any other place. That is it’s charm. But it is also the source of many headscratching moments. Here are a few that we found the most fascinating:

Half-hour time difference — Myanmar has a time zone all to itself. It is one of a handful of half-hour time zones around the world, and it is a half-hour behind the rest of SE Asia. When it is 11:00 in Bangkok, it is 10:30 in Yangon.

Driving on the right with the steering wheel on the right — Driving on the left in Burma was a vestige of British colonial rule (which ended in 1946) — In 1970, reportedly on the advice of his astrologer, General Ne Win declared the country would switch to driving on the right. Despite the change, Myanmar continued to import cars from Japan with the steering wheel on the right. The government finally got around to banning importation of right-hand drive vehicles in 2017, but grandfathered the existing ones. Most of the vehicles on the road today (including buses) have the steering wheel on the right but drive on the right hand side of the street.

Longyi — The longyi is an anklet-length cotton skirt worn by men and women – women wrap it with the tie on the side, men wrap it with the tie in front. The longyi is very practical and attractive and has patterns that can communicate one’s ethnic group – if the wearer cares to do so — much like Scotland where men also wear skirts with patterns that communicate one’s clan. Men wearing skirts is quite rare in the modern world, but Burmese men at all levels take pride in wearing theirs.

Written Burmese – The Burmese alphabet has 33 characters (vowels are expressed as marks on these characters) — many of them a variation of a circle or semi-circle. Words are written all together — only phrases are separated — making it even more difficult to distinguish the characters. Burmese is related to two Indian languages — Pali and Sanskrit.

Names — Unlike most other naming systems where some part of a child’s name shows his or her family relationship, Burmese names do not show the individual’s connection to a family. In fact, a Burmese child’s name may bear no relationship to names of either of his or her parents.

For the majority of families, the parents would not name their child – they would go to an astrologer with the child’s birth day and time of birth and the astrologer would choose a name. There is a naming convention based on the day of the week on the which the child was born (this day figures significantly in other aspects of life). A child born on Sunday would have a name starting with one of the first four letters of the alphabet. A child born on Monday would have a name starting with one of the second four letters of the alphabet. Once the name is chosen, the parents host a naming celebration.

A minority of parents choose a name for their child themselves — and may base it on crazy things. In any event, the name for that individual does not identify his or her family connection.

Capital moved to Nay Pyi Taw – (Royal City in the Sun) by the military government in 2005. Nay Pyi Taw is a modern city created to be the capital for its central location — it is midway up the Irrawaddy between Yangon and Mandalay. It is reported to feel like Brasilia or other similarly soulless expanses created to house government offices. The effect has been to isolate government workers. Embassies have refused to move and remain in Yangon.

Burmese Cuisine — Located between India, China, and Thailand — at some point, the Burmese must have decided not to try to compete with these exemplars of hot and spicy food. Myanmar restaurants offer relatively few variations on the theme of curry — and the term curry is applied to a thick sauce on meat, not a soupy sauce that can be soaked up by rice. The curry sauce is not spicy like India’s. In fact, there are few instances of spicy Myanmar food. That is not to say that the food is not tasty, but rather that it is, with some exceptions, unimaginative.

Departing Inle Lake — It is cold with the sun just rising in the early morning as we bundle up and prepare for a 45-minute high speed longboat ride up the lake to Nyaung Shwe. We load on our van and head out on our triangular route for the day — southwest to Pindaya and then southeast to Kalaw.

Umbrella making — we stop at a small shop along the way to Pindaya to see the art of making parasols out of homemade Shan paper. The paper is made from fiber from mulberry trees that is soaked in water, mixed with ash into a soft dough and pounded with a wooden mallet; then spread on a frame of cotton cloth submerged in water. Flower petals and leaves are arranged on the pulp in a pattern and then the frame is set to dry in the sun. When dry, the paper is peeled from the cotton cloth.

The parasol frames are made from bamboo — including a clever locking mechanism on the parasol handle. The paper is cut to fit and clued to the frame. Myanmar parasols are very colorful and are used everywhere to provide shade in the hot, sunny afternoons.

Shwe Oo Min Natural Cave — in the hills above Pone Taloke Lake there is a limestone cavern which houses over 8,000 Buddhas. We drive up a steep road road with hairpin turns to get there.

A local legend has is that 7 angels descended from heaven one day to bathe in the lake. They stayed there too long and by the time they returned to heaven the gates were closed. They had to return to earth and they decided the cave in the side of the mountain was a good place to spend the night. When the angels settled in the cave, they saw a huge spider that had spun webs everywhere and they were afraid and crying. A young prince who was out hunting in the area heard them crying and went to the cave. The Prince killed the spider and rescued the angels and was enamored with the youngest angel. The angel and the Prince fell in love with each other. Don’t ask me what the purpose of the story is – or if the angels ever made it back to heaven or whether there is a happy ending.

What is interesting about the cavern, though, is the immensity of the caves and the sheer number of shrines. We leave our shoes behind as we climb the stairs. At the entrance to the elevator, we encounter a large group of 11- or 12-year old novice monks who want to have their picture taken with us, and then we head up the elevators with them — they to pray and us to wander through the caves…amazed and the almost endless number of rooms, each full of golden Buddhas.

Lunch by the lake — Finding our way back out of the caves, we drive back down to Pone Taloke Lake and the Green Tea Restaurant overhanging the lake, where we enjoyed a group meal our leader Chit had pre-ordered. Then we head to Kalaw.

Kalaw — was a high mountain outpost created by the British colonists to escape from the heat. It still has trappings from the colonial era and has retained the feel of a mountain resort town. Trekkers come here as a base for hiking. We check out the old colonial train station, the last hour of the market, the silver temple, the mosque, and the end of the school day with an outpouring of students in their school uniforms (green pants or skirt and white shirt or blouse). The chill sets in at dusk as we head to the Everest Nepali Food Center to finish the day off with some good Indian food.

The Five-Day Market – All of the villages around the lake have their own daily markets. Each day, the Five-Day Market moves to a different village and for one day the array of fresh, lake-grown fruits and vegetables, fresh fish, and other household goods greatly expands in that village, attracting residents from other villages around the lake. We encounter the market in the town of Inlein.

Lake-side Crafts – different villages are known for particular crafts they specialize in. Boating around the lake, we stop in to see silversmithing, weaving, cheroot making, and boat building.

Silversmithing — Extracting the silver ore from rock is done at extremely high temperatures at a facility away from the lake. The small shop on stilts we visit starts the process with impure silver ore and heats it in a small cauldron to a high temperature to burn off the impurities. When it is 95% pure silver, the molten ore is poured into a mold and cooled to harden into a small ingot, which is then pounded, cut, and shaped into various decorative pieces.

Weaving — Lotus fiber yields a locally-produced thread that is woven either alone or in combination with silk to produce fabric for scarves. The fiber is pulled from a lotus stem, twisted together, and spun into a tough thread for weaving. In this shop, the weavers work on old-fashioned floor looms.

Cheroot Making — the Cheroot is a small, mild, and sometimes flavored cigar, smoked by men and women in this area. Small factories along the lake wrap the tobacco in a cheroot leaf, adding flavoring at the end of the process.

Boatbuilding — the longboats are the basis for transportation around the lake, and many of them are built by boat builders on the lake. Long teak planks are cut on site, bent to fit the boat’s frame, and then pegged to the frame. Spaces between the planks are caulked with an acacia sap and then the whole boat is painted. Repainting is done every two years.

Home Visit for Lunch — We are hosted for lunch by a family that lives on the lake. We are warmly welcomed. Their home is beautiful, an elegant table is set for us and the lunch is a feast of local specialties.

A Lakeside Temple Visit — Phaung Daw Oo pagoda is the holiest religious shrine in southern Shan State. Five gold Buddhas sit at the center of the pagoda, so thick with applied gold leaf that they now resemble blobs. The number five has special meaning in Buddhism — it represents the five lives of the Buddha (of which he is currently in life four). Legend has it that the five gold Buddhas were lost in the lake when the ship sunk in a storm. Only four were recovered with the ship. When everyone returned to the temple, the fifth was sitting there. As a result, every year now, four get transported around the lake and the fifth remains in the temple.

Jumping Cats No More — the Nga Phe Chaung (Jumping Cats) monastery was home to an older monk who had trained the resident cats to jump through hoops. When the monk passed on to his next life, the cats went back to being diffident cats. Our leader – Chit – uses the painted panels around the monastery to walk us through the life of the Buddha.

Temple of a Thousand Stupas — Alongside the covered walkway leading up from the town of Inthein to the Shwe Inn Thein pagoda, there is a ruined temple – Nyaung Ohak – with signs of ornate decorations. Further up the hill is a collection of 1,054 stupas, several of which are under repair.

Sunset on Inle Lake — On the way back to our hotel we pass lake farmers finishing up their work for the day. The sun is slipping down behind the mountains across the lake, creating a fiery tint as the sky darkens. Another day, another glorious sunset!

Inle Lake is a popular spot for tourists and vacationers in Shan State, east of Bagan. The lake is 116 sq km in size – the second largest lake in Myanmar. It lies in a valley between two mountain ranges – at the beginning of the eastern mountains. At 3,000 feet elevation from sea level, temperatures at this time of year (winter) drop into the 40s at night.

Planes, Rickshaws, and Longboats — Early in the morning we fly from Bagan to Heho — the airport that serves Bagan.. From there it is a bus ride to Nyaung Shwe, and then a ride in a bike-pedaled rickshaw to the docks, and from there by longboat to our hotel on the lake.

Nyaung Shwe — Before heading out on Inle Lake, we stop at the Shwe Yaunghwe Kyaung Monastery, which is known for its old teak ordination hall with oval windows – a gorgeous building. The novice monks are in classes when we arrive, but break for lunch.

Ethnic Lake Villages — Inle Lake is ringed by twenty or more small villages populated by a variety of ethnic groups, among them Pa-o, Palaung, Karen or Kayah, Shan, and Danu. Houses and temples in many of the villages built on the lake are raised on stilts above the water. Transportation around the lake is by longboat (a long wooden canoe-like boat with a unique long-tailed outboard motor). Houses are lined along canal-like “streets” that intersect with other “streets” and occasional wider canal-like thoroughfares along which the longboats race.

Intha Fisherman — The Lake is home to a unique group of Intha fisherman who carry large bamboo cone-shaped weirs that they use to trap and then spear fish. An Intha fisherman stands in the bow of his longboat and paddles one long oar with the heel of his foot, using an s-shaped motion to steer the boat. They are out on the lake and fishing early in the morning. A small number of them cluster at the exit onto the Lake from the Nyaung Shwe docks to demonstrate fancy photogenic maneuvers for the tourists flowing into the Lake in longboats.

After a 45-minute boat ride at high speed we reach our hotel, which is a beautiful shoreside resort near the southern end of the Lake.

Floating Gardens — On the southern end of the Lake, agriculture is thriving using “floating gardens.” Large sections of the edges of the lake are given over to acres of vegetable beds that are set on rows of floating water plants held in place by bamboo poles — in large plots surrounded by bamboo fencing. Water farmers tend lush crops of flowers, gourds, squash, tomatoes, and other vegetables from their boats.

Karen Women — The Karen people are an ethnic group living in the eastern border region of Myanmar – in the Karen, Kayah and Shan states. The women honor a tradition of wearing neck rings that are believed to stretch the neck. Children start early with only a few bands and add bands as they grow older. While the necks elongate over time, it is thought that rather than stretching the neck, the impact of the bands is to press down on the shoulders, giving the illusion of a longer neck.

Stay tuned for Inle Lake – Part 2: silversmithing, weaving, the five-day market, and lunch in a lakeside home.

We fly from Bagan about an hour east to Heho Airport in Shan State.

Myanmar’s Divisions — Myanmar has 14 administrative units — 7 districts in the heart of the country and 7 states along its borders. The states are named after the ethnic groups that predominate in those states.

States — The states historically have been areas of Burma that presented the greatest challenge to the development of the nation and to the authority of the national government. They have at various times maintained standing armies headed by regional strongmen or warlords, and some have harbored separatist movements, particularly after independence from the British at the end of WWII.

Today, two states continue to pose threats to central government: Rakhine State along the Bay of Bengal and Myanmar’s western borders with Bangladesh and India – which has recently experienced conflict between the Rakhine separatists and the Myanmar military culminating in the military’s attack on and displacement of the Rohingya; and Shan State which borders on China, Laos, and Thailand and is home to the Golden Triangle (home to the opium trade), and keeps is own Shan State Army which currently has an understanding with the Myanmar military.

Shan State — Shan is the largest of the 7 states — its capital is Ttaunggyi. The State is ethnically diverse — home to 57 different ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Shan people who call themselves Tai and are connected ethnically to the Thai in Thailand, Laos, and Yunnan province in China. Shan are the second largest ethnic group in Myanmar after the Bamar (Burmese). Other major groups include Chinese (Chinese language is the primary language in parts of Shan State), Karen (the long-neck women), Pa-o (women who wear a head scarf), Kayah, Danu, Palaung, and Intha.

Eastern Shan – The Shan State border is not stable. The eastern part of Shan State is mountainous, making travel through the border region difficult. Historical rivalries and border disputes with China and Thailand are ongoing. Opium export, which continues from the Golden Triangle, empowers warlords and most likely supports the Shan State Army. Influence from China is present and feared. Myanmar recently closed its border with China to mitigate the risk of importing the coronavirus.

Western Shan – The western part of the region has excellent soil, and is dominated by farms growing potatoes, avocados, cabbage, mustard, tea, ginger, oranges and other kinds of fruit, and coffee.

The rest of our trip will cover major attractions in Southwestern Shan: Inle Lake, Pindaya, and Kalaw.

In Bagan we had a special opportunity to meet and speak with a senior Buddhist monk – U Thi La – the deputy head monk at the Kyan Sit Thar Umin monastery.

As with all Buddhist temples and monasteries, we leave our shoes and socks outside the door to the large meeting room. We sit on the floor with our feet pointing away from the front of the room and wait until U Thi La arrives.

As he enters the room, he brings with him a commanding presence and an aura of ease and contentment. We have an hour to listen and ask questions.

As is often the case for Buddhist boys, U Thi La entered a monastery as a student at the age of 12. He was assigned to a monastery for his study of Buddhism that continued until he reached age 26. At that point, he was allowed to choose the monastery he wanted to join. His face is ageless (he bears a strong resemblance to President Obama), but given his station in the monastery, he is mostly likely in his 50s.

U Thi La explained to us his daily routine. He is up at 4 am and oversees the process of preparing breakfast. Monks eat only breakfast and lunch – so both are important meals. Breakfast is at 5 am, followed by some time for cleaning.

Early morning is time for group prayer and chanting and also time for private meditation. In temples and monasteries, the prayers and chants may be made over a public address system – and in cities can be heard throughout the neighboring area around temples.

All of the food for monks (and nuns) is donated. In the later mornings, groups of monks and nuns leave the monasteries and can be seen walking the streets often in lines with small bowls in their hands, going from establishment to establishment seeking alms and receiving donations of food or money or both: monks receive cooked rice and nuns receive uncooked rice and have to prepare it themselves.

In a well-established monastery, the donations of food and money coming to the monastery are usually sufficient to provide food. In any event, U Thi La in his role administering the monastery would not be out seeking alms.

From 9 to 11 am, U Thi La has responsibilities for teaching. The young monks get education in Buddhism and in languages — he teaches Pali (the old Indian language the Tripitaka (Buddhist Scripture) is written in) – his colleague – the head monk – teaches English.

Midday is time to oversee preparation of lunch, eat, and meet with visitors. Lunch is the last meal of the day.

From 1 to 4 pm, teaching resumes. Between 4 and 6 pm there is free time, which may include time for meditation. Since there is no evening meal there is no time needed for preparing food.

At 6 pm, there is time again for group worship, which in some temples and monasteries may again involve prayers and chants over a public address system.

After 7 pm, there is more time for cleaning, and for students to study independently. U Thi La supervises the student study period. At 10 pm, he and the other monks retire to their own chambers to sleep.

Buddhism does not have a specific day of the week for prayer or have a tradition of organized group prayer in the temples — and Buddhists pray and meditate at shrines in their homes. There are occasions, though, when Buddhists come together for group prayer. Some Buddhist monks have a public role, not unlike priests – and senior and well-known monks will preach and lead prayer in public. Some of these events are announced through posters and draw a crowd in the evening for group prayer.

At the end of our conversation, U Thi La offers a prayer for our leader’s family and for us, we show our appreciation for his time with a donation to the monastery, and he graciously agrees to a photo with our group.