New Year's Eve in Yangon

Well, when it came to New Year's Predictions, we were in Yangon, Myanmar for the final day of the 2013 calendar.  We started off with our favorite breakfast place - Lucky 7.  We then found taxis downtown, went to the National Museum (quite the throne room!), the Central Market,  got some juice  - and avocado juice (very fresh!) purchased some paintings, found a video store, and ended up with a local meal before scrambling to find a taxi on a busy New Year's Eve. 

Rendall and Tasha stayed a bit later for a big concert in the park, getting some local music stars and soaking in our final evening in Yangon. 

Goodbye Inle Lake

 

We had to say goodbye to the magical place that is Inle Lake.  Really, it is one of those amazing places that we were blessed to have visited, thankful for the warmth and kindness of the people we met.  There really isn't anyplace quite like it, at least that we've seen.  Wow.

 

The boat ride back was typically magical with deep blue colors from the sky and from the water. How 'bout those crazy kids in the front of our boat (next to the green tarp that has all our luggage protected from the water). 

A Morning Trip

On our last day at Inle Lake, we headed out to a part of the lake that we hadn't yet seen.  Tasha and Rendall had arrived via this route, so they stayed back.

There is a famous place with 5000+ stupas Shwe In Dien - and we tried to find our way to see the many golden some ruins, and ended up on the opposite side of the hill, but a nice little hike. Once again it was market day, so it was crowded, but we managed to find a place off the beaten path and had the hillside to ourselves (probably because we were in the wrong place!).

Inle Lake Day 3 - Afternoon

We had quite an amazing afternoon and evening - certainly the most memorable of the trip.  We got a long ways off the beaten path and were the only tourist boat that we saw for most of the afternoon.  We went quite a ways south to a more remote (and seemingly empty) village where we got to see how pottery was made - and most fun of all, we got our turns at making pottery.  Let's just say we were not too good!  Rania managed to get a bowl done - but the rest of us were great armchair quarterbacks but failed when it came time to try our own skill!

It made for a lot of laughs and a great experience.  How amazing to be in a tiny village so far from the nearest road (the waterways are the roads of Inle Lake), and having the woman who makes the pottery laugh with us at our silly attempts to try and make a simple bowl!

 In the evening, we were treated to the usually fantastic sunsets from our balcony.  We found there were many benefits to staying on the lake - and staying at the Golden Island Cottages let us get farther south on the lake - and also made for more relaxing evenings.  We were so thankful for Susan's amazing recommendation and arranging everything ahead of time.  Wow - it was amazing.

The evening meal was especially memorable with lots of incredible local food (we found the secret was ordering ahead ala carte and getting local food pre-ordered instead of the standard Chinese fare from the kitchen), a cultural show and many amazing memories during our last full day on the lake.

Inle Lake Day 3 - Morning

In the morning, we once again hit the 5 day traveling market - and Gabi found some earrings she could use for when she gets to have her ears pierced (not that she is excited about that, or anything).  

The rich colors and great sounds are amazing.  

We also tried in vain to find Rania shoes to replace the shoes that wore out on her hike.  Given that everyone lives around water, flip flops are the way to go - not too many shoes to be found!

Sights & Sounds of Inle Lake

What a place!

Floating Market and Floating Gardens

We set off a bit early (but not as early as we hoped) with our boatman taking us to the Floating Market - which rotates every 5 days - and we were inundated with so many trinkets and handicrafts.

We had a delightful day on the water - getting a chance to see the floating gardens - where the gardens actually get the dirt packed down, but since it is on the lake, can float - and entire rows can slowly be towed to new locations.  It is like a world never before witnessed - entire communities living on the lake.

The routine is to see a workshop, observe how silver / umbrella hats / lotus flower robes / weavings / pottery, etc are made with each village specializing in a specific skill.  Absolutely mesmerizing seeing life on the lake.  A truly magical and unbelievable experience.

One of the hilarious tidbits was going to the jumping cat monastery.  A few years ago, the monks trained the cats to jump through hoops.  Now, the idea of tourists gawking at cats doing tricks did not seem the objective of a Buddhist monastery.  Hence, the monks put the kabosh on the whole jumping cat enterprise.  We did find one kitten - which was pretty cute.  But the more hilarious tidbit was a whole line of local school girls insisting on having their pictures taken with Gabi & Rania.  Celebrities!  The majority of women in Myanmar put the thanaka paste made from tree bark - from the thanaka tree - somewhat similar to  sandalwood.  You can see  the celebrities posing for one of many, many pictures which they took!

 A day on the lake was truly amazing.

Inle Lake

How magical to arrive at Inle Lake and make our way to the Golden Island Cottages.  It was truly an impressive sight to break into the open part of the Lake.  What a magical place - compete with the fisherman who make it so famous.

We were welcomed to the lake with the traditional Pa-O welcome, with lots of people pounding the drums and ringing bells.  Quite an inspiring location.  And truly one of the magical places to stay - being on the lake made for absolutely magical sunsets!  This is the view from our balcony.  Wow!

The Farm

We had a really inspiring stop-off in Nyaung-shwe  before setting off for Inle Lake.  One of Susan's good friends is working with the Pa-O people.  It was so inspiring hearing about the accomplishments for finding a market for growing rabbits, for filters that make clean drinking water, for how to do organic farming to provide more diversity in such a small area.  Wow!  Sometimes you are blessed by meeting truly amazing people.  This was one of those days.

THE Hike

We went on a wonderful hike around Kalaw to the viewpoint.  The mantra was consistently "an hour and a half."  We came to think, 3 hours later, that this may be the only English which our guides knew.  It was much longer than we thought - maybe an 8 - 10 mile day?  The kids were fantastic.  Rania's shoe fell apart, but she continued without complaint, walking on the heel of her shoe - her foot only half in her shoe.  We made up stories, had great conversations and some spectacular views.

For lunch, we made it to our goal:  the viewpoint restaurant.  It was nice to relax for a bit and get some yummy food in the middle of nowhere.

In the evening, we got back to town just as the sun was setting and the temperature was plummeting. We managed to get some food from our favorite Kalaw locale: the Nepali restaurant.  By the time the food was ready, we could not find any taxis or transportation, so it was a very cold walk back to the cottage.  Since we had left for a short "hour and half" hike in the morning, we were certainly not prepared for the cold night hike.  Those were a cold final 20 minutes!  But what a great experience to be outside and have everyone hiking together as a family.

Christmas

Christmas was quite a memorable experience.  Besides the experiences from the morning, and going to church, we walked back through the market (looking for slippers - yea!).  Then we spent the afternoon enjoying the best features of the cottage.

Reading on the veranda.

Playing badminton on the yard.

Enjoying the most enormous poinsettia plants we had ever seen.

Before having an amazing dinner experience at the fancy restaurant in town.  Incredibly delicious local food!  Though Court was banned from having a mango lassi.  Not allowed.  Banana instead.  We had our own private room.

Christmas came to an end with which will certainly become a big Woodward Christmas tradition:  playing the Dancing Santa Game.  What fun! Susan's santa was a bit inept.  Reeve and Tasha were pretty accomplished at the incredibly challenging task of lining up your santa in the middle and seeing which one gets to the outside first. 

Christmas Morning

On Christmas, we were impressed that Santa was able to find our cottage in Kalaw!  We woke up to a few presents and some beautiful local handicrafts that had been slipped into and next to some of the stockings that were hung from the (real, but too smokey to use) fireplace.

We made our way to the Baptist Church for a Christmas celebration (and we managed to stay in the back).  Rendall and Tasha were able to meet up with a guide who could take them on the trek to Inle Lake.  We were able to meet some guides who could take us on a day hike the next day.  It was quite the impressive change in one year.  Last year for Christmas, we were in Notre Dame cathedral with the mass being broadcast all around France.  This year were were in a rural section of Myanmar with Santa Claus posters holding a prominent place at front of the church!  The power of the Gospel and the global message of Christmas.

Wow!

 After church, we made our way to our favorite eating spot in Kalaw - the Nepali restaurant!

What a Christmas lunch!

Christmas Eve in Kalaw

We had Christmas Eve, staying in the cottage that had a wonderful, magical feel during the day - and got quite cold once the sun went down!  The veranda and the yards were truly impressive - and what a unique place to spend Christmas Eve!

We were frequent visitors to the Nepali restaurant, which was truly delicious - the banana lassi and the hot chocolate were definite hits!

Shwedagon Pagoda

We finished our day trip at the perfect time - just ready for sunset at Shwedagon Pagoda.  Indeed, it is one of the famous landmarks in the world and it lived up to its impressive billing.   This, below is likely closer to the image you think of when imagining this famous temple.

It was interesting around the pagoda, seeing so many interesting sights while taking a lot of pictures.  Truly an amazing place.

Afterwards we walked to a nearby hotpot restaurant.  We sure are eating well!