Jumping cats, 15 cent drafts, and fresh pasta

So I’ve been here a few days now. It’s a nice place here at Inle Lake. I’m staying in the small town of Nyaung Shwe, just a few km north of the lake, and it’s 3000 feet above sea level here so the temperatures are nice and cool. The town and lake are surrounded by mountains all around peppered with white stuppas up in the hills. It’s very pretty.

On my first day here I arrived in the afternoon and spent the remainder of the day walking around and taking some photos. That night I was able to arrange a boat trip for the following day with some other travellers. The next morning we set out early, at 7am, to explore the lake.

In our group there were 2 Australians, 1 Israeli, 2 French, 1 American (me), and 2 Burmese (Mr. Mozo, the guide, and Mr. Boatman). We spent ALL day on the lake, 12 hours in fact, cruising around , stopping at markets, watching people build boats and weave fabric, visiting a few temples, and having a traditional Burmese meal at Mr. Boatman’s house. Some of the things we did were a bit touristy but we were having a good time laughing about it so we didn’t really care. The highlight of course was the jumping cats at the one monastery where the monks have trained the cats to jump through hoops. A tour of Inle Lake is just not complete until you see the jumping cats.

After we got back to town in the evening, we all went out for a few beers, including Mozo our guide. Then we went out for Italian food at the strangely named’Golden Kite’ Italian Restaurant. Surprisingly their homemade pasta was delicious.

Well yesterday I was supposed to move on to Kalaw, the next destination on my tour, but I really didn’t feel like getting up early after such a long day the day before, so instead I slept in and took it easy. I got together with the Australians for lunch and then went back to their guesthouse to watch a movie in the afternoon. After the movie we met at the bar, myself, the Aussies, a Spanish girl, and a Portugese girl, and there we sat and drank several draft Myanmar Beers. They only cost about 15 cents/draft so you can get drunk for less than a dollar. It was a fun time. The Spanish and Portugese girls just got back from 3 months in India and they had a lot of good stories to tell.

Tomorrow I think I am leaving for real this time, heading to Kalaw still, an old hill station town which is a few hours west of Inle Lake.

Inle Lake

The locals use their legs to paddle

And finally we have the jumping cats

Add comment July 12th, 2002