23rd January, 2017

Another fairly early start for another short flight, this time to the town and airport of Heho (yes, lovely name, isn’t it) in Shan State, southeast Myanmar, which is the place to go if you wish to visit Inle Lake. Our new guide was the delightful Thwin, who advised us that we would be making a detour first before setting off for the lake to Pindaya, a typical Shan State town set around the small Pone Taloke lake. The road there was about one and a half carriageways, which meant that you slipped off the side a bit for oncoming traffic, but there were a lot of roadworks indicating the rapid development that is going on here. All being done largely by hand and female hands at that.

The main reason for coming to Pindaya is to visit the Shwe Oo Min Cave. The story goes that some local princesses were trapped in the cave by a giant spider, but were rescued, of course, by a handsome prince, who was a noted archer and shot the spider with a single arrow, but not before he had bargained to have the hand in marriage of the youngest princess, presumably volunteered by her older siblings! Note the photo of the moment of confrontation between prince and spider.

The cave is reached either by a stiff walk up the walkway (no doubt good for the soul) or you can take a lift! Whichever method you choose, it is well worth it as the cave or really caves are stuffed full of Buddhas, allegedly over 9,000. It is truly jaw dropping with most of the Buddhas being golden, though with a sample of marble and jade and wood as well. Apparently it started with a king putting a stupa there and then everyone wanted to get their Buddha image near that one and so on. They have stopped any more being added, though they are opening another cave and there is a two year waiting list! I will let the photos do the talking from here on. First of all the legend of the princesses, the spider and the prince, the view and the the entrance to the cave, which takes your breath away….

You then make your way in deeper into the cave and are surrounded by Buddhas as well as a few other objects (not sure what they mean)…..

The furthest part of the cave is a little less congested and you can get more of a feel of the structure of the cave itself. They even have a sign saying maze! It is hard to take it all in…….

All in all, a great way to start our visit to Shan State and Inle Lake. The trees in the town were spectacular, so warranted a photo, I felt. It was then time for some lunch and a quick snap of some sort of grasshopper, which was not, I emphasise, our midday snack. It does though look from Val’s expression that maybe it was!

Next stop was a fascinating visit to a very small paper-making workshop, all very much organic and hand made where they use the paper for wall paper, umbrellas and various other items. Amazing skills – I feel very inadequate!

After a drive of about an hour through some fertile looking farmland, we arrived at the town of Nyaungshwe at the north of Inle Lake to board our trusty long-tailed boat for our transfer to our hotel which was in the top east side. First part was through waterways and canals and then we reached the lake proper. The place is buzzing with life with fishermen and boats and birds and floating islands and water hyacinth everywhere. And yet there is a real peacefulness and tranquility once you are on the lake, even if it is sometimes shattered by the sound of an unsilenced and smoke belching boat engine! We made it ok to our hotel – and what a hotel! The Myanmar Treasure Resort, by the way if ever you get here.

What a way to arrive and what a welcome. Really nice staff as in all of Myanmar, who seem genuinely pleased and eager to help and are always smiling. It is so refreshing. Lovely room where you can see both the lake (for the sunset) and the mountains (for the sunrise) – and it had an outside shower! Mind you, they do like their beds hard in this country, but a very small inconvenience!

And of course we were so overcome we had to nip along for the happy one and a half hours and a few cocktails and to pose with a couple of the girls in their local costumes.

However the real show was only just about to begin – the beautiful sunset, complete with our own fisherman displaying the unique way of fishing here at Inle which consists of using one leg and foot to paddle the boat, the other to balance as you lower a conical net. Enjoy. I have tried not to put too many photos in, but……..

What a great day – and there was to be more adventure the next day!

More soon…..