Floating away on Inle Lake

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While Inle Lake is not a very large lake, or even deep for that matter it's a special place worth a few days of exploring. We spent three days wandering around this lovely area while a yearly tradition of floating a local Buddha statue across the lake was taking place. The small city was a buzz with local villagers, tourists and rambunctious teenagers filling the streets getting tattoos, riding a man powered ferris wheel and eating to their hearts content.

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Famous for the local fisherman who paddle with their legs while standing on the edge of their boats, and floating villages where farmers grow all their produce on the water brings many curious visitors. During our day on the water we saw the ceremonial parade of young men rowing together on boats dancing and cheering along the way. Leading the floating statue to all the villages around the lake. 

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When the ceremony was finished, we headed into one of the floating villages to see how life was lived on the lake. The houses stood above the water on stilts leaving gaps for the boats to float down the water laneways to each house. Inside many of the homes women and children worked to make local Shan-bags (tote-bags) and created beautiful fabrics made from lotus threads. 

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On our last day we explored by bicycle and rode up to a local winery and all around the lovely mountains surrounding the lake. We had an amazing time but we had to leave since we were heading deeper into the mountains, to a remote village far far away from other tourists, and we couldn't wait.  

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For those Temple loving Teds.

To be honest, I've put off writing about Bagan for a long time, a really really long time. Not because it wasn't impressive or it wasn't memorable, but the exact opposite. This place was fantastic! To this day we still argue which site was better, Angkor Wat or Bagan? Honestly, I still don't have a clear winner for you. I've put it off simply because I had too many wonderful photos to edit, and too many thoughts I wanted to write. I was simply overwhelmed. So tonight, I'm sitting down to  work through these thoughts and photos even though now they are more like faded memories. 

Bagan was the capital city of the Kingdom of Pagan, what is now known as Myanmar. Built in the 9th to 13th centuries it once contained over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries. Yes, you read that right… 10,000! At the height of Bagan's rule, it's believed that 200,000 people we're living in this city of 40 square miles. With only 2,200 temples and pagodas still standing it's still an unimaginably massive undertaking to visit this city. 

Our initial day exploring in Bagan was lead by a young kid who took us by horse and carriage. This was a wonderful decision since he spoke good english and was able to inform us not only about the sites we visited but his culture, language and the western culture he enjoyed. He even broke out into song singing for us on a few occasions. Somehow he even convinced us to sing him a song as well. We performed a little number by the Head and the Heart. We ended our night with a round of drinks on us before he took his horse home for some much needed rest.

On day two we ventured out on bikes and rode in the ever increasing heat. A few stops for ice cream and red bulls fueled us throughout the day. We visited as many Temples, Pagodas and monasteries as humanly possible. With an endless array of Buddhas of all shapes and sizes, impressive stone work, painted ceilings, and carvings galore. Bagan, truly is a special place which reminds you of the shear beauty and creativity humans are capable of creating.

Bago in a day

When we arrived in Bago we had two options, head out asap and keep heading north or see the sites and stay a night. We really didn't think this town had much to offer so we didn't care to stick around. When we found out our bus was running late we knew we could see the sites in time to still catch our bus out. ​We quickly jumped on the back of some bikes with a couple of guys promising to take us to all the sites without the fees for a small price.

My favorite site of the day was a Buddha statue that was under a bit of scaffolding. The most religious site in town was next to this statue with a much better story but it lost some if it's luster since it was basically housed in a huge warehouse. To finish off our day we visited a cigarette rolling factory where ladies old and way too young worked long hours for very little money. Unfortunately, for many families having your children work is the only way to put food on the table. 

Vroom Vroom

The great thing about renting random bikes from total strangers is that you never know what your gonna get. This bike was pimping with it's leopard patterned seat, worn down leather handlebars and hello kitty stickers on the front. Obviously this bike was a chick magnet as you can see, plus it got us where we needed to go. 

​Venturing out even farther from Hpa-An village took us to a few more caves, overgrown fields filled with buddhas and blue mountains reflecting in rice paddies. Overall our few days in Hpa-An we're jam packed and wonderful.  Much better than the 6+ hour bus ride to our next destination, Bago. 

Millions of Buddhas

The small town of Hpa-An is nothing to write about, but what is worth writing about is the countryside around this village: dotted with temples, caves, rice paddy fields, and ​limestone mountains it is eye candy beyond belief. The first temple we explored on our all day motorbike ride was a temple perched on a limestone rock. The views were breathtaking and a good start to our day. 

Knowing this was only the first stop of many we pushed on to a stunning buddhist cave of an exiled king. I was floored when I saw it, not only was it something we had never seen before it was beautiful. Little intricate carvings 40 - 50 ft up of buddhas. Thousands, no millions of buddhas were on display. It was beautiful in a painstakingly holy crap that king had a lot of time on his hands way; not in a tacky pile as many buddhas as possible kind of way. ​