Inle Lake… a reprieve from the Myanmar heat

It was a balmy 90 degrees at Inle Lake, a large lake at 3,000 ft elevation surrounded by mountains, so it felt fantastic compared to the 100+ temps I’ve enjoyed in the rest of Myanmar. You can stay on the lake in luxury stilted houses but I read that it was real quiet & few options given no motors are allowed on the lake after 6pm. So I instead opted to stay in Nyaung Shwe, the biggest (yet still pretty small) city in the area. My lovely hotel was located right on the river leading to the lake so boats hired for the day to tour the lake pick up right at the hotel’s dock for only a 15-minute picturesque ride to the lake. Even after seeing the beautiful lake, I was very pleased w the decision bc I had several great options at night in town.
I did a full day lake tour & it was lovely but a whole lot of sun. I saw several little villages on winding inlets, stilted houses, floating gardens growing tomatoes & eggplant, a market, silversmith shop, lotus & silk weaving, a couple pagodas, etc. I took a long boat jetty which was noisy but somehow relaxing at the same time… the relaxing part was probably due more to the stunning, massive & sprawling Inle Lake bordered on both sides by mountain ranges. You could easily spend 3 days on the lake exploring it. I spent one.
At stop 2, it became obvious I was on a similar route as 2 girls in another boat. They were just a bit ahead of me so we’d always chat at the stops. At a combo cigarette rolling & lunch stop, they were seated already & hollered out to me to join them. So I had great company for lunch. The girls, from Spain & Poland, had recently completed a 10-day meditation retreat in Yangon, met there & became “fast friends”. I commented how funny it was they grew so close yet didn’t speak until the 1.5 weeks were up. I’m not sure that had previously occurred to them but they got a good chuckle. They were real sweet & both ending extended trips shortly. So we had a long lunch & then made plans to meet up later that night. I was thrilled at the idea of cool dinner companions & more convo! While I have really enjoyed traveling alone & constantly meeting new people, I obviously find myself alone quite a bit. Even when you meet new people, many interactions tend to be fleeting & surface level – you can get to know someone only so well in a couple days . I’ve found that more recently I’m especially enjoying companionship, even if temporary. While I can certainly be a loner & enjoy solo time, I find I’m missing meaningful social interactions with those I love. It’s a long drawn out way of saying that I’m missing you all very much (well, most of you anyways).
My 2nd full day there, I took a hotel trek mountain bike for a tour of the Inle lake area. I biked through Nyaung Shwe & then 1/4 around the largest portion of the lake, through villages, a forest reserve in the hills (good for the legs), coffee/snack stop, then flagged down a jetty driver & he loaded my bike & took me to the other side of the lake where I biked the last 1/4 through other villages & stopping briefly at a hot spring (it was still 90 degrees), before back to the hotel & town for a late lunch. It was about a 6-hour trip, so much fun & a nice perspective of the lake.
I then caught a tuk-tuk up to a vineyard in the mountains overlooking the lake. Supposedly one of the best spots in the area to watch the sun setting over the mountains beyond Inle lake. Had some wine & read my book while waiting for it & it did not disappoint. The sunset. The wine (sauv blanc) was decent but I was there for the sunset. I somehow ended up sitting next to a bunch of French wine snobs. At least that’s what I thought at first as one dude was dominating their conversation. I soon realized it was definitely one French wine snob accompanied by a random mix of others including one super posh guaranteed-American guy who proclaimed his best experience w foie gras was paired w Doritos. My eavesdropping was a dead giveaway after my audible shudder in response to this comment…oh well. I was rescued by an adorable couple, or at least a guy & girl who recently only met yet seemed like they’d be an adorable couple, as they joined my table to watch yet another gorgeous Myanmar sunset & engage in a really nice conversation. It was a wonderful evening & a great last night in Myanmar.

Route from river to lake

https://youtu.be/v10RasIvWEs

Interesting fisherman rowing technique

https://youtu.be/LjwouAwgZ18

Floating gardens

https://youtu.be/Mz1GtvOHQig

Swimming kids hamming it up

https://youtu.be/PE5AaQZU_5E

The Kayan people, a Myanmar subculture in Inle Lake, finds beauty in long necks so the women wear these brass neck coils to elongate them. These women are in Thailand now too as some tribes fled in a 1990s refugee crisis.

My new German family in Bottle Beach

I had a rough plan to spend 3 nights in Bottle Beach. I ended up doubling that. I would’ve stayed longer but for the first time, I had actually made plans & signed up for a diving course on the smaller island of Koh Tao to the north. Plans. Oh well. I made the most of my time there. Bc it’s such a small place, many of the people who visit really become a little family. Well the cool people at least. There’s 3 other “resorts” on the island but people-in-the-know all ended up at my “resort’s” resto for the food, atmosphere & attention/entertainment of Babu & Ming (Babu’s mini me). The gatherings of those in-the-know people revealed that Bottle Beach just so happens to be a little German colony. Not really of course but those Germans sure are on the cutting edge of cheap, gorgeous, little-discovered gems as nearly everyone I met was from Germany. I ended up hanging for dinner, poker, beers & convo every night w a great group of 10 Germans ranging from two 22 year old girls who just finished a bartending school in Phuket to a 60 year old retiree who makes his home for 6 mos of the year in Turkey & travels the other 6 mos (he’d been at Bottle Beach for 4 weeks already). It was a fun bunch. My fave was a couple from Munich, Julia & Nils, ages 26 & 32, respectively. We talked Babu into leading a hike up to the cove’s viewpoint & also into planning a longboat tour for all of us (Babu included) of Koh Pan Ngan bc, believe it or not after 2+ weeks on the island, there were still coves & beaches I hadn’t seen. Hugs all around upon departure as well as an exchange of digits (now I’m on what’s app apparently courtesy of Julia) & a promise of visits (I have my fair share of places in Munich to crash while a hilarious tatted German named Sky & his gf (Julia deuce) may be crashing w me next summer in Chicago). The more the merrier I guess. Perhaps what I may miss most about Bottle Beach is the nightly domino matches Babu & I shared after dinner service wound down & it was just the regulars left. Not typical dominos – these were triangles & the dots
were multi-colored so it was quite a bit more difficult. He kindly offered me the game when I was leaving but I had to decline as I couldn’t afford the space in my pack, but I will definitely be seeking it out on Amazon when I return. Would be a great addition to lazy afternoons at Big Star.

Babu, who we kindly termed “jungle man” overlooking the view. I didn’t have the guts to walk along the peak to the farthest point of the viewpoint. No one did. But Babu kicked off his shoes & scampered across with my camera in hand to capture the view below.

I was trying to stay out of the frame as Babu took a pic of Julia but he is a troublemaker.

Thansadet beach… I’d stay here next time

Yes, that’s a rather large Komodo dragon out for a swim in still water near mangroves

Mae Head Beach & Koh Ma island… best snorkling on the island.

I found my paradise… rustic paradise, but paradise for sure

It took me 7 weeks to find it, & it was a bit of a tease, but I definitely found my paradise. I’ve been trying to come to Bottle Beach on the north side of Ko Pha Ngan for a good week but the “storm” that rolled into the island prevented it. The storm wasn’t a storm like we think about it bc it was still sunny & gorgeous, the winds just picked up quite a lot which prevented longboats from accessing a few beaches, one of which is Bottle Beach, only accessible by boat. So I slowly made my way around the island biding my time. Finally the waves subsided & I was given the go-ahead so I booked a bungalow.
It was a gorgeous 20 minute ride to Bottle Beach from Thong Nai Pan Yai beach along a rocky seaside cliff on one side & nothing but blue water on the other. Didn’t see another boat on the way there. Around a turn & this gorgeous white strip of sand emerges from the rocks in a little protected bay. It’s a pretty small beach lined w a whole lot of nothing but beach bungalows. I hopped out of the longboat in nearly waist-high water as the captain gently eased my backpack down to me & I thankfully avoided any dunking of the pack (& for the umpteenth time this trip, I was thankful to have a backpack vs an obnoxious roller suitcase).
Babu, the “hotel” manager, greeted me as I walked up the beach with a big hello & a blunt in his hand, that he put out & placed behind his ear. As if I had any doubts before, I was assured this was going to be an awfully chill place. We chatted, turns out he’s from Burma so I promised to pick his brain later about that, & he walked me to my bungalow with no check of a passport or any other formalities. It’s locked w a padlock & is as cute as can be. For $11 a night. I think I failed to mention that. And by cute, I mean cute in a very rustic way. The room is barely bigger than the bed w storage below for packs. The bathroom has a toilet, flushed by a pail of water from a bucket filled by a nearby spigot which also serves as the sink, & a shower (cold water naturally) that uses the same drain as the spigot. A serious mosquito net is provided which is fantastic given I’m definitely sleeping w the window open & fan blowing for airflow. There’s one white plastic chair for me on my porch & I acquiesced when Babu offered to hang a hammock for me. Haha. Love me some hammock time.
I hadn’t bothered to eat yet that day as I opted for a massage over lunch prior to the longboat, so I headed down to the restaurant for a salad to find the sweetest beach side restaurant w various shaded & sunny seating options. It’s combined w reception & includes a bar, a pool table, decent sound system & tunes, & a few staffers lingering & smoking. Up to this point, I hadn’t seen weed anywhere. I had smelled it a couple times while biking through cities but the guidebooks put the fear of God into you threatening 15+ years in prison for a minor mj offense if you can’t buy off the local authorities/Thai mafia & hinting there are undercover police lurking in tourists zones & working w the sellers to bust you. So that’s apparently not the case here. Haha
Babu sat down to chat w me while I ate a spicy seafood salad & enjoyed a couple Chang beers (beers here are USD $2 so no place is perfect but they have to make money somehow) & that’s when it really got good. We talked about life histories & what do you know? Babu tried to be a monk TWICE in Burma & couldn’t cut it so bailed. Is this for fucking real!?!?!?!!! He made it 7 days when he was 27 & 9 days when he was 29. Apparently there’s a lot of fasting involved. You are awakened at 5:45am w a gong, put on your robes & walk the city barefoot asking for alms (yep, I saw this in Laos), then you return to shower & prepare food, eat at 7am but no talking allowed, clean the kitchen for an hour, walk the city again, eat at 11am, clean & then no eating allowed again after noon. Every day. Buddhism doesn’t frown upon smoking as monks are allowed to smoke (cigarettes not ganja), so those Cambodian monks we saw smoking on holiday in Halong Bay were not in violation of their code, Amy. All Babu could do was smoke cigs until he again got to eat at 7am. Apparently he couldn’t cut it (twice) bc he was so goddam hungry & I told him perhaps he wasn’t meant to be a monk after all bc he now works in paradise, eats whenever he wants to & seems to enjoy the marijuana. He laughed & agreed & then proceeded to make me the sweetest little rose pinky ring made from 2 plastic straws folded & fused together w his lighter.
I’m in love w this place & it’s only been 3 hours.

Hammock time

https://youtu.be/2-7ElgLDoTQ

Back to the beaches… Railay beach in Krabi, Thailand

Up to this point in the trip, we had done a proper job researching each place prior to visiting to try to understand what we were in for. We didn’t really do that for Railay Beach, near Krabi in the Andaman Sea. We just picked a place on the beach & booked a night to check it out before committing to anything else. Two of my best friends, the Veit sisters, have previously been to Railay beach & I talked with them about it not long before my trip. However, only a “you probably don’t need to spend much time there” rang out in my head along with “the beach is gorgeous & this is a must see” so I guess I attributed “not needing much time” to time limitations of their trip… Why not spend more time there if it’s so beautiful?
We flew from Siagon to Krabi & hopped in a taxi to take us to Railay Beach. The taxi dropped us at a pier & told us to book a boat to Railay Beach bc apparently no roads. This is where more research would’ve come in handy. Oh well, everything’s an adventure. It was 3:20 & luckily the next boat was leaving at 3:30. It was a wooden longboat & the ride was 15 mins to Railay. It dropped us at Railay East which doesn’t have good beaches but only a 10 minute walk to Railay West are good beaches & our beachfront hotel. We did a quick change into suits & went out to enjoy the beach at 4pm to check out the area to see if we like it enough to stay additional nights. Within 15 minutes we had decided the afternoon & evening would be plenty of time & we’d look for hotels on Ko Phi Phi for the next few nights. This quick decision was due to the following factors:

– The lovely longboats that make for beautiful photos in the foreground of mountainous scenery were so goddam loud & constantly picking up & dropping day trippers off. Total noise pollution which did not make for a peaceful relaxing atmosphere.

– It’s 98 degrees during day (prob 90 at 4 which was bearable) but no way to cool off as the water, protected by the inlet, was like bath water. It didn’t even make me want to go in after walking in knee deep. I thought it would make me hotter. The opposite of refreshing.

– The beach was swarming with a lot of families & a lot of couples, who we determined were very boring as we weren’t sure what there was to do here given swimming in the ocean & relaxing on the beach were out. I just couldn’t reconcile why couples, looking for a nice quiet romantic spot, would come to a place w such noise pollution all day long. Doesn’t make sense.

– Then we finally realized what there was to do… Serious climbers come there to climb the massive rocks overlooking the water. We saw maybe 20 people w ropes & climbing shoes so we determined the majority of the people were boring couples.

– The topper was when we sat down to split a spicy squid salad at 6:30 & to book our Ko Phi Phi hotel. We were given food menus but no drink menus. We asked the server for one & we deciphered he told us he couldn’t serve us bc he was Muslim but we were welcome to go to the bar, order drinks & bring them back to enjoy w dinner. Umm, what? I traveled all over the Middle East & in Turkey & believe me, we were served a lot of drinks by Muslims without judgement. Why wouldn’t you want to make a buck? So Amy desperately went in search for the bar, which we thought was our hotel’s along the beach. Nope. She tried the next beach hotel and the next. They all directed her to “the bar” which she finally found bc there’s only one on the beach. The only ones to serve beer & booze on the island. WTF? 20 minutes later she returned w 2 mojitos, we ate the salad, booked our Phi Phi hotel, settled our tab & promptly went back to “the bar” for dinner (a delicious red curry w duck & pineapple), beers, cards & some great people watching.
A simply stunning beach bound by these massive awe inspiring mountains but a 2-hr day trip would’ve been sufficient bc it was a weird place overnight and while we made the best of it & had fun, we were thankful we were leaving in the morning.

The pier where we caught our longboat taxi

The Mekong

We negotiated w a cute Laos boat captain, Mr Sing, for a day trip to Kuang Si waterfalls and Pak Ou caves via a Mekong river cruise. We arrived at the river bank and boarded our apparently private large long boat (we had just assumed he’d try to fill the rest of the boat… but we’ve found Laos people to be more honest and less apt to scam you than Thai folks). Despite the weather being a bit on the cool side (70), with some intermittent light rain sprinkles early in the morning, we were real excited for the trip. The boat was a convertible as the roof slid open (we enjoyed after the rain ceased), it was equipped w old airline seats that recline (which made for a very comfortable ride), and featured a good sound system (Mr Sing apparently likes to rock out as he played loud local music).
The arrival at the falls stop was a bit understated as Mr Sing just cruised up onto a sand bank in the middle of nowhere and “docked”. He then led us past the bank up along a rutted dirt “road” that popped out in a tiny local Lao village. Our captain had previously promised our price included bus transport to the falls. Upon arrival in the little village, Mr Sing began going door to door to find someone to drive us. The answer was a young local guy who had a pickup truck so Amy and I piled in the front seat, Dazed & Confused style. He spoke no English but happily drove us for 80k Kip and the 20 minute drive was gorgeous… passed rice paddies, locals going about their daily business (yes, some carrying 2 baskets w a shoulder pole & wearing the conical hats), kids walking to school, etc. Just a lovely super special snapshot into Lao life. Our driver dropped us and showed me his phone. The time said 9:22pm. Uh oh. “Two hours” I said. He laughed. “You wait here?” He nodded yes so Amy and I were off to the falls.
The waterfall was easily the prettiest I’d ever seen. Each tier, even more spectacular. Amy and I tried to guess how many tiers. I said 25+ if you’re counting each little drop. She thought 15+ major drops. One just drop dead spectacular one that left me speechless (I know, a real rarity) and this was after I already found the falls just captivating. To the right of the big fall, there was a basic wooden sign with an arrow pointing “To top”. We had already passed a proper set of stairs to the left of the fall. We opted for the right, luckily so as it was a pretty tough steep amble up to the top, and took the more gradual way down on the other side. Just a beautiful place.
Back to the bottom and nearing noon, we grabbed take away lunch from local street food vendors, found our “bus driver” hanging w the locals and made it back to the river bank to find Mr Sing sleeping on his boat but still rocking out.
It was a 2.5 hour boat ride to the Pak Ou caves (upstream) and was simply a drop dead gorgeous journey. Amy and I both agreed that Laos was one of the most spectacular places we’ve ever been. I will definitely be back to Luang Prabang and I will certainly explore the rest of the country.
Upon arrival, we hiked up into a large cave that serves as the graveyard for Buddha statues no longer deemed suitable for placement in a temple or those given as offerings by worshippers. So it’s a couple caves full of abandoned Buddha statues. Big and small. I thought it looked like an army of Buddhas was assembling. Clearly these emblems are sacred enough to warrant special placement in a gorgeous cave on an gorgeous island in the middle of the Mekong river, but it was a little creepy, I’m not going to lie.
1 hour glorious boat cruise back to LP. I say glorious bc the sun finally made its appearance, which made for a whole set of new pictures.