Flying Beyond Expectations

Day 4: Yangon to. Lake Inle
As I mentioned in the last blog entry, we had a 630 AM flight this morning which meant we had to leave the hotel at 445 AM. Again, the flight was originally scheduled for 8 AM. Remember that as it is important later.  This meant we had the luxury of about 6 hours sleep, although all of us work up repeatedly, thinking we had to get up soon.

Our guide, whose name is actually Kyaw Thu (I wasn't even close with his name yesterday) was there for us, wearing jeans and a sweater. Moira didn't recognize him and asked me if we had a different guide this morning. Side note: on his card, next to his name, Kyaw Thu, it says in parenthesis (bro). Not sure what that is about. End side note.  The drive to the airport which took about an hour yesterday was only 20 minutes this morning, due to the lack of traffic. That isn't to say a lot of people weren't up and about. We actually saw a lot of joggers and walkers. Given the heat, this makes sense as it is probably the most comfortable part of the day. Another thing we noticed is that for how many motorbikes we saw in Vietnam and Cambodia, there are none here, which is surprising given the traffic congestion. Later we read that the rumor is that a motorbike hit a government official's car a few years ago and he banned them in Yangon.

Again the airport experience was, well, interesting. We were in Air KBZ whose motto is Flying Beyond Expectations. Moira said her expectation was for them to get her to Lake Inle so anything more than that would exceed her expectations. She later amended it to say they needed to get her and her bag there. So the bar was set pretty low. Keep that in mind also.
Check in consisted of getting our names checked off on a list (no computers), our bags weighed and a sticker affixed to our shirts. Our sticker was green which some creatures flying on it. Different Air KBZ flights had different stickers. It was kind of like airport Garanimals (reference anyone over 35 should hopefully get). No one ever asked for our passports or any other form of id. Security was pretty much just putting our bag through an x-ray machine (complete with liquids) and getting wanded. We had a box breakfast prepared by the hotel and Steph managed to find us some really strong coffee. Moira declared that breakfast number 1 exceeded her expectations.

There are no flight boards so you had to listen to the announcements that we're hard to understand or watch for the airport cryer (a guy who occasionally walked around with a placard calling out flights). A couple of Air KBZ fights boarded but they had different stickers than ours (so different destinations). As 630 came and went, we were wondering if we had missed our flight somehow. But no, there were others still here with out stickers and some official type person told Lallande we ere delayed and would board around 715. This did not meet our expectations. It also did not happen. The waiting area emptied out as a lot of people went up to the restaurant area. There were no announcements as to what was going on. At around 815 or so...yes, 15 minutes past our original departure time...a woman with a badge told me 5 minutes when I showed her my boarding pass. People started coming down from upstairs and about 5 minutes later, another airline worker appeared and told us 5 minutes. We finally boarded a small bus, got on the plane and took off at about 9ish. No explanation. We think someone forgot to tell the pilot the flight time changed. Or maybe it never really changed. Again, not beyond expectations. There was however, one experience that exceeded expectations. Moira got up to use the restroom mid-flight and someone was in there. The flight attendant told Moira she would call her when it was available. Moira returned to her seat and promptly told us that exceeded her expectations. The pilot walked back and usurped her position though and Moira said her expectation was that the pilot would stay in the cockpit (particularly on a 75 minute flight). But then they passed out candy which exceeded our expectations. When the flight attendant did come to get her, she declared her expectations met. The flight ended with something we have never seen before. Note: if you get queasy, you may want to skip this part. We were all in the third row. As we were landing, a woman sitting in front of Steph in row 2 projectile vomited (think of the Exorcist) on the people in front of her and all over the bulkhead. The poor people in row 1 had it in their hair. It was gross. But Moira capped it off by leaning over and said, "Well, that was unexpected."

We got picked up at the airport by our new guide, Tharpu. His name was easier to remember as he had on a name tag. We had an hour drive to the main town where we then got a boat to our hotel. I should first say that we enjoyed the drive as it was very scenic, with mist and mountains and small shacks along the way. We noticed that unlike Yangon, there were not signs in English. Anyhow...back to the lake...our hotel is gorgeous. It is called the Villa Lake Inle Resort and we have our own "cabins" with lake views. But it's not like we had much time to be here. We stopped by for about 15 minutes and then got back in our boat to head to lunch. There are all kinds of restaurants on the lake. We went to the Inthar Heritage House which was a beautiful spot, where we sat outside on the balcony. The food was amazing - various salads with great ingredients, followed by a local rice and chicken dish. Very tasty. We then spent the afternoon doing what felt like errands around the lake. We visited a weaving place, which specialized in lotus threads ( this is the only place they do it). From there we went to a place they make the boats, a blacksmith, a silversmith, a cheroot cigar making place and a monastery. In between the cigars and the monastery, we also got a canoe ride, deeper into the village. It was both a busy and relaxing day.

All in all, the day exceeded our expectations.

Stuff I forgot last time:
- Shwe Dagon is over 2,500 years old and the most sacred of all Buddhist sites in the country. Going there is a pilgrimage for Burmese Buddhists. Everyone tries to visit at least once in their lives.
- The Strand Hotel was built in 1901 and hosted people such as Rudyard Kipling, George Orwell and Somerset Maugham. It is very colonial in feel. For awhile, from 1962 to 1989, it was run by the government and went downhill. It is back to its original state now and very lovely. There was a butler on each floor.
- We upheld our tradition of having a local beer at our first lunch, Myanmar Beer. It was quite good but we were surprised when a bottle was more along the kinds of 64 ounces. We split 2 among the four of us
- The Burmese drive on the right like we do but their steering wheels are in the right like the British. Our guide told us this is because most of their cars come from Japan.

Things we learned:
- Burmese allegedly consumer the most onions per capita of any country in the world.
- About 85% of the population is Buddhist.
- There are 7 states in Myanmar. Lake Inle (which means little lake) is in Shen. 3.5 million people live here.
- They grow lots of food in Shen. The biggest is rice, both sticky and regular. They are able to grow 2 crops a year (think that is the same in Vietnam).
- Americana really just started coming to lake Inle in 2010 after the elections.
- There are two trains per day that come into this region from Yangon. It is very slow - 24 hours - as it makes every stop. There are buses too that take 10 hours. As Lallande said, let's hope there is no air strike.
- There were very heavy rains here in 2011 so there are still fish farms remaining inland.
- There are 450 villages on the lake. Each has its own specialty. About 150,000 people actually live on the lake.
- The lake is about 3 meters deep. I need someone to convert that to feet for me. Again, my annoyance at the US failing to adopt the metric system comes through.
- The boat drivers have to have a license and it has to get renewed each year. The boats don't have lights so no one really goes out on the lake after dark.
- The boats are handmade by carpenters on the lake. For a bigger boat with an engine, it takes 4 carpenters 20 days to make it. It can cost a few million in local currency to buy the boat but it lasts for 30 years. They use teak wood and lacquer it. They also repair baits here and make the windows for the houses.
- They make cheroot cigars on the lake as well and a skilled cigar maker (we only saw women doing it) can make 1,000 in a day. They get paid by cigar and if they make 1000, they get about 4,000 in local currency a day. That is about $4 US.
- We visited the Nga Phe Chau Monastery which is 168 years old. It is a village monastery with 5 monks. The other types of monasteries are teaching or meditation. This monastery had the famous jumping cats. The elder monk who trained them recently died so they decided to stop it as the new monk in charge decided it was cruel.
- Tharpu has two daughters, age 12 and 4 1/2. His wife is a guide like him. And he knows Kway Thu, our guide in Yangon, as he is from here and they went to university together in Yangon.

Number of flight segments to date:4
Number of airport bus rides: 3.

Final note: While I am getting wifi (though spotty) and able to post these from my iPad, I can't view it once I get it in the site. And for some reason, the pictures won't post correctly which is a bummer. I will keep trying.