We are fortunate to do a number of really cool things on our vacations, from seeing Petra at night to watching the monks collect alms in the morning at Luang Prabang. But what we did this morning was truly one of our most amazing experiences - watching the Pagoda Festival on Lake Inle. Words and pictures (which will follow whenever we get a strong enough internet connection) will likely not do it justice but I will try.
The Pagoda festival is 18 days long (although they take 3 of those dates off) and unique to Lake Inle. Each village puts together a boat, which can hold up to 100 people (boys and men of course). There are a total of 40 neighborhoods so 40 boats. The boats are tethered together and some have music and some people dance while the majority of people row. All the boats move in parade formation, leading a final boat, which I covered in gold and which represents the 5 Buddha images. There are guards on this boat, wearing white bands, that are there to protect the Buddha images and the gold. Each day of the festival, the Buddhas travel to a different neighborhood monastery. The whole ceremony is a big deal and people travel all from within Myanmar to see it (and us too, I suppose). Kids get time off from school as well. It is really quite beautiful to see all these boats coming your way, with everyone rowing in motion. It passes by quickly but our boat driver was good about looping around to get us good views. That was key as there were so many boats, full of both locals and tourists out there to see it. It started at 7 AM and my guess is that it was over by 730 at the latest. The morning light made it all the more beautiful. We must have said "Oh my God" one hundred times which Lallande then declared should be "Oh my Buddha" instead, given the circumstances.
From there, Tharpu and our driver took us to the market. The market is 5 days a week with varying locations. People come down from the hills and various regions to shop and trade there. It has about anything people there need. It is mostly food, but also has things like clothes and laundry products. There was even a knife sharpening station. It was pretty packed and the locals didn't mind pushing by the foreigners with messenger bags to get the things they needed. There are also "restaurants" where people can sit and eat their traditional Shan meals. The market starts at around 530 AM and ends by about 11 AM. As we arrived, people were starting to leave already, carrying baskets of food on sticks across their shoulders. They have about every type of food that people need there - meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, spices, etc. For how crowded it is, it also seems quite organized. Like food is kind of grouped together and it seems like people have typical spots where they go. Some brought tarps for shade while others held big leaves up to block the sun. Apparently anyone can join in in selling but you have to find a space.
Throughout the whole market experience, we could hear a someone chanting on a loud speaker. Of course, us being uneducated (well on most of Buddhism at least) Americans, we thought it was a recording. On our way out of the market, though, we learned it was a live person doing the chanting as we later saw him doing it. We learned that the local people do this, not monks. They leave their village for a week and go on what is kind of a retreat, staying in the monastery and chanting over the loud speaker for all to hear. We walked further into the village to see the treat makers. Treats here are a bit more of the salty kind and we visited two homes where they make the treats, pretty much from chick peas, which seems relatively healthy. But they fry them up over really hot fires and in oils so that is probably takes away the healthy part. Actually they fry a lot of things here. A lot of the food is a bit oily too but it isn't really the part you are supposed to eat; it is more to keep it fresh.
As we left the market area, we saw a few buses and a lot of people eating. It turns out they are pilgrims who get buses and come in from the outer areas to see the festival. They travel 5-8 hours and stay in the monasteries.
Our last boat ride took us back to jetty town. By then it was still just mid-morning. I guess that happens when your day starts before the time you typical get up. We were supposed to visit a local museum, but it was actual closed for a holiday - a Muslim holiday of all things. We didn't quite get that but, hey, you have to roll with the punches. Tharpu had to adjust and took us to our next stop, the Red Mountain Winery. It may have only been 10:30 AM but it is never too early for wine tasting! Wine making is actually relatively new to Myanmar and there are only two major wineries. Red Mountain Winery began in 2002. It is on 25 hectares here but they have 50 hectares elsewhere for a total of 75. It took them awhile to get it to market, in 2008. The actual winemaker is French and a lot of their equipment is Italian. They don't export it yet. We had a wine tasting of Sauvignon Blanc, Rose, Shiraz-Tempranillo and Late Harvest. It was quite good. We already had the Sauvignon Blanc last night.
After wine tasting came lunch (because that is how vacation works). We had a delicious Shen meal with various salads, fried things, rice and fish and beef in delicious sauces. At some point during the morning, Tharpu got a call that our flight was delayed an hour. Which meant he had to keep us for longer and fill our time. It allowed us to be a bit more leisurely with lunch and the wine tasting which was nice.
We made a couple stops on the way to the airport. The first was Shweyanpay Shan State monastery which is a teaching monastery. It is 124 years old and made of teak. It is quite beautiful but looks a little tilted in places. There are some newer buildings around it which contain additional places for the monks to sleep and for the dining hall. In the older building, the young monks (they can start as early as 10) were reading and chanting...although we saw one playing with a toy car. An older monk, their teacher, reclined near them reading a book. This may be a bit lost in translation but I asked Tharpu if the monks just went for education, like they do in Laos, and most opt to leave. He said no, that it is considered a great and honorable sacrifice for a family to send their son to be a monk, and that they stay until whatever comes in their next lifetime. But in true disclose, I think he later said they can leave. Maybe they don't as it might bring shame on the family. There was also a pagoda right next to it, which had all these Buddhas in the walls. There were hundreds I would guess. The second stop was a place where they made Shan paper from mulberry bark. It was a family business with a father, wife and some daughters. They also made bamboo umbrellas which was fascinating to watch. The father showed us how it is waterproof. Part of me doubts it would hold up in heavy rain in NYC while the other part of me imagines it can't be much worse than every other umbrella I have that turns inside out with the slightest wind.
The He Ho airport. Sigh. Not much better than Yangon in terms of communication. We got there at 330 for our delayed 430 flight. Today's sticker was blue which I promptly lost. The waiting area, which in terms of comfort is more like a bus terminal, filled up pretty quickly. And 430 came and went without any flights leaving or anyone been resembling an airport worked being around. We heard what sounded like propellers and planes for a bit but nothing happened. Then all of a sudden at around 5, two planes landed and we were all hustled on board.
Upon landing in Mandalay, we were all a bit sweaty (me in particular for some reason) and wanted a shower. No such luck. Due to our delay, we were heading right out to that evening's activities. Our guide Tonton (again spelled phonetically) told us we were headed right to the night market (after an hour long drive)' a barbecue dinner and then a show. After that, we would check into the hotel around 9:45PM. Moira declared she wasn't dressed properly for the the-ater. And when Tonton told us we didn't have to leave tomorrow until 8:30 AM, Moira said she would gladly trade a half hour tomorrow morning for a shower tonight.
But there would be no showers and in the long run, that was probably a smart thing as this place is so hot and humid. It had to still be in the 90s or at least in the upper 80s even though it was evening. Tonton said that it gets up to the equivalent of 110 in the summer here. So all this means that strolling through the night market did not cool us down. The night market is for those who work during the day and can't go to the regular market. It runs from 4 PM to 9 PM. Tonton told us most people buy the food they are going to eat on the day they eat it. They don't have freezers and I am assuming their refrigerators are small too. A lot of the items here looked like what we saw at the earlier market. Tonton bought us a few things to try but I have no idea what their names are. One was like a pancake. Another was something made from some type of bean. And the last was a fruit that we don't have in the US.
After our street appetizers, we had an outside dinner at a barbecue place called Mr. Barbecue. You go to a counter and pick an array of things you'd like. I can't remember all we got but there were things like duck, crab, pork, beans, asparagus, tofu and potatoes. The place was frequented by locals, most of whom were men. That led to our final stop which was a marionette show featuring Burmese music. Moira predicted even before we went in that she would likely fall asleep. The music was so loud that wasn't too easy (she did a lot of head bobbing instead). While it was cool to see the way they did the marionettes, there was a live puppet (a lady dancer) that was creepy. Actually, the whole thing was a little creepy but that might just be because one of the marionettes was a monkey. At the end, we learned that the head puppeteer was 83 which was interesting.
Anyhow, another long but good day.
Things we learned:
- They call the area where we get the boat Jetty City. I referred to that above.
- I won't be able to describe this correctly (but can hopefully later post pictures or video of it) but the fisherman here have a unique way of rowing using one foot to help guide the oar, and also to pull in the nets. It is fascinating to watch and this is the only place where it is done.
- The sun is super intense here. Which makes the shade feel really nice. Where possible, people and animals seem to try to find shady spots.
- Tharpu majored in zoology in University. So did his wife. And his real name is Kyaw Soe Win. Apparently Tharpu is a nickname for many first sons.
- We are now all friends with Tharpu on Facebook now although we won't understand his posts if they are in his language. Burmese (not sure if that is the right way to refer to it but we'll go with it) looks like a series of loops mad circles and other crazy drawings. There are 33 letters/symbols in the alphabet. There are multiple forms of language though - formal/informal, male/female, and one for monks. And Facebook has only been accessible here for about a year, although Tharpu has about 700 friends so far.
- Guides here are not allowed to accompany their guests into or out of the airport. A separate man, who told us to call him Joe, did the honors for us both times. His teeth were red from chewing the cheroot as are many people's here.
- Mandalay means flat land. The population is growing quickly here. Before 2000, there were 1 million people here. Now there are 1.5 million.
- Tourism has grown fast too. Before 2010, there were 300,000 people per year. Last year, there were 1.5 million and this year, there have been over 1 million so far. They need more hotels, restaurants and tour guides. And it got expensive. The ministry of tourism is trying to help control it
- Agriculture is the biggest industry here. The main crop here is rice as well. Secondary crops are nuts, vegetables and flowers.
- Mandalay is 10 hours by private car from Yangon. By bus is 12 hours. This is even with a new fancy highway. Cars and motorcycles used to be super expensive and there was no public transportation. People rode bikes everywhere. But the government has opened that up now and more people can afford it.
Number of flight segments to date: 5
Number of airport bus rides: 4
1 comment:
Really looking forward to pictures of the boat parade!
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