Lake Inle and the one-legged fishermen

After spending half the night on a really uncomfortable night bus, we were dropped off somewhere in the middle of nowhere on Thursday (29.09.) at 5 am with the words 'new Bus'. The next bus was a tuk-tuk, it was freezing cold and tired and frozen as we were, we hoped that the tuk-tuk would take us to the hotel. It did... On the way there, however, we had to pay an entrance fee of 12,500 kyat at the 'entry point'. The view over the water and the rising sun above it were fascinating. Unfortunately, we were still too tired to really take it in. When we arrived at the Sandelwood (or Sandelwooooo - as the Burmese say 😂) Hotel, we were greeted with a welcome drink and then we were lucky enough to go to the room to sleep for another two hours before we met up with Dennis to go hunting for breakfast. Dennis had already scouted out the place, so we got something decent for breakfast.

In Asia, wine is notoriously scarce.. So when Anja saw that you can do a wine tasting in the mountains near Nyaug Shwe, the activity of the day was decided. We got bicycles from the hotel and pedaled away. After a short while on a country road and a steep uphill section where we had to push because it was too steep, we arrived at our destination. We started the wine tasting with an incredibly amazing view over what felt like the whole country. WOW!!! On the way back home, it started to rain and it got dark..

Fortunately, on the way to the wine tasting, we had already booked the longboat at 'Betel' for the next day from 7:30 am to take us across Lake Inle.

Getting up wasn't so easy for us... 😁 Nevertheless, we managed to be by the water at 7:20 am and get on the boat. We drove into the sunrise, past the one-legged fishermen to the market. We got off for the first time there. Most of the market consisted of souvenirs, but there was also a section reserved for the locals. We then continued on to the silversmith, the boat builder, the cigar maker, and the weavers. Of course, you could have bought something everywhere, but that would have cost a lot of money. We then went through the fishing village, where all the families live in stilt houses. You can't leave the house without a boat. It was super interesting, but I don't think that would be for me. 😵 Finally, we stopped in the middle of the lake for a short while to watch the one-legged fishermen again. Such tranquility! 😍

In the evening, we went to a pizza place near the hotel, with real 🌿 basil!! Pizza and basil, both rare goods in Asia. We also had a beer! That's how you end an evening. 😊

On Saturday evening, our bus to Bagan was supposed to leave. Anja wasn't feeling well in the morning, Dennis and I still wanted to go to the wooden monastery, and we had to check out at 12. So what did we do - we let Anja stay in bed a little longer, took our stuff downstairs and rode our bikes 🚲 off. The entire monastery was actually made of wood, it looked quite rotten, but still beautiful. Around half past 1, we made our way back. After all, we still wanted to go to the Bamboo Hut restaurant by bike, which was beyond the winery, before we took the night bus to Bagan in the evening. The tour was quite nice again, but also exhausting because we were all a little tired. But the food was worth all the effort. 😊 Then we set off for the next night bus..