Hsipaw and Slovaks

Hsipaw, pronounced "see-paw," is a tiny farm town and trading post near the border of China in Shan State. Once considered part of the hinterland and controlled by the ethnic separatists, the Shan State Army, Hsipaw is firmly established stop on the "off the beaten path" path. When we were in Mae Sot, we both read a book entitled "Welcome to Burma... and Enjoy the Totalitarian Experience" by Timothy Syrota. He spent some time in Hsipaw and recommended it as a destination where one could get to know the "Real Burma." Though the book was written over ten years ago, the main attractions remain the same. The town has grown, benefiting from increased tourism, and to a larger degree, increased overland trade with China. This was the first place in Myanmar where we saw Western commodities and finished goods, such as Sprite being sold at almost every small road side store. Day and night, huge trucks trundled through town on the Lashio-Mandalay main road, which is one of the nicest and well-maintained in the country, largely because of the tolls imposed on large vehicles coming from China. Most people living in Hsipaw are ethnically Shan and speak the Shan language, which is more similar to Thai than Burmese. Our tiny knowledge of the Thai number system allowed us to understand prices for goods and rooms. There's not much to do in Hsipaw other than to catch up with community gossip (more on this below) and trek around the beautiful surrounding foothills. Unfortunately during our stay here, both of us managed to get very sick and once better, the monsoon's rains ruined our hiking plans. Enter Hsipaw:

Here is Max being led by a pair of children to the "Shan Palace." Both the Lonely Planet guidebook and the "Welcome to Burma" book had recommended a tour of the modest mansion that used to be home to the last Shan prince. When we arrived at the locked gate, surrounded by overgrown shrubs and weeds, we weren't sure that we were at the right place. The children yelled until a teenage boy came to meet us at the gate. He told us that his grandfather, Mr. Donald, who is the nephew of the last Shan prince and who had been the caretaker of this palace, was in jail and that the palace was closed until further notice. We later learned that while Mr. Donald was charged by the SPDC with giving false information to tourists, the real cause behind his arrest was his invitation to join a Shan State council that was thinking of contesting the upcoming elections. The Shan Palace in Hsipaw has since been closed so that the SPDC can not have another reason to arrest other members of the family for "speaking out" to tourists. His arrest was recent and tourists still come to see the Shan palace regularly, not knowing about Mr. Donald's 7-year jail sentence.

One of the few "musts" in Hsipaw is a walk up to... you guessed it... a pagoda! We walked a couple kilometers over this bridge to the mountain that houses a famous and quiet hillside stupa.

Of course it started raining when we arrived to the top, however the views of the surrounding Shan countryside were worth the trip. We walked back home in the rain and got lost in the small, un-lit villages leading back into town.

Over the next few days, we hiked to a waterfall, got lost in rice paddies, met another cool couple from Brooklyn traveling around the world, and ate lots of Shan noodle soup. Like we said, our movements were limited by the weather, general sickness, and the government. We are sorry to say that we really don't have any more pictures from Hsipaw, but you aren't missing too much. We have no regrets about coming here, but let's just say it wouldn't make our top ten list. Moving on from Hsipaw, we went on a marathon 24 hour bus trip, backtracking to Mandalay, (bus seen above) and then on to Inle Lake. The mountain scenery as we wound our way back to the plains, was a highlight of our trip to Hsipaw. After a long and exhausting journey, we arrived in ....

Inle Lake!
Inle Lake is touted as one of the most beautiful places in Myanmar. Considering that we can't see all of the country, we can't really argue. Inle Lake lies cupped between low hills in the center of Myanmar and is also the starting/ending point for many treks around local villages. Though the lake and villages surrounding it are in Shan state, the people who inhabit the area are largely Intha. The Intha people literally live ON the lake and have developed unique farming and fishing techniques to suit their environment. The clear blue water dissolves gradually into marsh land with no clear shoreline. We stayed in the village of Nyaung Shwe, which is the established tourist jumping off point for day tripping on the lake.

We stayed at a wonderful guest house called the Aquarius Inn. Lovely staff, massive orchid garden and best breakfast in the country. Stay there if you go to Inle Lake. The manager's son hooked us up with two other travelers who were planning on going on a boat trip the next day. He mentioned they were from Slovenia. Imagine our delight when we found out that they were actually Slovaks! (Just in case you don't know, Kara is always really excited to meet citizens of the small former Eastern block nation often mistaken for its phonetically similar Slavic state as her family is from Slovakia.) The next morning we got on a boat with the lovely Slovak sisters (Max is outnumbered 3 Slovaks to 1) and were off to see the lake. Seen above is Yarka.

Fisherman on the lake. We were surprised by the amount of traffic on the lake. Villagers from the surrounding areas use the many motorized long tail boats as ferries, lorries, and fishing vehicles.

The long tails also serve as kitchy tourist shops. Boats would paddle up to our long tail and would literally attach themselves to our vessel. These resourceful "pirates" sold anything from little Buddhas to Fanta.

You might be wondering what there is to do on the lake for 8 hours. Shopping. In all forms. For the first couple of hours of our trip, our boat guide took us from one workshop/showroom to another. On the lake itself are hundreds of bustling cottage industries, catering to the ever-growing tourist market. Each boat driver has their own network of shops they bring you to, as a large commission is given for each tourist delivered. We initially enjoyed seeing the different crafts being made as we wouldn't have gone to these shops otherwise. Seen above is Kara and Mirka talking in one of the silver shops. Inle Lake is known for its beautiful silver. Kara's minimal Slovak got quite a workout over the course of the day as the sisters would speak nothing else to her, encouraging her to get better in her family's tongue. Though Max didn't understand anything, he was all for it.

One of the unique fishing techniques mentioned above is "foot paddling." Though motors have replaced the paddle for long distance trips, local fishers and farmers use leg work instead of their arms to move themselves along the lake. The paddler stands on the back of the boat and wraps one leg around the paddle. Using their arm for leverage, they move the paddle through the water in one graceful dragging motion. Seen above is a foot paddler maneuvering through tomato plants. Tomato plants and other small vegetables are grown literally on the surface of the lake.

Our boat negotiates one of the small canals that penetrate the surrounding marshland.

Here are some traditional stilt houses. We were puzzled by the amount of effort expended bringing the land to the lake. Why don't these people just live on shore we asked ourselves. We still don't know. Tradition? For tourists? Is there some advantage we can't see? Regardless, very interesting.

This workshop made all sorts of fabrics, one specialty was made from the fiber of lotus root.

Though we were interested in seeing the process of spinning and weaving, the Slovaks were not as impressed and stated that they could find this in Slovakia in their grandmother's basement.

After seeing many workshops, we asked our boat driver to take us to a less commercial destination.

We arrived at a small village town and asked where the pagodas were. We can't remember the name of this place however it housed some of the oldest temples in Myanmar.

Just like in Pagan, this site is constantly being restored so that worshippers can come here to pray for the next thousands of years. Beautifully antiqued temples sat next to freshly painted pagodas in this space.

Our last stop for the day was at the famous Nga Phe Kyaung Monastery, more commonly referred to as the "jumping cat monastery."

For some reason, the monks and caretakers of the monastery have trained the many cat inhabitants to jump through hoops. Some of them can jump very high. Weird and interesting. Besides the jumping cats, the monastery itself is in a serene setting and houses some exquisite Buddhist shrines.

Here a local farmer tends to her tomato plants. Watery beds of soil are held in place by bamboo poles on the surface of the lake. Maybe the hydroponics make for better tomatoes. For whatever reason, Inle Lake is the biggest tomato producing region in the country. The tomato curry we had on dry land was delicious.

Max and Kara on the boat at the end of the day.

The next day we chose to rent bikes (ouch, our asses) and ride out to get a view of the lake from above.

The road was really bumpy.

And it started to rain.

But 2 hours later, we made it to the top of the hill. What would a hill in Myanmar be without a pagoda? Max sounds the bell 6 times to announce we have arrived, in traditional Burmese fashion.

We spent another hour enjoying the view from above and talking about what we had learned the previous day and the questions we still had about the lake community.

Later that night we said goodbye to our Slovak friends. Also pictured is Kawtar, our friend from Morocco.

Before we left Nyaung Shwe, we decided to wander through the markets. We happened to be in town at the same time as thousands of monks, as there was a large "monk exam" going on. Festival markets had been set up in the streets surrounding the main temple. We met some monks and chatted secret politics with them. We also bought tanaka, seen above in its raw and natural form.

Here is the tanaka seller, crushing a sample for Kara to wear.

Inle Lake: We came.

We saw.

We laked.

After much debate about our next destination, we made the final decision to extend our time in Myanmar and head South. Check in next week as we visit more pagodas, more beautiful places, and attempt to cross into restricted teritory.

K and M