Wow we completed a three day marathon trek over the mountains, through the rice and potato fields, balancing carefully as we crossed rice paddies and only occassionally falling in. The trek gave us a serious appreciation for what travel has been like for centuries without the advantage of motorized vehicles. Deeply rutted red dirt roads that easily turn to slip sliding away mud fields when it rains which is every afternoon. The ruts are from the ox carts and a few horse carts and the path ( of least resistance) that both people and the cows have taken for centuries across the fields and forests. We spent the first nite in the upstairs of a village home thankful to get off our feet from 16 km of hiking. Food was good and the trek guide Jimmy who has been doing this for 17 years stays with families who appreciate the extra source of income he brings. This mountain top family establishment was all contained in its self sufficency. There were orchards of mango, papaya, banana and plum. Gardens with tomatoes, chilis, onions and garlic.....fields sewn in rice and potatoes. The watern cistern had been rigged up with a pipe that allowed a flow for a makeshift shower, much appreciated to get the grime of the dust off. Most of the villages have a piped source of water. The 2nd day was the real marathon day of 20 km over varied tilled, early growth and ready to be harvested terrain, mountainsides covered with tea plantations, potato fields, bamboo forests, rice paddies, women and children working in the fields taking respite under nearby bhoddi trees. We arrived at our destination for the 2nd nite, a monastery which was quitelovely and truly picturesque, just as the afternoon rain broke out. The rain was much appreciated from the deep teak porch of the monastery as we drank tea and soothed our blistered feet. We were competing for # of blisters/ person.....I could not compete because all I had was 2 lost toenails. The monastery is run by 2 adult monks taking care of 10 orphans, monks who are cared for and schooled in this mountain seclusion. It is a very well ordered place, simple and clean. We of course were put to sleep by the allocated 1 hour of satelitte TV at 9pm that drew the surrounding children before all electricity went down at 10 pm. We were awoken by the sonorous chanting of all the monks at 5 am, a really nice way to be awoken even though it is early. The mosquito nets had worked well and the blankets were well used byt comfy, so hard to haul ourselves out for the final push to Inle Lake for the balance of our 57 Km trek. After breakfast of tea, fruit, guacamole served on white bread, ( for some reason they believe all Westerners prefer this tasteless, nuritionless white bread). Then we were off for the final 4 hours down to Inle Lake from the mountain.
This is when we started calling Jimmie "rush guide" his perjorative term for the other guide who had brought in 7 other trekkers the nite before. Jimmie was like a horse that knew he was heading home to the stable and thus set a relentless pace all morning. We took no breaks and hiked 4 hours through mud slick, oc cart, rutted path across fields and villages and finally, blessedly down to the souther end of Inle Lake. Were immediately picked up one of their long boats which was nicely set up with short lawn chairs and umbrellas to take us the 45 minutes across the lake to the town on the north of the lake Nguaschwe where we will stay for 2 more days.
This lake community is the center of true hydroponic gardening. They locals take the mud from the lake bed and bamboo stake it into rows that they plant tomatoes on literally in the shores of the lake so that the tomatoes roots are standing in lake water. This gardening procedure is very labor intensive as are most things here as the men dive down into the lake and scoop up buckets full of this mud sledge and place it into their shallow teak boats until the boat is about submerged and then they take off to their gardens by rowing with one leg and foot on the oar. This boats are so shallow you are amazed at the amount of weight they carry. The same boats pick up the produce and take it to Nguaschwe the town that then is the center for trucking tons of tomatoes all over Myanmar and north to China. This is their main crop here in the valley but the mountain tribes all come in here to trade their produce of rice, potatoes, vegetables and tea so no one is lacking because the market exchange is pretty strong.
It is lovely here and the town/village is quite spread out. Rob and I are congratulating ourselves for making the trek which was a tough one but certainly one that was worth the effort. Again we were the only Boomers with a small group of 20 somethings....including Erik, a young French and Norwegian male travelers. The people, the terrain, the countryside, the mountains and the memories we collected of this most amazing people and country will be with us indefinitely.
This is when we started calling Jimmie "rush guide" his perjorative term for the other guide who had brought in 7 other trekkers the nite before. Jimmie was like a horse that knew he was heading home to the stable and thus set a relentless pace all morning. We took no breaks and hiked 4 hours through mud slick, oc cart, rutted path across fields and villages and finally, blessedly down to the souther end of Inle Lake. Were immediately picked up one of their long boats which was nicely set up with short lawn chairs and umbrellas to take us the 45 minutes across the lake to the town on the north of the lake Nguaschwe where we will stay for 2 more days.
This lake community is the center of true hydroponic gardening. They locals take the mud from the lake bed and bamboo stake it into rows that they plant tomatoes on literally in the shores of the lake so that the tomatoes roots are standing in lake water. This gardening procedure is very labor intensive as are most things here as the men dive down into the lake and scoop up buckets full of this mud sledge and place it into their shallow teak boats until the boat is about submerged and then they take off to their gardens by rowing with one leg and foot on the oar. This boats are so shallow you are amazed at the amount of weight they carry. The same boats pick up the produce and take it to Nguaschwe the town that then is the center for trucking tons of tomatoes all over Myanmar and north to China. This is their main crop here in the valley but the mountain tribes all come in here to trade their produce of rice, potatoes, vegetables and tea so no one is lacking because the market exchange is pretty strong.
It is lovely here and the town/village is quite spread out. Rob and I are congratulating ourselves for making the trek which was a tough one but certainly one that was worth the effort. Again we were the only Boomers with a small group of 20 somethings....including Erik, a young French and Norwegian male travelers. The people, the terrain, the countryside, the mountains and the memories we collected of this most amazing people and country will be with us indefinitely.
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