Hanoi here we come

Managed to miss the typhoon in the afternoon, we arrived about 7:30 pm just a little down pour and a bit of wind! 

We are here for one night before heading off to Sapa and Halong Bay.

Then we will be back for a night before heading south to Hue and Hoi Ann

Then we return for one more night before heading home!

So yes Hanoi is our base to explore the north of Vietnam. People, bikes, scooters, cars and more people!

Green Tangerine was the recommended restaurant on our return visit from Sapa. Excellent.

Catch cry in Vietnam " Same same". But different! 

Like clockwork we were met at the airport by the driver from Marigold Hotel, a delightful, friendly place to stay when in Hanoi. We had three different rooms, all very nicely set up, modern and very clean. They even stored our luggage while we went away to Sapa and Halong Bay and again when we went south.

Marigold Hotel Hanoi

Young Manager!

The young manager had organised our train trip to Sapa and boat trip on Halong Bay he was so efficient at doing this we let him organise our trip south to Hue and Hoi Ann too. Hotels, flights, car and driver, transfers, the lot, all worked almost like clockwork.

Still doing things the old way

The storm had left a trail of destruction

Yes whole families on one bike or scooter

The old quarter

We strolled around for a whole day exploring the old quarter, the market and the park, dodging the traffic and the monsoon rain. Like any Asian city it is always a hive of activity, sitting out on the pavement for a beer and watching the passing parade is the best way to see how the city works, it is fascinating to watch.

Back to Yangon then we are gone

Time to leave the relaxing Inle Lake and the Hupin Resort where we were looked after very well and met another traveller from the UK who was exploring Burma for a travel company to bring visitors on tours. Myanmar will be opening up soon so we are very glad to have visited in 2012 and out of season.

Tony feeling very relaxed at Hupin Resort Lake Inle

Back in Yangon

Inya Lake Hotel

view from our room inya Lake hotel

Yes it's monsoon time just wait a while and then we will go swimming in the gorgeous pool.

The in distance is the Shwedagon Pagoda we had visited previously

We didn't meet with Aung San Suu Kyi but we did visit her fathers home, where she grew up. The history displayed was extremely interesting. He was a very learned man. We also passed by her house and the taxi drive made a point of telling us we were going by "the lady's house" we are glad she had invited us - tourists to visit her country. We think we would like to return in about ten years to see what happens.

Yangon Museum

 Time to leave Myanmar we have had a fantastic, tiring, ten days exploring the country and meeting some wonderful people, especially the River Mekong Travel staff who helped us organise all our accommodation, transport and transfers and also came to meet us before we left to make sure everything was right. Thank you so much.

Can you see me?

Exploring Inle Lake

There is so much industry and activity surrounding the lake it's overwhelming. We only have time for a one day boat journey to the highlights, it is possible to do many treks in this region which intrepid travelers find rewarding.
It's market day so off we go in one of those long tail boats with a very skillful skipper. We no sooner set off and there was a "traditional" fisherman performing for us.....yes we had to make a donation. He's a dying breed after all. It's probably a bit of shame but the much more efficient gill netting method of fishing has consigned this type of caper just for show to earn some tourist tips.

Traditional fish trap fisherman

Traditional weaving

Tourists arriving by boat

Silver smith is popular

Those who live on the lake all seem very busy making something, and of course eager to sell to the visitor.

Lotus weaving

Pulling the lotus fibre

 You need 75 lotus plants to recover enough fibre just to make a scarf. This process is so labour intensive.

The local forge

 These guys make knives and other iron implements and enjoyed showing us their strength in hammering the heated material.

Floating gardens - tomatoes

Stilt housing

Cigar or cheroot making

Those famous leg rowers of Inle Lake .. not just for show they all do  it even little kids

It was a pleasant day only rained on us twice, we also visited the "cat" monastery where the cats are  trained to jump through hoops but we just saw the typical lazy cat while we were there. A colleague back at out accommodation who was actually scouting for a British adventure travel company did see the cats perform
but was not sure it was worth the wait for their apparently quite unscheduled show. The people are very friendly, our boat skipper seemed to instinctively know when to slow the boat for another photo opportunity.

Net fishermen of today

Catch of the day

Relax at the springs

There were three pools of varying degrees at the springs, the hot one was quite hot and we could only stay in it for about 5 minutes.

Short bike rides.....well ok

After work game

Nice place for a juice

Nice friendly owner here and an extensive menu of western type foods but we didn't eat here just rested during our bike ride and had a beverage.

HeHo - Inle Lake

Flying hello to Heho ... After spending twelve hours sailing away from it ... Strange it was little over half an hour flight to get back to Mandalay well the airport at least which seemed a long way out of town from window view. 

Yep we made it

We were here only to catch another plane for similarly short hop to HeHo kick off point for visit to Inle Lake. This was the higher country and supposedly cooler.. It was a bit and thank goodness we arrived early in the day because the clockwork-like organisation faltered a little here. There was no sign-carrying taxi driver at the terminal and it was an hour's drive or thereabouts to get to the Hupin Hotel digs for a couple of nights.. Some gentle inquiries around the airport only elicited further confusion ... So found a type of phone booth to ring  Thida our agents agent back in Yangon after many apologies we came up with a taxi only to be taken to the wrong Hupin .... In the township at the north of the lake rather than the Hupin resort on the lake. We negotiated a boat trip to the correct location and there were more apologies all round and the seven-dollar fare was eventually refunded. But the trip over to the much more up market Hupin was enjoyable and a foretaste of much longer on the water tomorrow.

Hupin Resort on the Lake

Those long tail boats

After lunch we were off to explore the local village.

Tempura vegetables and watermelon and pineapple juice

Just man  power to move heavy timber

Drying Tofu

Solar food drying

The local School children learning English

Making tomato boxes

Not much safety gear here

Unloading the tomatoes 

A petrol station for all those bikes

The day's end Inle Lake

Bagan the old way

Old Bagan the old way ....  Had been advised and couldn't disagree the best way to see the place would be by horse cart...  There were plenty to choose from but, having declared we should limit discretionary expenditure to less than $50, Mrs S couldn't do even that without making the days first purchases of a couple of paintings in the local style,which is basically copying established patterns using glue and sand along with paints. That deal was struck on the ground by the side of the road while our chariot was prepared.

Sand paintings

Tharbar Gate Bagan

We had a very rough idea of the couple of temples we wanted to see, we wanted to go to the market and would like to get high to view the plain of ruined stupas from the 11 and 12 th centuries. Trouble is a plain is fairly flat and the sites we went to barred access to the higher levels. We'd already decided to accept the consensus from tripadvisor to skip the recently added observation tower because it was a military government rip-off etc.

Anyway you've got to go with the flow in these circumstances ....  We didn't spell out what should be one two and three stops so it should have been no surprise to find the first stop was a lacquerware factory/shop where we were entertained for half an hour or so and made a couple of strategic purchases.

Young salesman

Back on the cart it was obvious we were going to the market before the temples ah well not to matter. Once there we were entertained and did some entertaining of the crowd .... Just buying an apple was cause for great mirth. Probably because paying twenty cents for it I was hugely taken down, but it was research out of a not very big pile of nondescript apples more choice didnt look to bad and flavor wasn't too bad either but texture was awful don't know about flavour of some of the other rarer vegetables on display (though pineapples and mangoes are magnificent) and the climate would not be conducive but the spuds and especially carrots look like they could do with some hybrid vigour.

While I conducted this research Mrs S was conducting a serious assault on her budget target... Kitting up with a new local fashion skirt top, a few other knickknacks, even a t shirt all with some old fashioned haggling so you can only imagine the amount saved from the original asking price.






Finally back to the cart and away to the Anandar temple...  Very interesting cool and calming despite the burning hot tiles between the main gate and the temple proper which had to be negotiated with bare feet. Not quite so bad if you  stick to central white marble squares. Interesting old old frescoes with extraordinary detail.
The open area around this and many of the other 3000  stupas temples pagodas the place is famous for having been ploughed by oxen is today being planted by hand with seed for peanuts! A group of what looked to mainly older women sat around wisely in the shade planting the seeds in the crumbly dirt... At least they don't have to contend with mud like the ride paddy planters.

                        
What leading up to here is that while it is a world heritage site and a thorough testament to human engenuity of the time it is also evidence of complete excess ... Much as naypyitaw is now .....  I don't know that the generals of recent times have been that much nastier to the people than kings xxxxx where to their subjects at that time either. Like many countries Myanmar might not have learned too much from its history.

Ananda Temple

So much for the moral musing. ... Back to hedonism. The cart had us back at the Thande before three pm so we repaired to poolside and pool-in. A pleasant afternoon was while away in this manner including a couple of gin and tonics which at $1 for the local gin and another $2 for the tonic to go on top of it were still very reasonable and quenching.

Another horse cart and a visit to a another couple of close by temples including a climb up through a dark passage of a ruin to get a pic of murky sunset and the famous Bo xxx temple of the ayarawaddy bank then dinner and the also nearby Tharabund #2 restaurant was pleasant days end dunno about the budget tho.

Traditional Myanmar curries

Typical Bagan Scene