Yesterday we booked a lake tour for today so by 8am we were
at the designated meeting point and were met by our 16 year old driver. He led us down to the jetty and we boarded
the long boat. These boats are very
particular to this lake and are approximately 30 feet long, just wide enough to
fit in a row of wooden sitting chairs, and have a fully exposed gasoline engine
at the back of the boat and a curious steering mechanism that allows the driver
to raise and lower the prop and rudder as required. Strangely, when the boat is underway the
drivers’ preferred position of the prop seems to be slightly out of the water,
producing a huge spray at the back of the boat.
I don’t know why this is, as I’d assume it would be more efficient with
the prop fully in the water, but must have something to do with the angle of
the adjustable prop.
We blasted off down the river and our driver expertly
threaded the long, speeding boat through the wooden piles of the bridges
above. After a few miles we reached the
open lake and were greeted by two traditional fishermen, or at least they used
to be traditional fishermen until they learned that they make ten times as much
money by posing on their nifty boats with their giant fishing cones and showing
off their single leg rowing skills for the tourists that pass by, then asking
for donations. Later on in the lake we
did see men actually fishing and they have this amazing ability to somehow hold
the paddle with their leg and fan it in the water in sort of a figure eight pattern,
which allows them to maneuver the boat while keeping both hands available for
setting the fishing net. We also saw
them violently smashing their paddles against the top of the water, which we
learned was done to scare the fish towards the underwater nets.
Our first stop was at the floating garden – an expansive
area where they have somehow built thousands of rows of floating tomato
plants. This explained the dozens of
boats we saw crossing the lake which were loaded well above the gunwales with
giant bags of tomatoes. After this we
continued down the lake and came to a town of hundreds of buildings built on
stilts and we zipped through the narrow channels at full speed and soon came to
a huge pagoda which was the site for a big weekly market. Our driver let us off the boat and pointed us
to walk across a rickety, wooden bridge that crossed one of the channels and
let to the market. The vendors there
were very aggressive, and almost without exception looked desperate to sell
something. We negotiated on a nifty
horse puppet for Stella and Ana picked up a stunning laquerware serving tray
for a friend. Magnus found at least six
different knives he wanted to by – from a full sized machete to a concealed
double dagger – but we decided he’s not quite ready for that yet.
After the market, our driver wound the boat through the town
and made several stops, including a small factory where they manufacture fabric
from the threads of the lotus plant, an operation where they hand roll cigars
made from tobacco and an interesting mixture of banana leaves, honey and spices,
then to top it all off we arrived at a building that sold all sorts of
handicrafts but, most importantly, had two women from the small region in
Myanmar where they use brass rings to elongate their necks. I remember being in the basement of my cousin
Jason’s house back when I was a little kid and looking in wonder through some
of his dad’s National Geographic magazines (we never could find the Penthouse
stash and God knows we tried) and the one issue I was always fixated on was the
one with the Burmese woman with the neck rings and long neck. And decades later here I was, sitting on a
bench beside one of these beautiful women, in her country, having a
conversation with her and exchanging smiles.
It was a very special moment for me as I never in my wildest dreams
imagined I would ever get to actually meet one of these women and see them in
real life. But here I was!
After that mind blowing experience we headed for the
driver’s favourite lunch place (thankfully speeding right by another eatery
along the way called “Restaurant Mr. Toe”) and had a cold beer and mediocre
lunch along with a bunch of other tourists.
We made it a quick stop and were soon back on the water and our intrepid
driver maneuvered us into a smaller channel which went for miles and miles,
along the way shooting up through several steep rapids caused by wooden dams
that had been build for some purpose we never did figure out. After a lovely cruise he finally docked the
boat on the band and pointed us a direction in which to walk and said “Pagodas,
come back in an hour” so headed off walking and soon found ourselves in the
middle of a busy village that had a school, many homes, shops and several
roads. It wasn’t clear which way we were
supposed to go, but anytime we looked confused one of the locals would simply
point in the direction we should be going.
We soon arrived at a gate and after paying a small camera fee of fifty
cents, began what turned into a very long walk up a gradual incline with
ancient pillars on either side and hundreds of vendors selling all sorts of
stuff from menacing war helmets to Buddha statues to swords to fabrics to
tapestries to you name it. But when we
finally reached the top…we were well rewarded.
We entered the hilltop temple, walked up to the giant Buddha
image and all four of us sat down, cross legged, and sat in silence. It must have been some sort of Buddhist
miracle, but the children actually stopped talking for at least five minutes
which, as far as I remember, has not yet happened on this trip. Without anyone saying anything, or deciding
anything, we just sat there and listened to the sound of bells chiming in the
wind, distant voices, fans whirring, and the sound of ourselves breathing. Though it was brief, it was powerful and set
the stage for what was to come. We
walked outside the temple and were confronted with hundreds of individual
stupas, which are brick or concrete towers that contain an image of the
Buddha. Some were coloured gold, some
were grey, some were blue and others still were ancient and coloured by moss
and disintegrating brick. Most of the
stupas had a gold tower on top which was hung with bells or chimes that jingled
and sang in the slight breeze. We walked
around the pagoda and found there to be not hundreds of stupas, but over one
thousand of them, spreading out far from the main temple. There was nobody else there besides us and a
couple of locals who were at work restoring some of the old stupas. We wandered around, taking photos, allowing
ourselves to be dazzled by this incredible site.
When a few more tourists arrived we started making our way
back down, and before long were back at the boat. Our young driver had been sleeping and his
hair was sticking straight up in the air, but we were glad he had his afternoon
nap while we were away so he was fresh for the ride back home.
We had one more stop on the way back up the lake and this
was at the Jumping Cat Monastery. Until
recently, the monks who lived there trained the local feral cats to be
performers and they would do all sorts of jumping tricks to the delight of the
tourists who stopped by. We were told
that these monks who did this recently left this monastery and there either
wasn’t anybody else who knew how to train the cats, or perhaps they just
weren’t interested. In any case, we had
a nice walk around the impressive building, and found a long series of wall
paintings that told the story of the Buddha.
After exploring a bit we returned to the boat and were soon blasting off
back up the lake and about an hour later we were back at home base.
As that didn’t seem to be enough for the day, we stopped at
the roller skating rink and the kids rented skates and gave it a go! There was another family there – from France
– who had three children and we struck up a conversation with them and ended up
going for drinks and dinner together.
They were such a lovely family and Magnus and Stella did so well
speaking French all night. They are also
heading towards Thailand so we are hoping that we may meet up with them again somewhere
along the way.
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