Day 9- Back to Rangoon!

We are leaving Inle this early morning and heading back to Rangoon. After all the rats and sickness we've endured, I'm pretty happy to be leaving this place, not going to lie. Thanks for the amazing sites and fun boat rides Inle!

After getting back to Rangoon, we rested a little bit at our hotel- Sedona. But after a quick 20 minutes of rest, we quickly headed back out into Rangon to do some more exploring! (Wow, my family just loves to see the sights!)

We started the day at Scott Market. Scott Market is a big marketplace with a lot of different souvenir vendors. You can find jewlery, art, food, etc... basically any goods you want to take back home, you can find it here!

We walked around with our wallets full of kyat, and short after, left with a few souvenirs with our eyes on a few more things that we are hoping to get right before our trip is over.

For lunch, Aunt Jenny brought us to BBQ-  a korean fried chicken joint near Central Hotel. After we finished our meal, a little boy came up to Eric to ask for some money. Although we had encountered many poor children throughout the trip, Eric was somehow very touched by this particular boy and gave him some gifts, candy and a good amount of money! The boy was shocked! 

I had to capture the moment as I too was shocked by Eric's generosity. I think we all are coming to such a realization of how lucky we are... 

After lunch, some of us stayed at the market to continue their shopping adventure while the rest went back to the hotel for a beauty pageant. Once the pageant was over, we found out that Allen had food poisoning from our lunch.. we're all dropping like flies...

In fact, most of our family members weren't very hungry after lunch, so Eric, Steven and I decided to be the fat people that we are and gorge ourselves at the Italian restaurant in the hotel.

After finding a lovely cockroach leg in my soda, I too didn't feel good and so we decided to just call it a night. It's been a rough few days in Burma...

We're heading out to some more pagodas in the morning, so hopefully we all make it tomorrow!

Day 8- Last day in Inle

Today is our last day in Inle. We got an early start thanks to our furry rodent friends (there was a mice infestation in the rooms) and headed out at the peak of dawn to catch a glimpse of the fisherman on the lake. 

Inle lake has a ton of fisherman looking to catch some fish to sell at the markets, or just to bring home for their supper. After some time observing, we realized (and even appreciated) the simplicity of their life. These fisherman aren't necessarily looking to become big executives in the corporate world, but they merely are looking to feed themselves and their family and live a simple, (somewhat) carefree life. It was peaceful watching them hard at work and really puts a perspective as to how different our lives are and what really should be important to us.

We had a big day planned with a lot of different places to visit all over the lake. We started off at a local market where we had to take our cool speedboats throughout. The market was bustling with locals and tourists, and reminded me a lot of Thailand's floating market! Except this one is cooler and not as much of a tourist trap.

We met a girl and her mom that were selling water flowers off their boat. The little girl told us that the money was for her schooling, so of course, dad gave in and bought a bunch of flowers that I had to carry around all day.

Eric's head was starting to burn from the hot beaming sun, so he bought a fisherman hat and wore it around the whole day. Best part of my day.

We then headed off to the biggest temple on the lake.

Eric has become more interested in Buddhism and has been appreciating the temples a lot more. One of his favorite things to do is the gold leaf offering to the Buddha statues. Don't be fooled, they might just look like big globs of gold, but they used to actually be Buddha statues! There has just been so much gold that has been offered, that the statues have morphed into these unrecognizable blobs! And for those of you who are Buddhist, yes, Eric did get yelled at for having his hat on- so don't worry he took it off shortly after.

Our next stop was a quick lunch and then we headed off to a paper factory. We saw how they made paper for everyday use as well as for decorating purposes. This piece of paper is decorated with some water flowers and was made of tree mulch.

Next stop (yes we went to a lot of different places- all via our cool speedboat!) was the silk factory. Here, we got to see how they were able to procure silk from a local plant and how they spent countless hours weaving intricate longyis and other apparel. 

The women use these looms brought over by the British years ago, and to this day, use the same machinery to make all of their products! It costs around $7 to pay the workers to procure the silk, dye it and weave the material (we asked in Burmese) and they sell their items to tourists for around $70! Crazy profit margins, huh?

After another quick stop at a tobacco company, we quickly headed over to the tomato farms. Apparently, Inle produces around 90% of Burma's tomato supply. All the tomatoes are grown on top of the water and are shipped daily to other parts of the country!

We ended the day with another long boat ride back to our hotel and spent some time with the family and grabbed some dinner at the hotel.

I can't iterate enough how great of a trip this has been with the family. As each day passes, we are realizing more and more how lucky we are to have the life that we do. But not only that, we also can reflect on what type of life we want to make for ourselves, and what we really would be happy with. Sometimes I do think that it would be nice to live in a small house above the water, spend the long days playing in the water with the kids and husband, and just do small chores all day.

(yes this woman is washing her clothing in the lake-by hand!)

And then sometimes I realize that we are way too crazy to be satisfied with that.

We leave Inle in the morning to head back to Rangoon! We can't wait- we are getting a bit sick of Mickey and Minnie.

Day 7-Inle

Today is our first day at Inle Lake! We had an early morning flight to Inle, and I unfortunately fell sick for half of the day. After a difficult trip and trek to Inle, we took a 2.5 hour drive to a cave. I wasn’t up for the adventure this time, but Eric mentioned that it was the most exciting thing he’s seen yet.

After climbing and hiking up a mountain, the family entered a cave where there were over 4,000 Buddha statues hidden in different compartments. Some parts of the cave were very big, but there were some parts that you had to crawl through to get to! Eric had an interesting time. J

We then got some lunch and headed to our hotel. This was the best part.

Our hotel is situated on top on Inle Lake, so the only way to get there was by a small speedboat! The family split up into 3 boats, and we took a very fast 30 minute speed boat ride to our hotel. Everyone agreed that it was the most exciting part of the trip yet!

We were greeted by music and drumming and were led to our small villas on top of the water. The entire hotel itself is on top of the lake, all situated on stilts. What a neat place to stay!

The climate at Inle is very different than Yangon. It gets very hot during the day, but at night, the lakes cools down considerably. There are significantly more mosquitoes around as well- of course, we got bitten.

As the family headed off to dinner at the hotel, I ended the night with some rest- I really needed it. Tomorrow we are off to explore the lake some more. I hope I get better in time!

Day 6- Thank You

Today is our last day in Mandalay before we head to Inle Lake.  It’s been quite a trip these past few days, and I know it is just going to get better.

We started our day off visiting the biggest monastery in Mandalay. There are hundreds of monks that live at this monastery and the grounds are incredible. These monks survive solely on non-monetary donations. They diligently line up every morning to receive food donations from the public. Locals also donate their time to help cook lunch for the monks in a huge wok.  Dad decided to help out too! (Check him out in the back!) And yes, Eric is wearing a Longyi!

We then headed to the longest teak wood bridge in the world. We took a long walk over the water and saw such beautiful views of fishermen and farmers. Eric was excited about how many steps this was adding to his FitBit counter.

As we were heading to the next stop, we came across a special Buddhist ceremony where young boys were being converted to monks. Everyone was dressed up and had very colorful costumes- even the oxen were dressed!

Our last stop was the 45 Buddha Monastery. As you may have guessed, it’s a monastery that held 45 Buddhas. What was interesting about this monastery was that all the Buddhas were hidden inside a cavern where you had to climb in to actually see them and give worship to them. Eric felt a bit cramped.

We ended the day with another monastery with a beautiful 360 view. This monastery was built by a minister and had a lot of different art displays and stores. We got a cute painting to bring back home.

And that’s it for Mandalay!

My parents, aunts and uncle brought my cousins and I here in hopes of showing us what it was like for them growing up. But, after hearing my younger cousins comments about the trip, I am pretty sure we are going to leave with much more than an insight of their childhood.

From my last trip to Asia with my parents two years ago, I started to come to a realization about how lucky I am to have such a great family. It isn’t easy growing up in such harsh conditions, and to be honest, I am not sure if I would be able to do what they have done.

My cousins and I are so lucky to have such a hard working family that was able to bring us to a new country and succeed and give us the life that we have today. We owe them the world.

At the monastery today, my cousin Allen made a similar comment and I realized how special this family vacation really is. Not only are we getting together as one big family, the next generation will never forget how amazing our parents are. And for that, we thank you. We can’t wait to see what is up next for us on this trip! Next stop- Inle!