Kalaw

So after that terrible bus ride we got up around noon to check out the town. Went for some lunch and booked our 2 day trek to Inle lake before walking around the town and such. After a break back at the hotel we went back to the same restaurant for dinner as it was good and then to bed for a good amount of rest before our 2 day trek starting the next day. It was recommended to us by a few people to do the trek from Kalaw to Inle lake, staying one night in a monastary or with a family. As the trek usually takes 2 nights and 3 days, we took a shortcut by taking a taxi past all the hard mountain stuff and started at a town called Lamine where there was a noviciation ceremony happening. We left with one guide Thun thi and our cook Disa. We caught the taxi at 8:30 and arrived at the village about an hour later. We later learned that the last time they had this ceremony in this particular village was 22 years ago. There are many factors that determine if it possible for them to have the ceremony but the major one is they have to have a very successful harvest as they have to feed the many hundreds of people that come from surrounding villages and pay for the rented costumes and all the festivities, the catering guys, the tents, the stage, the band. It all seems trivial stuff but for a village that survives mostly on sustinance farming, this is huge. So we were clearly lucky to be part of it any part of it. We took some pictures that we will send to the family that invited us in for food and tea and such friendly hospitality. We did a tour of the village where many others tried to invite us into their homes and passed the procession of the kids becoming novice monks riding on the shoulders of the men in full costume dancing as the band follows them behind. As the last time they had a ceremony in the village was 22 years ago, there were around 150 kinds becoming novices as well as full fledged monks. Some did both in the span of the 3 day ceremony as you have to do one before you get to the other. There were groups of caterers who made huge pots of pork and fish curry and so much rice. The food was actually really really good, some of the best authentic burmese food that i have had here so far. It was very interesting to see how they cooked for all these people for the 3 day ceremony. Well we finally had to continue on even though we were very invited to stay for the night. It would have been quite the experience but again there is only so much time in this country so we continued on. The trek was quite nice that first day, there was a good breeze going on and the slope fairly easy going. We arrived in the village where we were staying after around 4-5 hours hiking. As we arrived, we learned that they had just finished building a new house for this one family and were having the house warming party/ceremony that night. Wow how our timing is sweet. They of course invited us and everyone carried some of their stuff into the house and all sat down in our segregated rooms. Men and women of course but Justina got to stay in the men group. We all sat down and they served tea and sugary sticky rice and fermented tea leaves and cigars were offered to all. We stayed for a while and took some picks that we will send there too. We then dropped our stuff off and walked around the town where we were showed how they de-husk the rice and the monastary of the village where another group of trekkers were staying. We then returned to family home where Diza cooked us up an amazing meal, some more of the best food that we have had in Buma and then hung out drank tea and helped the lady of the house crack peanut shells to get the seeds that they will use to plant more peanuts. We could hear the neighbours making pop sticky rice and the boys came over to our house to visit the 14 year old daughter and they had a fire outside the house and probably talked huge village gossip while shelling peanuts. But unfortunately we couldn't understand any of it, but i'm sure it was good. It is amazing though how much energy it takes just to feed your family, the work seems to never really stops ever.

The next morning we woke at 7am and some nice hot breakfast before heading out on the road for the day. This day was a little hotter but we trudged along at a steady pace and arrived at the village at the edge of Inle lake. From here we had a boat meet us for the 1.5 hour ride to Nyaungshwe, the town where all the guesthouses are. It was a gorgeous boat ride through all these floating gardens which is pretty much earth that is connected to bamboo poles. We secured a room and said farewell to our great guide and cook. Went out for dinner of course a little later than we had planned and caught then end of things in town. But we did run into the Norwegian and spanish pair that we had met in Ngwe Hsaung and chatted with them for a while. The next day we looked forward to a full day of boating.