To those of a certain faith those words may come as a certain comfort, but I am not one of those especially when they happen to be stuck to the inside of the the windshield of the Night bus I'm travelling on. More comfort could be gained from the generous space inside. The ample legroom, the wide soft chair with an android based tablet attached and preloaded with films, music and games, was undoubtably a nice touch, unlike mine. Deft strokes don't come too easily when trying to play a game of "Silly Sausage" as the bus on which you are riding is shaken to near destruction. The roads underneath it being anything but smooth underneath.
The distance travelled over the next 11 and a half hours was roughly 600 km of hairpin corners, sharp inclines and sharper declines with our driver seemingly nervous of using his brakes, joyfully tailgating and overtaking on the downhills as we snaked our way through the darkness to our destination. When we finally got off the bus at 5:30am into the cool morning air, I was more than happy to walk the short distance to the hotel just to stay out of another vehicle for a bit. The Paradise Hotel we stayed at were good enough to let us check in very early and after a quick wash I went about sleeping again for a few hours, in the hope by the time I woke back up again my butt cheeks would be fully unclenched again.
Nyaung Shwe is a small town that lies in a valley surrounded by mountains, with dusty roads and open fronted restaurants, bike hire, travel agents and a large, open air food market walled in by small shops dotted around on the outside. It feels like a modern day wild west town with a friendlier atmosphere, but (with the occasion exception) one where the horses have been replaced by bikes, trucks with open engines bolted on the front and kids riding water buffalo. There is a single crossroads here that is controlled by a set of traffic lights that seems to only serve as a hindrance forcing traffic to stop whilst all around everything else moves smoothly and without delay. At peak times at this crossing you can sometimes encounter tailbacks that of formed of 3 or 4 vehicles. This is as close as it gets to carnage.
One of the reasons this town does so well is it's a launch point for trips to Inle Lake, the second largest lake in Myanmar that lies about 4 miles down river and is where fisherman fish and paddle their boats using traditional methods amongst several villages with that specialise in traditional manufacturing. Here you see the workers, the silversmiths, tobacconists, paper makers or weavers preforming industriously before (they hope) you can pend some money on something from their shop. The workshops are genuinely interesting though (up to a point) and the people seem like they really want to show you what they do and explain the background of their wares, but the shop prices range from the completely reasonable to the stupidly excessive. I picked up a few things to remember the trip by but we also requested that our guide didn't take us to too many places, or take us to see any of the longneck people (my personal request, I just have something about it that doesn't sit right with me).
On the way back we just had time to stop at a monastery that is "famous" for having cats that the monks have trained to jump through hoops. But all we saw there really was cats just being cats, lying around, sleeping or cleaning themselves, and of course the now requisite market stalls at the entrance and exits. Temples seem to always be a good places for markets, and it's not hard to understand why.
Our boatman cost us 15,000 Kyat for the day (around 7-8 gpb) leaving from town for the lake at around 9am and returning us back to the jetty at about 3:30pm, also taking us to places of interest outside of the aforementioned tourist spots. For that sort of money it's definitely worth the trip, the lake itself is beautiful and it's interesting to see the communities that have sprung up in and around it, It's really quite amazing the sense of peace and tranquility that can be achieved out in the middle of a giant body of water, even with a bloody large engine roaring behind you as you power over it.
So Nyaung Shwe and Inle Lake both get a giant thumbs up from me, but then I do have giant thumbs. There's a genuine sense of happiness that is exhibited by the people there, not only in conversation with you as a tourist as you might expect, but also as they just go about their day to day lives. It's not unusual to hear people singing as they are stacking up shelves or preparing a table, people will try to instigate a race against you whilst pushing a cart, or jokingly shout at you as the whizz by on their bike. You get a feeling here that worry doesn't form a overly oppressive part of their day, and why on earth should it?
why should it anywhere?
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