We were on our own for most of the day today, which was a nice change. We asked if we could call off the 6 hour boat ride in the long tail boat, which is really cool but very noisy, to ride bikes and explore on our own. We began by taking out bikes from the hotel and biking about 30 mins up to a girls’ orphanage. There we parked our bikes and began the 30 min hike up the mountain to a stupa, temple and the Forest Monastery which sat at the top of the hill that we could see from the lake. It was nearly straight up and they were just paving it for the first time. There were lots of women carrying gravel in metal pans on their heads (women do most of the heavy lifting in these countries) and then as we got closer to the monastery there were monks carrying rocks and carrying gravel- young monks too, working on the road construction.This is a big deal to pave this road which will likely bring more visitors. When we arrived at the top, we were the only tourists there. We walked right into the monastery housing area where we spoke with one of the monks who was busy building something. To our surprise he spoke very good English, which he said he had been taught at the monastery. He had been a monk there for 20 years and was from a village quite a bit north of here, but came to this monastery because it was so peaceful here. I am sure they don’t get many tourists and quiet in the mountains and much cooler. He was very friendly and told us the best way to the temple was through the monastery housing up the stairs. We walked through where about 65 monks lived. They not only had the road being built but they were restoring the Stupa and building some other buildings. A lot of activity going on.
We went inside the temple on the hillside and there was a large Buddha statue there along with some wax sculptures honoring the past head monks. We have seen this a lot, monks paying homage to the head monks through wax sculptures inside the temples. When we were putting our shoes back on, you have to take off your shoes and go barefoot in all holy places, we met an older monk. He looked like he had to be in his 80s. He had no teeth but a big grin :) He was very friendly and could tell that he was looking for some conversation. He sat and washed his feet and body while we sat there and then was happy to take a photo of he and Sam. He then pointed us to the Stupa that was down a dirt path on the other side of the mountain. We made our way there and I took a walk around, it had 4 porcelain Buddhas inset into the Stupa. (Stupa is like a temple but it is solid so you can’t go in it, you just walk around it) As we walked back and down we ran into the monk again and he was looking at the rabbits, in a cage below a small house. He wanted to show us the rabbits and then showed us inside the little house. There was a skeleton inside having behind a cage and a bench!! He pointed to it and said “American!” What the…..?! Finally we deduced that they have an anatomy class here and maybe the skeleton came from America. We asked our guide about it later and she said they do study anatomy as part of their educational studies. But we had a good laugh about that. He wanted Nate and I to have a photo with him and then Sam. He was so jolly and cute. He said he had been there for about 12 years, which made me think it might be like a retirement home for some elderly. They can come here and meditate and be fed and be looked after. I have to say the monasteries serve so many purposes. Most people only come and live for 10 days but some come for years when they are young and apparently some come when they are old. Whoever comes will be looked after. It is like their community center where all are welcome and the community supports with food and funds.
For lunch we met up with our guide and boat driver back at the hotel and we made our way to the restaurant that we had eaten at the first day that had the Cat Village. Sam was dying to play with the cats again. Between ordering and his meal he played with cats and then played with the cats after. There were tons of Burmese cats. Following lunch we explored around and drove the boat past the Post Office, which I think is so hilarious since it sits in the middle of the lake on stilts with no roads running to it. Our guide then took us to a village which sat on the lake and had many floating gardens but all other fields, like some rice paddies as well. As we got out of the boat we walked along the narrow paths between the fields and the water towards a home. When we arrived there a man stepped out of his rather large wooden home. He was elderly, maybe 70 and invited us into his home. I thought this was planned but our guide said no, we were just going to do a walkabout. He again was looking for company and in this area they don’t get tourists and he was happy to have us in. He wanted to know how old I was and how old Nate was. He said Nathan looked much older than me :) Liked him right away! His daughter-in-law was in the house rolling cigars. She had a pile of chopped tobacco and then a stack of mulberry leaves and some tapioca glue and a stick that she would roll the cigars around. It was a way to make some extra money on the side. His 4 children lived with him and their wives and children and they had a couple houses connected to each other. He was so happy to have us I was sure this was all set up, but Htet Htet said no, she had never been to this area before. He offered us sweets and gave us the full tour around the house. It was really fun to visit with him and see where they cooked, slept and ate and he pointed out his fields and he also had many floating gardens as well. We then wandered down the path past rows of tomatoes, most commonly grown in this region and on the floating gardens, and to some other homes where the neighbors came out to greet us and we got to hang out with some of the kids. We taught them thumb wars and the hand slapping game. They wanted to know about us and were very friendly. It was really fun to visit with locals and make some friends.
The day wrapped up with us catching a local taxi from off the lake to take us to some local hot springs and “spa.” There we soaked in the 4 pools they had, all varying temperatures before showering off and heading back to our place by taxi. It was fun to be driving in the evening through small towns and seeing all the hustle and bustle.
This evening we ate again at the hotel, which is pretty common here to stay at your hotel. We are also remotely located and so not a lot of restaurants around us. Feeling better tonight, yesterday night I was so exhausted and felt like I had a cold. I think the cold feeling came from allergies and honestly I think from the pollution in the air. There are fires burning everywhere. There are no regulations in place here and everyone is boring their fields, there are dozens of fires as you look around.
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