Monthly Archives: June 2009

Ok, so here is Inle Lake continued. More photos and explanations. Enjoy…

We took a little side jaunt up a canal to a place called Indein. The canal was really cool because it had locks of sorts. Bamboo dams with gaps just big enough for the boats to scoot through. The driver had to pull the prop out of the water as we went over.

Addy with one of the several hundred pagodas at Indein. Our tour guide told us that there was 1054 pagodas. Dad can read Burmese numbers and each pagoda is number. One he read was around 1900, so we’re not sure how many there were.

Many of the pagodas are crumbling, but some have been adopted and donors have paid to have them restored. These guys are working with bamboo scaffolding to fix this one up.

Little guy catching a ride across the bridge with his mom.

Mom got some great photos of the people in the Indein Market.

After Indein we came back out to the villages on the lake to tour some of the different factories. These ladies wanted to have us come to their shop badly enough that they jumped in and pulled us across the sand bar. It was awkward to sit there and watch women trying to pull us out. Dan asked if he could jump in and help but was told that he probably shouldn’t. This is were the ladies with the rings around their necks worked weaving fabric.

This is one of the older ladies. I guess it is a symbol of beauty in their culture. They all live in a village far south of Inle Lake, but a few come to work on the lake. I think they are mainly tourist attractions, but seemed very happy to answer our questions and have their picture taken.

Umbrella assembly at the mullberry paper factory. The lady on the left is placing flowers on the umbrella. We bought one of these and brought it home. It was a cool process and the finished products are pretty sweet.

In my opinion, one of the most fascinating places we went was to the silk and lotus weaving shop. There were two buildings with three floors of looms, and they were going like crazy.

Addy watching this guy pull the fibers out of a lotus plant to make thread. Lotus fabric was pretty but extremely expensive. Not hard to figure out why though? Can you say labor intensive?

One of the looms hard at work. Watch her feet. The different pattern she pushes the pedals down determines the pattern on the fabric. Watching all this stuff being done by hand was fun.

If I remember right, it was soon after leaving the weaving shop that we got a good taste of a Myanmar rainstorm. We were cruising along in our boats when the heaven’s opened and the rain and the wind came down like crazy. It was insane. We all had umbrellas, but it was raining so hard the rain was coming straight through the fabric of the umbrellas. We were all soaked. Addy was quite upset. Luckily, the drivers found a place to pull over and the Cherut shop workers rushed us inside and out of the rain. I haven’t seen rain like that since being in a typhoon in Japan. The next day, we went through a village nearby and the storm had done quite a lot of damage to the thatched roofs and had knocked over a building that housed a festival boat. If your wondering, cherut are the cigars that the men and women smoke over there. Yeah, we got to see how they were made. Of course, by hand and it actually was really interesting.

Amanda trying to comfort Addy after taking cover from the rainstorm.

Addy watching the ladies make the cigars.

After the rain stopped, we cruised back to the hotel, took nice warm showers, had dinner at the restaurant, and then were treated to a show of traditional dancing by the hotel staff.

Really cool bamboo pole dance. The guys would pound out a rhythm and slap the poles together as the ladies would dance through them.

Mom and Amy were invited to get in on the action.

The next day we went through the floating gardens and villages a little more. Lots and lots of tomatoes. I wish we had bamboo more readily available in the states. It makes great tomato trellises.

Addy and Grandpa checking out the gardens.

They learn early to row with their legs. Another great photo that my mom took. She has an eye for getting people in their element (that is when she is not reenacting spontaneity 🙂 ).

One of the places Addy was especially excited to go to was the Jumping Cat Monastery. The monks here really like cats and have taught them to jump through hoops. They got featured in an airline magazine and became a famous tourist destination.

One of the cats showing off.

I think she is trying to convince one of these cats to come home with her. Too bad her dad (me) can’t stand the pesky things!

Myanmar style traffic jam. This is coming into the Nampan Market. These markets are only held every 5 days, so it was fun to get to come to this one.

My girls and the grandparents trying to squeeze in.

So I wanted to get a picture of this ox cart, but I think I caused this poor guy some grief.  The oxen started backing up and about went into the lake. He is trying to hold them back. He got them to pull forward and all was well. Notice the bamboo market in the background.

Some scenes from the market…

Amy looking mighty touristy! Love it.

Amanda had to have a basket and the salesman had to show them all. It was hilarious.

Addy and Danny playing Myanmar billiards with our boat drivers. This is at the Golden Kite restaurant, AKA the place with the chocolate pancakes. Good stuff. Funny story here. In Myanmar, they don’t wait for the entire tables food to be ready to serve it. They bring out each dish as it is ready. Amanda always was last to get her food. I felt for her. Sometimes it would come an hour and a half after the first dishes came out. We had to hurry on this day to get back to the jetti and on to the airport so she had to play hoover and inhale her food. She was good about it though.

View from the restaurant.

I had to get a photo with our boat drivers. They were cool guys. The one on the left really took to Addy. He would always rush over to help Addy into and out of the boat. He would carry her to the highest point of the stairs he could reach. It was fun to watch him interact with her.

We were all excited to see the farmers out planting the rice as we drove from the lake back to the Heho airport.

The cool little monastery between the lake and the airport that we visited.

So it has been fun posting these pictures. Inle was incredible. Photos don’t do it justice. If you ever want to go somewhere not the norm for a vacation, I would highly recommend this place.

Well, hope you aren’t burned out on our Myanmar posts, because yes I have more. Amanda might have to jump in and fill in some of the happennings since we have been home. More from back in Yangon soon. Thanks for looking.

Ok, so I have been a slacker this week and have not posted anything new about our trip. I have been busy with work and out doing other blog worthy things. Many posts to come. I will make up for the delay today and post a good long picture laiden entry.

So now for the next installment of Merkleys in Myanmar, I thought I would share about our side trip from Yangon up to a place called Inle Lake.

We flew up to Heho on this cool little prop plane. Made me appreciate the leg room I had on the flight over the Pacific.

Adelynn and Amanda eating their oranges (more like greens) on the flight up.

Some of the great scenery between the airport and the jetti.

Everyone loading into the boats. Inle Lake is a large, fairly shallow lake that fills a beautiful valley surrounded by some very Cache Valley looking mountains. There are many villages that are built on the water and everyone gets around by boat, either motorized like these or canoes that I will show you later. They do everything on the water. We wonder if some of the people have ever been on dry land. It is wild. They call it the Venice of Southeast Asia. A good majority of the tomatoes eaten in Myanmar are grown on the lake as well in floating gardens. It is an incredible place and we got to spend 3 days touring around it.

Addy and Amanda on the boat as we went down the long canal from the jetti to the main lake. Our tour guide Joyce is behind Amanda. The motors on these boats are pretty interesting. They are single cylinder motors with big fly wheels to keep them going. The noise was actually quite relaxing after getting used to it.

I took a little bit of video to give a better idea of how we cruised around the lake…

Some photos of the hotel on the water where we stayed…

Each hut was an individual room.

The mosquito nets made for a cool ambiance in the rooms.

Dusk at Paradise Hotel.

Amanda and I chillin’ on the deck. Notice Amanda’s cool humidity hair!

The group with our tour guide Joyce in front of the hotel lobby.

Inle Lake is a very touristy area, for good reason. The place is beautiful. I wouldn’t mind going back someday and staying a week or more up there. All the different villages specialize in something. There are gardeners, fisherman, blacksmiths, weavers, paper makers, silversmiths, and many others. They all cater to tourists with demonstration areas and gift shops. We were there during the slow season, so we had a lot of these places to ourselves. Our time on the lake was spent visiting the different villages, markets, pagodas, and monastaries. So here are some shots of some of the different places. Hang on to your hats, there are lots of pictures. I don’t know how to narrow these down.

Traditional fishing method. They float around looking for bubbles and then place their nets. Way cool to watch.

These guys are gathering seaweed to use as fertilizer in the floating gardens. They fill the boats so full it is a wonder they stay afloat.

They row their boats with their legs so they can use their hands to gather and set the nets.

Addy riding with Grandpa, Grandma, and Joyce.

One of the nicer houses on the water.

The more common village scene on Inle.

A cool shot of Addy. She was goofing around at one of the restaurants when this boat cruised by.

Ok, so this is getting really long and I still have a bunch more photos from Inle I would like to share. So I will make this 1.4.1 and continue on tomorrow or the next day with 1.4.2.

Told ya I had a lot to share about this trip. Now for the 4th installment (but not even close to the last) of the Merkleys go to Burma.

One very interesting experience we had came courtesy of the Red Cross. Mom and Dad are serving a humanitarian mission, but play more of a middle man role due to restrictions on foreigners. After the cyclone last year, they were able to get some money to help the Red Cross build latrines for some of the schools that had been destroyed. They have been wanting to take Dad and Mom down into the delta region to show them the finished product. It is usually a four week or so process to get the clearance to go out there but when they found out a bunch of family was visiting, the Red Cross pulled some strings and got all of us permission to go in just four days. We all were nervously excited to go, having heard stories of how harsh the traveling can be out there.

Well come the day before we flew home, we all loaded into some awesome International Red Cross vehicles. You know, the ones you see in the movies flying across the African desert? Ah sweet, air conditioning at least.

Our journey took us across the river from Yangon to the west and southwest. I thought that I had been on some pretty nasty roads having explored most of the Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado oil fields; but I had never been on roads like the ones we drove this day. I told Danny, who works for UDOT, that I would never again complain about the roads in the states. It was a good thing Amy was not farther along, she might have had the baby right there. Wow! We got shook up but it was sooooo worth it.

Addy and Amanda taking in the scenery from the back of the Land Cruiser.

I finally got a half way good shot of public transportation Myanmar style. I don’t know how these people stayed on.

Some water buffalo, a shack (actually quite a nice one for this area), and some of the gorgeous (albeit) flat scenery. Can you imagine trying to ride out a cyclone (same as a hurricane, but in the Indian Ocean) in that little house?

After 3 or 4 hours of driving, we arrived in a small village where there was a boat waiting for us to carry us down the river to a village right on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Apparently there is a road to the village, but the bridge was out of service. No complaining was heard among us. The boat ride was pleasant and smooth.

Life along the river….

We knew we had arrived at the small fishing village for two reasons, the ocean lay ahead of us and the smell of drying fish filled the air. Thousands of drying fish everywhere.

The village leaders and the headmaster of the school (plus all the curious onlookers) were there to meet us and show us the school and the newly completed latrines.

The finished product. They did a really nice job on the facilities. It seems like such a small thing, but it will mean the world to all the kids that attend the school. The school was in the process of being rebuilt and they hoped to have it done by the time school was back in session. I got a kick out of Mom. She had to test out every toilet we visited. She even had me take a picture of her washing her hands.

Just a few of the fish out to dry.

The main guy in the village invited us into his home for lunch. We could not believe the spread that was placed before us. Dad and Mom figured that a lot of the ladies from the village had been preparing for us all morning. They really shouldn’t have paid so much trouble. We felt obligated to eat and they saw that we did. It was pretty dang cool. Addy survived on rice the entire two weeks we were there so she was set.

The spread. If you think I look worried, you should see the look on Amanda’s face. She actually really surprised me and ate a lot of things I didn’t think she would touch with a ten foot pole. Being a fishing village, almost all the food came from the sea. Some we did not know what we were eating, other things were really good and recognizable. Mom and I really enjoyed the crab but paid a steep price for that the next day (or weeks, the verdict is still out). I was surprised that I struggled with the food over there. Having been to Japan on my mission, I didn’t think there was much that would any harder for me to learn to like. Myanmar proved me wrong. They have some really good food, but some very strange food as well. It was an eye opener. No, we did not eat dog. We get that question a lot. I don’t think they eat it there. Anyway, dinner was followed by fruit and rice jelly thingy dessert. Dad made a great speech and we had fun getting to know the people a little. When it was time to go, Mom asked if she could see the beach. They were more than happy to walk us through the village to the “beach”.

I took this photo while standing in what use to be a inland pond. The cyclone washed away about 100 shacks that stood just beyond these palm trees and filled the pond with sand from the beach. Amazingly, they told us that not one life was lost in this village during the storm. It had to have been a miracle.

Beach front property.

Me taking a picture of Mom taking a picture of the village kids.

Everyone getting back in the boat.

We retraced our route back to the trucks and then back towards Yangon. We had one more stop in a place called Dedaye to see a latrine project at a high school.

The Merkleys, Eriksons, and the Red Cross staff at the Dedaye high school.

I think Dad and Mom were impressed with how the church’s money had been spent. The Red Cross did a really nice job. They treated us great as well. I have never had a personal fly chaser while I ate before. It was cool but awkward.

The drivers were supposed to have the vehicles back by 6 pm, it was already past like 7,  so the trip back to Yangon was fast. 60 mph on a road not fit for vehicles. Mom asked the driver to slow down because she was worried about Amy. He did for about 30 seconds and then was on the gas again. We witnessed an incredible sunset, but I was not able to get a good picture of it as we bounced down the road.

Our trip out into the Arrawaddy Delta was a rare priviledge and will be etched in our minds for the rest of our lives. Americans are so blessed. Even the poorest among us. Amanda and I came home with a absolute awareness of just how much the Lord has blessed us in our lives. There is just not anything to complain about.

One parting shot for this post (don’t worry, much more to come)…

Another group that wanted their picture taken with Addy. Or Grandma wanting to take Addy’s picture with the locals. The stuff on the kids face is called Thanika (sp?). It is a tree branch that they grind up, get wet, and then smear on their faces. It supposedly keeps them cooler and is good for the skin. It made for some dang cute kids, that is for sure.