I escaped the sweltering heat and unforgiving humidity of Yangon for the cooler climate in the mountainous region of Inle Lake, located in the Shan state (Shan is an ethnic minority of Myanmar). At the airport, I went to the Air Mandalay office with my pre-paid invoice and they issued me my plane tickets. I got a sweet deal of four internal flights for $215. Sure, buses are about $10 one-way, and the ones between my destinations would be maximum 13 hours (often less), but I'd heard that the roads were in bad shape, the buses miserable (no climate-controlled sleepers with movies and meals like you find in Argentina!) and they have a tendency to break down and get stuck in ditches of the middle of the night. So considering how cheap everything else was to be, I decided to save myself the time and trouble and splurge on this plane pass that would get me around the country to the four places I wanted to go in a fraction of the time. I had to wait in the office for about an hour while they hand-wrote my tickets. They were so cute in there! They served me coffee and cake and fresh watermelon, filled up my bottle at their water cooler, and one of the women even explained to me a persisting mystery that I had wondered about since my arrival. What is that strange paste all over most of the women's (and some men's and many children's) faces? Well, I have the answer now!! "It's a Myanmar tradition." Yeah, I figured as much! "It's the nectar from the flower of a native tree. The paste is good for the skin, it protects against the sun, and it has a cooling effect so it keeps everyone cool in the heat." So it's just sunscreen? I thought there would be more to it!!
When I arrived in the village of Nyaung Shwe (the traveler's hub of the Inle Lake region) I found a nice guest house and went to dine alone at Golden Kite restaurant. They had great pizzas and pastas, I had been told, and so I opted for my first Western meal since Hong Kong, a tagliatelle bolognese. A solo German guy came in and sat facing me at the next table. After some curious staring he finally started chatting me up. "Are you traveling alone?" "Yes." "Wow that's surprising." "Oh yeah? Why is that so strange?" "It's not strange, it's just that you don't see it a lot." Oh, not this conversation again. "I see it every day... when I look in the mirror." A little sassy, I know, but this wasn't the end of me just barely tolerating this guy's ignorance. He was on a six-week trip traveling through Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. He complained that after six weeks, it all started to look the same. "It's all just Buddhist countries. One kind of Buddhism here, another there. In Thailand you have 'wats' and here they're 'pagodas', but it all starts to look the same really. Thai monks wear one color robes, here it's another, but I think I'm just tired of seeing the same thing." I told him his itinerary was missing a crucial part, the highlight of the Southeast Asian experience. "You must go to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat!" I said. And his response: "Yeah, but it's just another temple." WTF. It's ONLY the temple to end all temples. The most amazing temple complex in the WORLD! One of the ancient wonders and near the top of every 'Must See Before You Die' list ever made. He went on, "Everyone in all of these countries has been really friendly, but I liked Thailand the most, because the poverty isn't as bad there, so I felt a little bit better." Umm... check please! I tried not to take it personally what this imbecile was saying. Not everyone can be as profoundly affected and enamored by Asia as I am. Not everyone can handle seeing the harsh reality of the majority of the human experience and respond with affection. Hell, in some places in the world, I'm less than capable, myself.
Things got much better though. My first day at Inle Lake was nothing short of amazing. I started the day with an early morning bike ride, traversing a bridge that crosses the northern end of the lake and continuing south through the villages on the opposite side, sprinkled with pagodas and lovely people. The Burmese smiles put all other Asian people's smiles to shame!! Everyone smiled big, waved, or at the very least, gave an acknowledging nod. There I am, riding down a dirt path on my little pushbike, as mopeds, trucks and horse-drawn carts pass me by. And everyone just shouts 'hello!' Kids run up to me to shake my hand and pose for photos! So innocent! So tender!!!
On the other side of the lake I took my bike on the 'ferry' which brought me back to my side so I could loop back up to Nyuang Shwe. More friendly faces, smiles, waves, nods and hellos. I just love these people!! The afternoon was spent lunching, napping and getting a massage. Ahhh holiday mode. 8,000 kyat ($6.50 USD) bought me an hour-long 'circulation' massage and it was heavenly. I'm not a big fan of massages to be quite honest, but this one was different. While she was working on my legs, I could feel the energy in my arms. She hung from beams in the low ceiling and stepped on me! She even got the blood flowing in my ears!! Then she covered me in a yummy-smelling oil and served me tea.
That night, after a slightly cheesy but authentic Burmese marionette show, I headed home from dinner and ran into a guy from San Diego who was staying at my guest house (the only other American I met in Myanmar), on his way out with two others from the same place. I pointed out the full lunar eclipse that was happening and we were all enchanted by this "auspicious" moment, as I referred to it. At Inle Lake. In Myanmar. Watching a full lunar eclipse. And then I discovered that one of the people standing there with us was a porteño from Nuñez! YES!!!!! A porteño in Myanmar!!! Expect the unexpected! Believe the unbelievable! The guy spoke great English, couldn't believe that I knew how to pronounce his name correctly (Sebastián) and we agreed to have a mate on the roof at 7AM before my boat tour the following day. When I told him I had mate with me, he looked at me wide-eyed: "Me estas jodiendo?!" ("Are you fucking with me?!") Do you love it or DO YOU LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!! (I love it).
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