We had the morning free, and most of the group visited the really unusual market at the edge of town. Kyaing Tong is a regional market town, and people from the hill tribes, all in tribal dress, throng the market. David and I went in for a pair of Shan baggy pants: wonderfully comfortable but herhaps not the thing for a night at the opera.
We had an early afternoon flight to the wonderfully named Heho . Yet another bus took us over a rather scary mountain pass…And my lovely wife chose the moment where we had a precipitous drop to the right and no guard rails to mention the truck she had seen on another trip that had gone off the road and landed at the bottom of a ravine. The bus brought us without mishap to the largest town on the lake, Nyaung Shwe, where we boarded boats for the trip to the hotel. Most of our travelers knew that we would be brought to the hotel on a boat. Most of them had also envisioned a rather large conveyance, and not something that looked like this:
Our little flotilla of four boats was led to the hotel by the flagship under the direction of Commodore Tun Tun. The first experience of Inle Lake is really stunning: a vast expanse of water between two mountain ranges, dotted with fishing villages and swarming with fishing boats.
We were soon turning into the lagoon on which Inle Resort sits. One of the oldest resorts on the lake, the hotel enjoys a fully mature, jungle-like vegetation. Our “rooms” are individual teak bungalows sitting on stilts over the lake.
We threw our bags into our rooms and raced back to the landing area, where there are two large decks lakeside; we grabbed a choice table, ordered some drinks, and settled in to watch an absolutely spectacular sunset.
The dining room is as unusual as the rest of the resort: a huge, bi-level space with carved wooden walls and festive streamers far overhead. The menu, like that at most tourist hotels in Myanmar, has both Western and Asian food. Much of the food is quite good, but the highlight is, as in years past, profiteroles with vanilla ice cream and a decadent chocolate sauce. I introduced our group to this indulgence, and it became a menu staple during our stay.