Agree with you both, and let's hope the genuine, friendly and open character of most Burmese lasts for a while. I need to be planning the next trip, I've missed Hsipaw and Mrauk U (did I mention always seeming to "leave something for next time" )

Cheers
Caroline

Satoric - I'm taking a break from writing my trip report to read yours. You really make it come alive! Do visit Hsipaw. We enjoyed it a lot and barely scratched the surface of available activities. GT

Is Mrauk U open again? I do hope so. Wise of you to always leave something for the next trip.

Hi GT
We're in a parallel universe on opposites sides of the world !
As you stop writing to read my TR, I'm doing exactly the same, stopping to read yours.

Love your style, ( and YTs), now be a good lad and get back to your report !
Caroline

Kathie

I'm pretty sure that's where the small Pandaw is going. Will check email and let you know.

Caroline

Email from Pandaw


Paul Strachan recalls “I first went up the Le Myo river to visit the monuments of Mrauk U in 1986 and they were so amazed to see a foreigner they asked me to sign the visitor’s book. I returned in 1993 and was asked to sign the visitor’s book once again on the same page as seven years before. The monuments apart this was one of the best river journeys I ever made and nothing could get you closer to the people and their very different culture here.”
Not many pages in the vistors book have been turned since then, as Mrauk-U has been impossibly difficult to get to and accommodation challenging. You can only go by river and there is little accommodation available so offering a Pandaw expedition makes a lot of sense.



Mrauk-U is a temple city that once was capital of an important kingdom that served as a buffer between India and Burma. In the eighteenth century it was absorbed by conquest into the Burmese Empire and its most powerful Buddha carried across the mountains to be enshrined in the Mahamuni temple of Mandalay. Mrauk-U was described by missionaries and was a cosmopolitan center of high culture. The king surrounded himself with Japanese samurai bodyguards and Portugese mercenaries provided him with artillery. Maurice Collis’s Land of the Great Image, encapsulates this period greater than any other work.
Today there is an enormous amount to see with several important temples as art historically important as the other great Buddhist sites in South East Asia, ranking alongside Pagan, Angkor or Borobadur in importance. Of great interest are the sculpture galleries in the Shitthaung temple, carved in a Guptan Indian style and visual evidence of this extraordinary culture that stood at a geographical cross roads between South-East Asia and South Asia.




There is a lot more to see than just the monuments at Mrauk U: Sittwe or Akyab as it was known and where you will fly into is a delightful port city with well-preserved colonial buildings. Perhaps one of the last intact colonial cities left in Burma as the Chinese have yet to get here. We will explore the Kaladan river go up to Kyauktaw with its important shrine and take speed boat trips up the Le Myo River to explore the tattoo people country. The Arakan is very lost in time and far more backward and poor than the Irrawaddy valley, which can both charm and shock. It is a very different culture and language and given the proximity of India there are Indian influences all around, particularly in the local cuisine. Though there have been recent troubles between Buddhists and Muslims we will not pass through any of the affected areas.



It is now quite easy to fly into Sittwe from Rangoon with daily flights. We plan a weekly cruise departing every Friday on the sixteen cabin Katha Pandaw starting November 2015. This enables passengers to combine the Arakan with our other weekly cruises that will connect with it – for example the Chindwin or Bhamo and to be announced very soon the Salween from Moulmein to Hpa-an and Beyond.





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Out on the Lake

As I headed to breakfast this morning I stopped at reception to enquire about joining a tour. There are a few interesting sounding ones in the hotels guide, however prices start at $200 for 1-4 persons, $50 each after that. Being only 1 person, and not wanting to pay $200, I was hoping to join others. At the time, a young French woman was checking out, counting out her stacks of 5000 kyat notes.

I'm not sure if reception understood me, decided to wait until the Swiss manager was around. Later at breakfast in the dining room, the French woman approaches me, to tell me about Phyu Phyu. PP lives in a bamboo hut, a little ways down the main road to town, does massages, and can arrange tours. Young Frenchwoman says she has excellent English, and is supporting her two young sons and elderly parents.

So, this is good, I wander down the road, find the hut of PP. We agree a price $43, for a full day with boat/driver and her services as a guide. She asked me to wait while she took the two young boys to her mother, I had some coffee across the road. I choose where to go, and not go, she is very flexible and we had such a lovely day. I went out with her again on the next day as well. If you're looking for her hut, it is next door to a large two storey bright blue steel shed in Yone Gyi Rd. She takes the signage down when she's out touring, so try again later if the hut is not obvious.

We visited the silk and lotus weaving workshop, very interesting, with a large range of items for sale. PP offered to negotiate a good price for anything I might want. I did buy a Shan style wraparound skirt, but didn't feel the need to negotiate downwards from $14. PP bought an embroidered bag for her mobile phone, and there was some serious negotiations going on over that ! At least six women were involved, and every one cracked up when PPs phone rang inside the new bag, while sitting on the counter. I also got a priceless photo of an old woman spinning lotus, smiling like she really enjoyed her job.

Next up was the cheroot workshop. I have seen this process before, but was happy to sit for 15 mins, watch the women working, and try to smoke a small sweet cheroot, cough, gag, cough, cough.
I bought a circular lacquerware container (complete with 22 cheroots - jeez, what am I gonna do with them ?) I guess they'll become entertainment for me when the occasional smoker comes to visit our back deck.

We motored through smaller canals, where they have bamboo "speed humps". Strategically placed poles are floating just under the surface, which means the driver has to lift the propeller out of the water, so must slow down. Ingenious.

We pulled up at a wharf next to a restaurant, climbed up stairs and over a rickety wooden and bamboo bridge to cross the canal. Here there is a rather nice pagoda, the name of which is somewhere on my dining room table with the other 100 pieces of paper, entry tickets, business cards, boarding passes and the general detritus of travel.

We had lunch at this restaurant, again, food was great, again, I didn't eat it all. Some soup, vegetable tempura, and noodles. Cost about $4, worth it to sit up high and watch the action on the canal below.
PP took the leftovers in a takeaway container for her family.

Off to Jumping Cat Monastery, where there's a boat full of Burmese people just leaving. Today was part of a three day holiday (we call them long weekends) so there were many Burmese out enjoying a break. These people greeted me like I was a famous super model, I can assure you I'm not, but the camaraderie and kidding around was superb.
No cats to speak of, some stunning Buddha images, and fabulous teak posts.

I know a lot of people find being out on the lake very relaxing. Maybe I've been spoilt by a large Pandaw where you don't really hear the engine. I found the long tail boats to be noise pollution in the extreme, I was conscious of windburn, sunburn, and OMG don't drop the iPhone. Perhaps earbuds with some tunes from the phone would have helped, that's what PP did once we were underway. I'll qualify that by her saying she would answer any questions I might have, to just ask anytime.

I really did enjoy the day, but didn't feel the need to head back out on the water.

Next up, other places around Inle Lake.

sartoric,

Thank you for doing your trip report. Sounds like a real experience! I am loving it.

Your comments are helping me to again realize we need to simply pick a few things that really sound appealing and then just enjoy the experience...sights sounds and the people! Those are always the best trips for us.

I do want to go to the silk and lotus weaving workshop on the lake. I love any thing to do with textiles. Is the only one workshop of that type?

Did you only go to workshops or did you go to InDien as well? It sound alike you found the perfect arrangement for you to get out on the lake.

Thanks for the info about the new Pandaw cruise. No doubt it will be more comfortable than our boat to/from Mrauk U. You may have read of the infamous "rain of insects" lol. There is a very nice place to stay in Mrauk U, with lovely little village houses and wonderful food. It is called the Mrauk U (or OO) Princess and is owned by the man who owns the Princess at Inle, in conjunction with locals in Mrauk U.

Cwn, I'm not sure, but guess there would be more than one workshop. Your hotel will know. And, I'm still trying to figure out Flickr so I can post those photos for you.

Kathie, in the spirit of "leaving something for next time" I didn't go to Indein. I know I will be back (with husband next time) after establishing such great relationships with the teachers and schools. It's a bit of a long story, but DH and I are seriously considering selling up in Oz, and moving to Thailand. Myanmar will then be very close......

I have never seen lotus weaving before seeing it at Inle Lake. I found it fascinating. Would have loved to have had someone do some negotiating for me. I didn't buy anything cause what I liked was just too expensive.
I generally hate noise pollution, but for some reason it didn't bother me too much on the lake. I think I was intrigued by the whole scene. And those speed bumps were great...fun to go zipping over them.

sartoric, A move to Thailand? How wonderful. We've dreamed of that as well, but it isn't in the near future.

cwn, I believe there is just one silk and lotus weaving workshop on the lake. I have the name of it somewhere... it might be in our photos. I'm on vacation in Kauai right now, so don't have my usual resources at my fingertips.

Yestravel, I also found the lotus weaving absolutely fascinating. I'm guessing this may be the only place that weaves with lotus fiber. I've never seen it anywhere else in all of my visits to SE Asia. I bought a couple of pieces... I was probably fortunate that I had forgotten to replenish my cash supply that morning.

Loving these reports of Burma!

What was your silk/lotus weaving workshop like YT ? I'm wondering now if there are many workshops, all with prices somehow commensurate to the cost of the "tour" to get there. I didn't find prices too excessive, but given I'm solo and have to actually carry whatever I buy, my buying was limited.

I left a description of the physical aspects of the building on cwns thread "what places to see in Burma", my reply was dated 15 March. Would be interested to hear about your impressions of the silk place (lotus and cotton bonus).
Maybe Kathie could chime in, or anyone else ?

I'm interested to find out about this kind of "industry workshop".
I got an impression that not a lot of actual weaving work was done, unless a foreigner was present.

The visit was still informative and fun.
They CAN weave (even if they don't weave very much). I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the selection of skirts, scarves, longyis and a load of other things was extensive and reasonable.

Would be great to read about your thoughts on this...

Things like names do come in handy. The business card indicates my visit was to Shwe Pyae Shun Hand Weaving Centre. Lotus, silk cotton. U Myint Zaw + Daw Mi Mi Khaling, East Quarter Inpawkhone. Inlay Lake, it goes on.

Interesting point about which factory you are taken to. We were staying at a relatively high end place and went with their boatman. Like Kathie, I assumed there was only one workshop, but the one you went to does sound different from where we were. We were in the village of In Phaw Khone when we saw the lotus silk weaving "factory." This village is mentioned in Lonely Planet for its weaving & is the village where you also went. Unfortunately we don't have the name of the exact place. It was off to the right when you came off the main lake into the canals. It was relatively large. I believe that the women working were not doing it for tourists. It was quite a production and they were all busily weaving when we arrived and left. We were walked thru it and shown the various fabrics which were in different sections of the workrooms. The person taking us thru spoke excellent English and was very informative. I love textiles and really enjoyed the visit to the factory. We were the only tourist there. The store was separate from the factory and you went thru a walkway to get there. Along the walkway they had fabric strung up which was very colorful & swaying in the breeze. The items made with lotus & silk which is what I was interested in since I had never seen that were close to $100USD. They were plain colored with no pattern or design. The cotton and silk items were reasonably priced I thought. I can understand the higher cost with items with lotus.
Kathie - we had that happen to us in Luang Prabang. I would have bought so much, but we had very little cash with us and were terribly limited in what we could buy that day. Oh well...

Thanks sartoric, yestravel and Kathie for all the information!!!..It is great!

Our agent knows that the silk weaving stop and a stop at Indein are the priorities for us. Those speed bumps sound ingenious. I will check with the hotel before we get out on the lake and be sure the boatman knows where we want to go.

sartoric, added the shop name to my list. Kathie had a silk shop in the Mandalay area in her report that I have already given to Shalom. Yes, I found your post and made a note. Thanks!

I envy your interaction with the teachers and the students. I am a retired teacher and always love any chance to visit with the school children and their teachers.

Loving the report and all the detail.

sartoric, your description of the physical aspects of the weaving workshop was what we experienced at the workshop. They were actively weaving while we were there. I wondered how much they sold and if there were off-site weaving places that also fed their goods into the store on the lake, but I don't know the answer to that. When we went to Inle (2009), that was the only weaving workshop on the lake. That may have changed.

Maybe I was there during a tea break. It seemed like women jumped on to the looms as I approached, wove a few rows, then wandered off. The shop area was not separate to the factory/workshop area as described by YT above. You may be right about other factories feeding into the shop.

Perhaps cwn can investigate for us ?

Certainly. And I'm well aware that things may have changed since I was there in 2009.

Still following here and enjoying reading about your adventures. The discussion of,the lotus weaving is fascinating!
Paule