The flight to He Ho is a laugh a minute. We are told check in is at 9.30am. A 45 minute walk finds us at the most bizarre airport ever. The military are stopping people from entering the airport until the allotted time. At 9.50am we are allowed to enter the airport. A fee of 1000 kyat (chat) is payable to enter! There are so many people milling around but no one seems to be in charge, somehow we get through check-in. We are informed the plane is running an hour late as all flights from Yangon have been delayed. At midday, the newly appointed time, we are advised the plane will be 'here' at 1.00pm. At 1.30pm the plane arrives and we board immediately.
The runway is the shortest runway ever, and we taxi to the very end, turn and then we're off. The flight is 35 minutes long and we are fed biscuits and watered on the way. The landscape is beautiful although the immense deforestation here is very obvious. Apparently the Chinese have bought large ares of land and are cutting down the teak, it is not sustainable forestry and again, the wildlife and the terrain are suffering.
A short taxi ride takes us to Nyaungshwe on the Inle Lake. A large freshwater lake supporting not only communities round the lake but also on the lake. Traditional single man fishing boats are found on the lake from sunrise to sunset, there are also weaving industries, silversmiths, parasol makers, cigar manufacturers and vegetable producers on the lake in the floating villages.
The gardens are made by collecting weed from the lake and forming rafts which plant life is then grown on. The tomatoes are beautifully juicy being permanently irrigated. The beds are secured in place to the bottom of the lake by bamboo poles to stop them floating off. There is no sanitation on the lake and toilets empty down pipes directly into the water. Bathing and washing all takes place in the lake too. It is a hard life but the people seem happier than most of us in the UK. We visit a nursery school on the lake, they have one cupboard 5ft x 3ft with their equipment in, realistically nothing, but the children sing and dance and are so happy. Education is not free here and seemingly even the youngest realise the importance of education, participating fully.
Hiring bicycles for the day we head out to a local vineyard, a few kilometres from the town. The hills are covered in vines and 2000 kyat gets us a tasting of 4 wines. A white, rose, red and a semi sweet white. The white smells if a beautiful Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, is colourless and very hard hitting on the palate. The rose is a little better with the Shiraz-Tempranillo being quite nice. The Muscat is again colourless and lacking in taste. The views are stunning to the mountains across the lake.
On one of our stops we see four long neck women of the Kayan Lahwi tribe weaving. Since I was 7 I have wanted to see these women, however this trip has discouraged me somewhat as it is much less of a tradition and now done to draw tourists. Traditionally young girls start to wear the coils at around age 5, as they grow the coils are lengthened and the neck appears stretched. The reality is that the collarbone and shoulders are pushed down, in some cases this can cause damage to the internal organs. It was a little like seeing an exhibit at a human zoo and I leave with a very heavy heart.
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