Audley clients Lindsay Merriman, Rob Wellman, Jane Booker and Jackie Tunstall-Pedoe recently visited Myanmar on separate trips. Highlights included attending a rice ceremony with a local family and seeing the leg rowing fishermen on Inle Lake.
The sunsets over the lake and then later the stars in the wonderfully clear skies were absolutely unforgettable.
We stayed for three nights in Golden Island Cottages on Inle Lake in January last year. The sunsets over the lake and then later the stars in the wonderfully clear skies were absolutely unforgettable and I've recommended this place to many friends since.
We shall always be grateful to Alex at Audley, who managed to get our group of six into the cottages and we all agreed it was the highlight of the whole trip.
As we negotiated our way through the crowd of monks, they were grabbing our hands, thanking us for coming.
Our trip to Myanmar was wonderful. We were very lucky to be in Mandalay for an Aung San Suu Kyi rally. It was a great privilege to share the event with thousands of Burmese people. They were holding up banners saying "Please open the door" and wearing "We must win" t-shirts.
Initially we were way back in the crowd, but they invited us to go into the press pit so that we could be seen. We waited five hours for her to make the two mile journey from the airport. We listened to her for about ten minutes, and then our guide suggested we leave, otherwise we would never have got out. As we negotiated our way through the crowd of monks, they were grabbing our hands, thanking us for coming, and giving use high-fives — a memorable experience.
Inle Lake is magical and the Princess Inle Lake hotel is beautiful. We had the best guide we have had anywhere (his name is Ko Nyi Nyi Naing) As well as exploring the iconic locations we asked to be taken to the orphanage he helps run. We also attended a rice ceremony after a friendly family we had met earlier invited us to join them.
Inle Lake was spectacular, not only the fisherman standing on one leg in their boat and the method they use to catch their fish.
Inle Lake was spectacular, not only the fisherman standing on one leg in their boat and the method they use to catch their fish, but also their vegetable gardens that sit beyond the end of the lake. The houses standing on stilts and most ingenious of all, the kids playing football on the floating grasses. Beyond that were the floating villages, where we bought silver and watched as it was being made in such primitive conditions. It was a fantastic day out and not to be missed.
The Burmese people are an amazing nation having experienced so much trauma in the years leading up to the doors to visitors being opened at long last. A wonderful and worthwhile experience to be recommended.
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