Inlaw Lake is in central Burma and the similarities to Punta Gorda are amazing. It is an all waterfront community made up of many villages and probably thousands of homes all built on stilts over the water. Granted there are no cars but every home has a canoe type boat under it, yes we may not bath under our house or wash our clothes and dishes in our canals, oh yes, you don’t want to park the boat right under the bathroom. There are main arteries like our intracoastal, with stores lining the shore. They are building land by bonding hyacinths and grass together and poling it to the bottom, it gradually takes as shown our soil testing walk (quite wet).

Buddhism. I’m finally coming to my conclusion on Buddhism. After all Buddhist countries I’ve visited I never got the entire picture and maybe I don’t have it yet but after three weeks of seeing hundreds if not thousands of Buddha’s in all shapes and sizes and visiting many, many temples I have my opinions. We have had “round table Q and A’s with many monks and both our Laos and Burma guides are Buddhists so we’ve heard it all. First, Buddhism is not a religion as we think of it. There are no services, set times or places to worship, no one person (priest type) that you go to all the time. It is a belief system and has some excellent tenets. For the average person there are five simple rules. No lying, no stealing, no killing, no sex out of marriage (between a man and a woman) and no intoxicants. Our guides drink beer with us and I don’t know about the other no-no’s but the killing of people would be very rare. We met the chief of a village of 1000 and asked him about crime. He said petty theft, they sit down the two parties and resolve it, big time thieves, which is rare go to the big city for trial. We asked about murders, he just shook his head, never been one in their memory. They do eat meat that has been killed, they can not be around or have it killed for them, but if presented with it they are fine with it. They do take mostly poor boys as novices for schooling with about 5% staying on to become a monk. So far so good, now the part, we as Americans have a hard time understanding. The only thing monks do is meditate and pray all day. The people take total care of them. They cannot cook or prepare what they eat, so every morning they go out with bowls and people come out of their houses and fill their bowls with rice. All morning people take prepared food to the monasteries for the monks to eat. They cannot eat after noon. The people, and by our standards most of the people are dirt poor and the middle class would definitely be considered very poor in our country, pay for all the temples, pagodas and stupas and they are under construction all over. Our problem (purely our culture) is the monks to nothing to build their temples, they are all filthy dirty, they do nothing to clean them, in other words they don’t do anything for themselves. Our guide says those are worldly concerns. OK but filth. Secondly they do nothing for their community, no help for anyone suffering, no education for children outside the monastery, nothing. So a lot of us are a little conflicted. The good news I finally have a better understanding of meditation, not that I’m ever going to do it. We had monks explain and demonstrate how and since it takes years to master I’m not giving it another thought.

I almost wish we shopped like they do in most villages of the world, almost. The vegetables look so fresh, because they are, and the meat is being butchered in front of you while the fish you choose is still swimming in a pail. Of course I’d have to have my ox ready to pull the cart or plan a couple of mile walk every day because of no refrigeration but it looks like fun for a few days. The transactions take seconds for the locals, for us it is a fun adventure in trying to figure out what we are buying and for how much, no bargaining here. The most interesting one I have ever been to was the one in Inlaw Lake. We arrived in our long boat and found a Saturday before Christmas parking lot of long boats. The locals just climb over all the boats in front of them but for us they just pushed the boats out of the way and let them float abandoned. That’s how we arrived others arrived by oxcart and of course the ever present motor scooters. It is a crowded place alive with activity. You can buy anything food, clothing, tools, toys, gas (as long as you bring your own glass bottle) and household supplies, load up and be set until the next day.

We spent time in a Buddhist nunnery. These girls enter the nunnery very young and spend their entire lives there. We got a tour that most people never get, of their rooms, watching them chant and then joining them for lunch. They seem so young and this is a very male dominated belief system.

I can’t possibly post all the photos of Buddhas, temples and pagodas. Our entire group is getting sick of taking off our shoes and the color gold. It’s amazing in a country so poor that they are spending tons of money rebuilding palaces, stupas and pagodas. We were just passing by when we ran into this procession taking young girls to the nunnery to become nuns. I think we all felt sad, they are so young and cannot have an idea of the future. Most are very poor and this is the only way they will get any education and food on a regular basis

In the evening we walked out on the longest teak bridge IN THE WORLD, how’s that for excitement. We brought wine and goodies, hired a boat and floated around watching the sunset.

The people are beautiful and very friendly, it actually reminds me of China 15 years ago. Most don’t have electricity or transportation beyond a bike. There are a lot of motor scooters which our guide says are imported illegally from China. The photo of the two busses was taken through the windshield of our air conditioned luxury bus.

I think most Americans that think they know what poor people live like should visit a country that is poor. The Burmese do have hope now that they are somewhat freer but it will take many years. This morning we had fun taking a “local bus”. There were 14 people squashed inside and at least 12 hanging on the back and 5 in the front seat. The seat belt rule would be laughable.

Our really interesting stop was at the University which has not allowed visitors in over 20 years. They are trying to be more open and our guide got us in. Most students were sent to other schools many years ago so there would not be a large enough group for student dissent. Now almost all the students are working on graduate degrees, mainly foreign relations or business law. We went to where the students were having a mid morning break. We all picked a table and joined them, more fun. All spoke good english and were delighted to talk to us. I sure hope they can make it. In the past, even when they graduated there were no jobs, I don’t mean no jobs like we think of it, there are no jobs period, for anyone. Our guide has his graduate degree in physics and is guiding tours. They were do cute and took lot of photos of me, so I reciprocated.

We went to the docks where they were unloading the boats, no cranes or machines here. We talked with a guy carrying the bags of rice and other products. He makes about $6 a day and the job will end on Sunday. He lives in the country in a lean-to with 3 other family members. He has no hope of anything better because he quit school and there are no jobs for him to do. Many eat on the docks at the street vendors. It’s too bad I can’t convey the sounds and smells in these photos.