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Inle Lake, Kyaiktiyo, Myanmar
Monday, Jan 12, 2004

The Jumping Cats

David Murray
2007-02-21 18:43:10

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The bus was your usual SEA type. Small, squashy, with plastic seats in the middle for the locals or other passengers they picked up[ along the way. We went over a mountain pass. The road was dirt and there were loads of people working on it. Was this the forced labour we had heard about ????? The bus stopped, we were kicked out, forced into a ute, and then driven the rest of the way to Inle. Once in the hotel, we had a walk around before dinner and then we slept until morning. After breakfast, we found a boatman, and then were off touring the lake. We started off at a markets, not bad, then we went to see the local industries of the lake. The silk makers and weavers, the umbrella makers, the blacksmiths and silversmiths and through all the floating vegetable gardens until we got to the monastery. Commonly known as the jumping cat monastery. The Monks had trained cats to jump through hoops, but when we arrived, all we could see was sleeping cats. The Monks explained that the cats were very tired from jumping and needed resting, so a little donation came out of my wallet, and lo and behold, the cats started jumping!!!!! It was a great laugh. We then went back, and the manager of the hotel then took us to his sister's place for dinner. For US$2.00, the food never stopped coming. It was a great feast. However, good things do come to an end, so we jumped on another bus as we wanted to get to the Golden Rock of Kyaiktiyo.

The bus drove all night, they kicked us out in the middle of nowhere at 3 am. We were then placed in a ute. It was freezing. We did the usual stop to pick people up with their 30 bags of rice, Lucy couldn't understand how I slept, well actually, neither do I, because last time I was in a ute like this, the only way to cope was to roll a big fat joint !!!! But I did, and then we could see it. The Rock. We grabbed our room, packed a small bag, jumped into a truck, and were driven halfway up the mountain. We then had to walk a fair way to get to the rock and just as we started, the locals came running up to us offering walking sticks. Now, my last experience with sticks and walking resulted in my nipple ring being ripped out. I had one left and didn't want to lose it either, so I reluctantly took it, and the news is that it survived the trip up.. As usual, there was an exorbitant entrance fee to enter. Once paid, we were there, but Buddhism, is a little sexist. Lucy was not allowed to touch the rock. I was allowed to, so I put my gold leaf on, and then we went back down. It looks awesome in the books, but it was not the best thing I have seen in Myanmar, or my life, but it was another notch in my Lonely Planet and my nipple also managed to survive the trip back down!!!!!