Flims, Vals

After Christmas and the 3 kings, we made a trip to Switzlerland mid january to visit family and friends, go skiing and relax in spas.

We spent 2 days in Flims, Laax, Falera. On one day we went skiing, enjoying the snow and the sun.

On the other day we went walking to Falera and then back to Laax and Flims. Snow had already gone long time ago, so instead of walking through a white landscape all was green.

On the last day we made a trip to Vals, a small village in the mountains, famous for the mineral water and the spa.

Ko Chang

After coming back from Myanmar, we directly took a minibus from the airport and then a ferry to get to the island of Ko Chang (more or less close to the Cambodian boarder). Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good, often cloudy and the first day it even rained a bit. We only had 3 days, the last one's on our journey, to enjoy the nice, sandy beach and tasty Thai food. The water was warm and the sea quiet, last but not least it had some palm trees which offered shade to relax.

Lonely Beach on Ko Chang Island

The bungalow where we stayed the first night.

Well, that's it, the last chapter and photos of our trip to Dubai, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and India where we enjoyed incredible 9 months!

Inle Lake

After the trekking we spent 3 days in Nyaungshwe to explore from there the region of the Inle Lake. This lake is quite big, however it depends on the water level, often it is a mix of channels and floating gardens and so it's difficult to see the difference between the real lake and the main land.
In the region around the lake live a lot of different ethnic groups. Already during the trekking tour we had the chance to see some of them and here on the lake we made two daily expeditions where we could see more. Roads nearly don't exist around the lake, so the only way to travel is by boat. There's a lot of traffic, speed boats carrying tourists and locals from one end to the other, fishing boats and many other one's with local people shipping people and food from and to the market sites.
Inle Lake is one of the most popular places for tourists in Myanmar, we saw some, but not a lot, the region is big and offer many places to visit. The daily markets are very famous and an interesting visit to see people and food, there are normally 2 different markets every day, a big one on land and another floating. As well many villages with stilt houses, traditional handicrafts they show to tourists and last but not least some temples can be seen in this amazing region.

The panorama of the area seen from a viewpoint in Inthein, the real lake is quite far away.


Driving by boat across the lake the through a lot of channels and water ways offer great viewsof the landscape; mountains, villages, floating gardens, etc.


Villages are on the main land around the lake but also inside along channels and built on stilts.


Leaving the lake behind, channels continue to other places.


The famous markets which are held always on another place in a 5-day circuit. People are coming from far, different ethnical groups in their tradional clothes, and many tourists have a look around to see this colourful event.


Special ceremonies and the Long-neck people (as in Thailand) draw attention to tourists.


And finally people on water in their boats, fishing, carrying goods, etc. are the a real Myanmar highlight. Despite tourism, it's still tradition as many years ago.

Finally some of the temples and stupas which can be seen in the area.

Sunset

3-day Trek; Kalaw to Inle Lake

In Kalaw we looked around for a guide on the afternoon when we arrived from Bagan and already on the following day we started our 3-day trekking tour. Convincing our guide to take a path away from the main tourist route, we were luckily to enjoy 3 wonderful days seeing tradional local life undisturbed by other tourist groups. The first night we slept in a homestay and the other one in a monastery, far away from a road and public transport.
The trip was affected by a typhoon in the sea near Bangladesh. Instead of enjoying the sun we had had during the rest of the journey, it was always cloudy and on the 2nd and 3rd day we had some heavy rain showers which converted the paths in a muddy trail which was difficult to walk.


DAY 1:
Leaving Kalaw our small group, Xavi, Amara, Nuría, we and our guide Ky (only our cook is missing on the photo, he always walked faster to prepare the food), headed to the south, passing a dam, rice fields and up a mountain to a small village where we had lunch.


On the way we could see many people working (sorting tea leaves and garlic), a school full of children and on a train station we just arrived on time to see the vendors selling vegetables, fruits and flowers when the train stopped there.


In the afternoon we continued along fields and small rivers to a village (2nd photo) where we slept in a house.



DAY 2:
Just on this day they had a wedding ceremony in the village where we stayed overnight and in the morning before leaving we could have a look. Afterwards we went up a mountain through fields full of flowers, once it rained a bit, then came the fog and went on again. When we could see something we had a nice view along the valley.


Not only flowers, many vegetables they plant, for example also chili and then they dry them in the villages, on the ground and sometimes also on the roof of their houses.


People carrying things to the villages and working we could meet everywhere, sometimes also kids riding on a buffalo.


With the rain the road got so muddy, all sticked on our shoes and we needed a lot of time to come forward (cleaning was nearly helpless, with the next step the shoe was already again full of mud). Luckily we were when we finally arrived to the monastery where we slept. The village we stayed in had a lot of traditional houses.



DAY 3:
2 kids carrying a baby and a horse cart loaded with hay were only 2 of many things we could see along the way which lead us through fields of cauliflower and along some mountains.


Finally we could see Inle Lake in the fog, our destination. When we arrived at the village on the lake, a boat was already waiting in a channel to carry us to Nyaungshwe ont he other side of the lake, the main place for tourists to stay.


Apart of many insects we could see butterflies and also snakes, this one here was alive, another one we saw on the road was unfortunately killed.