Monday, February 23: My boat guide drops me off at the lake shore and directs me inland to the five-day rotating market, which today is at Khuang Daing Village. I walk along a dirt path, toward a small pagoda, but I don’t really see signs of a market.
walking from the shore to Khaung Daing Village
Small pagoda near Khaung Daing Village
I see a local boy balancing some goods in two baskets slung over his shoulder, so I figure I should follow him.
Balancing act
Buddha
I follow him through an overgrown path until I emerge at what is clearly a boisterous market, very well attended by locals and tourists alike.
preparing for market day
market day
bagging produce
Click on any of the pictures below for a full-size slide show.
It’s so much fun walking around the market and observing the locals engaged in making their livelihoods.
mats for sale
boat parking lot
heavy loads
the bustling market
coconuts
the lady of the coconuts
The market is the perfect place to capture local people; they are so involved with what they’re doing, they don’t often pay attention to tourists like me who are intent on snapping pictures.
balancing act
grains
I love this tough lady with a slim cigar dangling from her mouth.
cigar-smoking vendor
Click on any of the images below for a full-size slide show.
There are so many things I want to buy, and of course I fall for a piece of fabric which I can wear as a long skirt, like the locals. Later in my travels, I end up buying a Buddha head that is not too dissimilar from the ones shown below.
Buddha heads
One of my friends from Korea, Myrna, asked me to take a picture of the red betel juice spittle that is found all over Myanmar. It is also very commonly seen in India. Myrna inspired me to come to Myanmar, saying it was her favorite southeast Asian country. After having traveled here, I would have to say I agree with her wholeheartedly!
the red spittle from betel leaves
baskets for shopping
coconut vendor
After spending quite some time just wandering around the market watching all the hustle and bustle, I make my way back to my boat and guide, passing by this pretty stupa.
stupa
The morning light is so gorgeous. I love the glow painted over the scenery like a warm butterscotch sauce.
the shores of Inle Lake
walking back to the boat
pagoda
long-tail motorboats
boats at bay
boats
boatman
propeller
leaving Khaung Daing Village
floating gardens
floating gardens
As we leave to head back out to the lake, it’s only 8:15 a.m. How I love getting an early start while I’m traveling! I can anticipate a full day of exploring, laid out before me like a fine feast. 🙂
rice paddies & papayas 
I love the shawl worn by the smoking cigar lady!! I am known for buying the clothes right off people wearing them or off their washing lines during my travels! I have some I wonder now what the attraction was when I got it home, but at the time it was fun buying them.
One off a line I cannot get clean no matter what I do with it though and it is not that nice anymore to me. The other turned out to be a Samburu kid’s blanket worn around like a wrap but it is just polyester – probably both were made in China and not in Africa where I bought them.
Like you I am a sucker for fabrics and have tons of examples, though much of my collection now I am donating as I find they do not bring me joy anymore Haha! Time to KonMari a lot of those souveniers. You have already inspired me to not buy anything I cannot wear as a scarf with my other clothes.
But I am amazed you could resist this market!! Have you tried the betel? I would try it! See what the attraction is, though I would not like to see people spitting all over the place! Haha! What a hidden gem that was, and yes it is always great to get a very early start in the morning when you are off exploring a new country or town or city. This is why I prefer to travel alone, so I don’t miss anything I feel like seeing or doing. Great photos!
xx
For some reason I never saw this comment! Yes, I am a textile fanatic and I understand the desire to collect textiles wherever I go in the world. I have so many great memories about some of my scarves and wall hangings. That’s funny that you bought those pieces right off of people wearing them or from their washing lines!
It’s funny, when we did our recent renovation and the KonMari, I ended up giving away many of my more traditional pictures and I put all over the house the things I’ve collected from my travels. I love to be reminded of my adventures. As for resisting this market, it was early in the day and I had a lot more places to go; I didn’t want to be burdened by carrying a lot of things throughout the day. Also, most of the things at this market were foods rather than souvenirs, although they did sell a lot of fabrics which were used to make the traditional skirts worn by the locals. 🙂
Ooops I read this wrong when I commented on the cocktail hour! I thought you said you got rid of some of your scarves but it was your more traditional pictures!
I wish I had a way of displaying my textiles but not until I get rid of my moth situation once and for all. I lost all my great carpets from Iran and India, but managed to rescue the stuff that I had stored on the porch. Gabbe carpets they are called something like that, and a prayer rug. I collected so many textiles in Africa, and when I had the terrible accident and all those people died, sadly my bags were handiest and they used my precious textiles to cover all the dead people. Nice memories, not. I had to dry clean their blood out of some of them, and my sleeping bag I had to keep using that after I had it cleaned. Even my tent was used to cover up the accident victims. Very bizarre memory now, I had not thought of that in ages and I still use the sleeping bag when I watch TV on the couch and am cold. I guess I could compartmentalize that memory as it never occured to me until now but that whole situation is so much a part of my DNA it seems normal for me to have witnessed that horrible experience. It has affected my ability to every consider returning to Africa though, I cannot even watch the Lion King or anything like that even remotely about Africa, I doubt I would survive five minutes if I watched that movie filmed in Uganda, and I loved Uganda. I love all the countries I visited except for DRCongo. But I loved my job there. I was given a traditional dress for a parting gift I could not give it away fast enough as it was so not me I was shocked it was given to me as a gift, yet I bought tons of cotton fabric very African but donated it to an African women’s group after I returned from Oman I was sick of the stacks and stacks of bolts of cotton from Thailand and from Africa, I had to find a way to get rid of it. They were so happy I had not known this African ladies group existed until they answered my ad on Kijiji which is a kind of Craigslist. Those patterns they just do not have the same appeal some of them here at home. My Maasai blankets though I still treasure and will never give those up, thank God the moths did not get to those!
Sometimes your travel memories are very traumatic, but thank God how they affect you usually changes over time.
But I still wear my Omani dishdasha here when I do my laundry and everyone comments! I love it! I paid 1 OMR for it! When I wore it in Nizwa I used to have men in the street get mad at me for wearing it when I went to feed my street cats.
Anyway what I wanted to say was that I understand your not wanting to carry stuff around, that never stopped me and I was always so overburdened. I have never learned to travel light not even for a weekend. That is an art-form I just do not have the discipline for!! I think you need to write a How To Travel Light blog one of these days!
xx
An amazing market, one of your best? There’s a whole load of things I don’t recognise, but I love the fabric, baskets and figurines!
Thanks Gilly! It was quite a colorful and lively market; I really enjoyed it! I always loved the textiles and the Buddha figures at every market. 🙂