The Forgotten Temples of Indein

I woke up to the sound of fish jumping outside my window. It was such a peaceful sound, I slept well, felt refreshed, what a great place to be, what a great place to wake up. I showered and then got ready to do battle in the buffet line for breakfast. My guide and boat arrived, we were heading about an hour up the lake to the village of Indein. They have a lot of untouched ruins that have survived the years. Because of the sanctions against Myanmar even UNESCO has not been able to touch and document these. We headed down a series of canals on our way.


We arrive at the village and off in the distance we could see the beginning of the ruins.


My guide asked this kid to cut him a stick. I thought it was for hiking, but he said, no, it was for scaring snakes. Many of the ruins are covered in tall grass and snakes like to hang out around them. I asked what kind of snakes he would be scaring away, hoping to hear something like, oh just your average garter snake, but instead I heard "Viper snakes". I let him lead the way and I followed in my shorts and sandals, thinking I may have made a mistake in my shoe selection this morning.


We first came across a small grouping of stupas.


My guide beat the ground with his stick and made a path to get closer.


On the other side of the stupas was a monastery.




This was my kind of monastery, simple and friendly, they invited us in for tea and biscuits, and talked for a while.






It turns out this was more of a community service detention monastery for kids. Monks are respected and kids who need to learn a little respect come here for a few months and help serve their community. I chatted with the kids through my guide, and they are really great kids. They were here for normal kid stuff, fighting, stealing, nothing major, but a pretty civilized punishment in what to the US seems like an uncivilized country.








We said goodbye and thanks, and headed up the hill to a second grouping of stupas, my guide leading the way while beating the grass in front of him.


A smaller version of Ankor Wat in Cambodia, in that many of these ruins were covered in vegetation, things just grew around them and out of them.






We continued hiking, passing through another village.


We finally reached the main ruins. These were simply amazing and beautiful, they survived earthquakes, bombing from wars, and years of weathering, yet here they still were, greeting me.






They are well tucked away and don’t see too many visitors, and if it stays this way they should last a lot longer than we do. But I’m not sure that is saying too much, every time I watch the news it seems like we are just about at the finish line.




I stepped back hundreds of years as I walked down this path, the rest of the world was gone and did not matter, I was in this space at this time.






It seems nature always finds a way to survive, no matter what is in its way.




After tossing in a few rocks I cautiously poked my head inside a few of these, and am happy to report that not one snake jumped out at me.




Inside are Buddha statues, and perhaps a snake hiding.


I spent over an hour crawling around these ruins, I felt like a kid again, playing some kind of imagery Indiana Jones game. OK, I pretty much always feel like a kid, but it was cool to pretend I was in some kind of Indiana Jones game.








If I place the four sacred gemstones on these four pedestals, the door in front of me is supposed to open and Laura Croft will come out. I was out of luck on this one and had to resort to a previously saved game.






Yeah, I love Myanmar, it has so many treasures, and when the time is right they reveal themselves to you.




This place is so amazing, and maybe for the wrong reason, it was nice to see the sanctions might be actually helping Myanmar preserve some of the history, some of their culture.










It felt like something was going to happen as I traveled down this path, so I saved my game and proceeded cautiously.




We then came to the new part of town. I don’t know why, and cannot even begin to understand, but for some reason they are building new stupas and temples right next to the existing ruins. The white and gold just feel out of place, it’s almost like someone was tagging all the existing ruins with graffiti.






I took one last look at the true ruins as we headed back.


We got back in the boat and headed out, passing a few villages. This one seemed interesting, so we stopped.


We had lunch and then went to the bar. This is the bar, and it is good that alcohol kills most things. My guide suggested I try some local Myanmar rum, and I slipped away at it, it was not bad, but I preferred the taste of Myanmar beer from a sealed can.


We stopped at the village monastery, but no tea and biscuits this time.


There were a few young monks beginning their teachings.




And of course wooden Buddha display cases.




We then walked through the rest of the village.






The spirit of the Myanmar people revealed itself to me again, I was invited in for tea and conversation. I love the people of Myanmar, they have taught me so much, their warmth and hospitality exceeds anything in the US.


And once word was out, the neighbors came by to visit as well.


Real rice cakes drying in the sun. I had been eating these all along and really enjoyed them. They start out quite hard and thin.


Then they heat them over a fire and they become puffy and soft, and very tasty, when you don’t just use them as a vehicle for chilies.


We headed back to the boat, passing kids who were out playing a kind of dual king of the hill.




I got back to my hotel, and I think my room shifted a bit more to the right then I remembered. I went to the bar for a beer or two as I knew my mind would be racing tonight with what I saw and experienced. Untouched ruins and the amazing people of Myanmar, this is what I came here looking for, and I was being given both. I soon drifted off to sleep.

VIDEO: Day 5 - Indein