Day 4 started off a little quieter since we didn't have a flight to catch. We packed up in Pindaya and drove two hours to Inle Lake. The small town of Nyuang Shwe was a great base for exploring the lake because it had everything we needed, but definitely built around tourism. Our hotel we pretty new and very nice.
The rooms were small but modern and the restaurant was great.
We dropped our luggage and went straight out to the river to meet our new driver and transport for the next two days - a traditional long boat.
It was a gorgeous day with a cool breeze and warm sunshine and we were thrilled to be out exploring on the water.
Ready for adventures!
It's about an hour from the north end of the lake to the southern end with the authentic villages. It was very interesting to see what was on the other boats coming and going because the villages get nearly all their supplies over water.
It's a very shallow lake, maximum depth of 12 feet in the middle, so lots fishing is done by small net. Inle Lake is famous for its foot rowers - most fisherman paddle with one foot to keep their hands free for the fishing nets. Their balance is amazing.
We also saw lots of boats collecting lake grass to use as natural fertilizer.
At the far end of the lake, we made our first stop for lunch at a very interesting heritage house. The kids and I loved the Burmese cats! Apparently the ancient Burmese cats interbred so much with the local cats that they were no longer any purebreds remaining in Myanmar. One woman bought 7 purebreds from around the world and started a breeding center on an island. Here is an
interesting article.
They now have nearly 40 cats at the center and they were just beautiful.
Several were very friendly as well.
Alex said many times this was one of his favorite experiences...although he doesn't want his friends at school to know because he's in a puppy-loving club...ha!
The cats are housed on one small island but have a covered bridge over to their very own tiny island with trees to climb and little houses for rain cover.
Some of the younger ones were happy to play with anything that moved.
Back at the main house, we enjoyed a fantastic lunch with a lovely view. It was even better later when we got a heavy shower and enjoyed it from the porch.
This was probably my favorite meal - coconut milk chicken steamed inside banana leaves. Delicious!
The heavy rain cleared out but the light afternoon monsoon rain made for lovely scenery as we continued on into the first village. Each village has its own handicraft that it has perfected over generations. This one wove lotus and silk. The lotus farm outside was pretty on its own.
We watched a woman collecting the lotus threads and weaving them into thicker thread.
The highlight for me was seeing how the silk longyis are created. They are the traditional long sheet of cloth that most men and women wear daily, but the silk ones are for special occasions and beautifully intricate. This woman was marking off the pattern for the threads to take the dye, similar in process to tye-dying.
The dyed threads are wound onto a big spool to be used later.
The base fabric was one solid color and dyed by hand in boiling water several times.
The base fabric requires 4,400 threads, counted and measured by hand to make exactly the right sized cloth.
Together, they are hand woven on huge wooden looms. It was amazing to see the pattern develop and it took a lot of skill for the weaver to keep it perfectly aligned.
It was really incredible watching them. Apparently just getting the thousands of threads set in the loom takes two days alone.
The finished pieces are beautiful. These were a variety of longyis.
These were silk and lotus scarves. The lotus always comes out a natural brown because it won't take any dye.
It was wonderful being out on the water in between stops! Such a lovely lake.
Our next visit was a blacksmith's shop, where they were making big knives that day.
They would heat it and pound it, heat it and pound it.
We also stopped in the shop where they were crafting teak boats. Small ones like these are for fisherman.
Long ones for supplies and tourists.
I could have ridden through these villages for days...they were fascinating!
Several even have cats out on the porch :)
We got to see the what happened with the tha nat phet leaves destined to be smoked. They are sorted by size...
...then passed along to the expert cheroot cigar rollers. They were incredibly skilled and can fill, roll, and trim 500-800 each day. They have many different kinds of filling and fragrances and smelled very nice, but no, we didn't try any.
Nearby, we passed through the amazing floating gardens. I think nearly 80 acres of the lake are covered in gardens now and the government had to restrict new gardens to keep them from taking over the lake. They start with the water hyacinth bushes, which grow abundantly, and fill them with soil and the lake grass, then transplant seedlings to grow. We saw tons and tons of tomatoes plants with the stakes to keep them upright, and we many of them in all the local restaurants. They can grow all kinds of veggies and don't have to spend any time watering them or worrying about the lake level rising or falling since they float - ingenious!
My favorite sight of the day was the school pick up line. So different from a car line!
It was an hour back across the lake that evening and a fun ride in the local tuk-tuk back to the hotel to finish off one amazing day.
On our second day heading back across Inle Lake, we started out much earlier and found the fisherman who want to give the tourists a great picture.
They were so entertaining and our guide gave them some toiletries in exchange for the show.
We docked at Phaun Daw Oo Pagoda, the most revered pagoda on the lake with 5 golden Buddhas, to start our day.
Next door is the dock for the Karaweik barge, which carries 4 of the 5 Buddha images around the lake during festivals. One image was lost when a barge overturned hundreds of years ago, so when it was recovered, they decided it could stay on land forever.
The Buddha images have been covered in gold leaf for years and years, so they're not even visible anymore. It was obvious which one no longer travels because it's much smaller than the others.
The market here rotates daily between 5 different villages, so we were happy to catch it and wander around.
Ants, anyone? So fresh they're still walking!
We found the barber shop with $0.66 haircuts. We tried and tried to get Alex the Wookie to get his haircut but he wouldn't go near that chair. Ben was willing to give it a try and got a great cut for a dollar, including tip.
This guy was skilled!
I really enjoyed seeing the local pharmacy!
Later, we check out the silversmith village and watched people making intricate silver jewelry.
We were looking forward to meeting some more of the ring necked women from the Kayan tribe.
They don't actually elongate the neck, the rings push down on the shoulders so that the neck appears longer.
These women started when they were 7-8 years old and would add coils every few years, otherwise they're never removed.
We went up a creek to Indein village and enjoyed the scenery along the way. Some spots had nice bridges, some looked a little riskier than others.
This village is another growing around tourism, but it was still a lovely place to sit out a heavy rainstorm and enjoy lunch. I loved the dogs that came free with the tables! Also, take note of the color of the river in the background.
Just half an hour later, it was suddenly deep red from the heavy rain. I've never seen water change colors so quickly!
The Pa-Oh people live in the hills and come down to sell the crafts. It was a slow day and they were rather enthusiastic about making some sales!
After lunch, we hiked around a little and explored the Shwe Inn Thein pagodas, from the 14th-18th centuries. The dog guides were free.
They were so interesting because each one was unique and they were various states of condition. There seemed to be an "adopt a pagoda" program because many had donors and had been restored.
The rainy afternoon seemed fitting for wandering through the pagodas and we enjoyed that there were only a handful of other people doing the same thing.
At the top of the hill was a large shrine and beautiful stupas in much better condition. This was our wonderful guide, Win Win. We had her for three days and she was so full of fascinating knowledge.
Dogs outside in the rain, cats inside the shrine enjoying life.
Down at the bottom of the hill was another set of different pagodas, the Nyuang Ohak. Definitely in poorer shape but just as fascinating.
Such a fun place to explore!
We finally made our way back to the boat and off to the Jumping Cat Temple on the water. It's actually 19th century Nge Phe Kyaung monastery, but it became famous because one of the monks trained the cats to jump through hoops. Sadly, he passed away years ago and no one trains the cats anymore, but it's still a sanctuary for them.
They were pretty friendly as well! But I did wonder what the monks thought about the scratching their claws on the thatched prayer mats.
After another really amazing day on Inle Lake, we finally said goodbye and headed back to town. We enjoyed our lunch at Golden Kite on the creek so much that we visited the sister restaurant in Nyaung Shwe. Apparently it got a good write up in Lonely Planet and it's very successful now...interesting how one book can change the lives of local people. I got an after shot of the new haircut and we savored our last evening in Shan state.
