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Published: January 30th 2013
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Inle Lake is perhaps best known for the fishermen who stand on the ends of their boats, casting nets and traps, slapping the water to scare the fish into the net, and paddling along with their foot wrapped around the paddle. It is a popular photo opportunity, and our group spent much time trying to get the perfect shot.
We rode along in our long boats, outfitted with single wooden seats set single file one behind the other. We could get three or four people in each boat. The boats, all crammed with tourists and others with local people and their goods, zoom around the lake with remarkable speed and annoying noise.
We visited all kinds of places. A temple enshrines some very famous Buddha images that are unrecongnizable as such because they are packed with thousands upon thousands of gold leaf pieces pressed atop one another by men seeking merit. Women are prohibited from approaching the images. Every year they parade the images around the lake over 18 days. One year, the boat carrying the images capsized, dropping the images to the bottom of the lake. Divers recovered 4 of the five images. When they returned the images
to the temple, the lost image was there on its platform, covered with lake vegetation. So the story goes. Now that image is not carried around the lake during the festival.
We also viewed traditional silk and lotus fiber weaving, silversmiths at work, cheroot rolling young women--these are the local cigars, and non-jumping cats in a monastery. The story goes, a single monk adopted several dozen cats, and taught them to jump through hoops. A Japanese writer made the place popular by writing this in a guide book. After that, travelers delighted in watching the jumping cats. But alas, the monk has recently died, and the cats no longer jump. I saw about a dozen. They just like to cuddle up with one another while travelers try to pet them, which they don't seem to like.
Then of course there were more markets, where I have become addicted to peanut and sesame seed brittle made with molasses. All they have to do is give me a free sample and I'm hooked. I also donated some money to sweet pink dressed nuns, who then chanted for me.
We floated through the unique villages of wood structures high on
stilts. Also saw the floating gardens of tomatos. And of course there were more markets. Each market has a different feel about it.
We fly to Yangon this afternoon, and I leave the group. I will try to add a few more blogs of places that I missed writing about earlier. I have hired a driver to take me on to other places in the southeast.
Heavy rain right now, very unexpected. Glad we're not in the boats out on the lake. It was beautiful up until now.
Uploading photos is very time consuming, does not work all the time, and something is not right with my camera--bummer. So I'm taking some photos with my cell phone in the meantime. But will have to wait until Yangon to upload some more.
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