I have been trying to find a couple of people to share with for the trip on the lake with not much luck. This morning I met a couple of Taiwanese girls who were willing to share. When we got to their boat the driver wanted an extra 3000 and I had to sit on the floor. That wasn't going to happen so I told them to go and I would get a boat. Five minutes walk up the road and a boatman approached me offering a boat for 15,000K. I checked he was going to all the places and it was good to go. Jeez I paid $300 for a boat in Peru so $15 here is dirt cheap.
First we were supposed to see the fishermen but it was really a ********* posing for tourist photo's. The boat pulled up next to him and he asked for "busy money" so I told him he was a ******** and I didn't take a photo so push off.
The trip across the lake is quite far, nearly an hour, to the village of Tha Ley. They do a lot of weaving on old looms with cotton, silk and lotus fibre. It is really low tech with 4 bamboo pedals, and a can of rocks for tension. Of course with all "tours" there is the shop to go through and I bought a shirt that was hand woven just for me by a 97year old Burmese virgin.
We went down the main street (waterway) into high street then into some dodgy back street to a cigar factory. Really just a shop front for tourists but you do get to try the product and get to see the girls hand rolling cigars. They make different flavours, cinnamon, star anise etc and they roll about 800 per day. They are cheap to buy at $3/50 but you would never get them back into Australia.
From there to the Phaung Daw Oo Paya. There was a guy chanting the whole time I was there which was a bit annoying . There is no Buddha in the middle like most but 5 Buddha likness's and they are covered in gold leef. Effectively there is 5 blobs of gold, and anyone can add to it.
Im not into the shopping caper so I tend to speed through the shops so I got to lunch early at 10.30. It was the most expensive meal I have had so far. Fried tofu, chicken and cashew with rice and 2 pineapple juice for 6000k ($6) It was also the best meal I have had in Myanmar but I wont be lashing out like that again in a hurry. The waitress asked where I am from I said "Australia" she said "I like Australia" I said "have you been" she said "no". Everyone ask's where I am from and then says I like Australia but no one has been??? WTF How do they like it if they havnt been?
Last stop was the Nga Phe Chaung Monastery. They have cats everywhere here and the monks taught them to jump through hoops. They used to put on shows for the tourists but they stopped it, I think the animal libbers got to them.
Then a tour through the tomato plantations and on the way home. The tomatos are grown on floating frames and they stack up vegetation and sea weed to keep the beds floating and give the tomato's somewhere to grow.
I went crazy with pics today, hope they load up.

Last night I had dinner with a couple of german girls at the restaurant next door and a quiet night. This morning I went to the local markets, cos you know Im into produce, and it was nothing special. They are pretty much the same all over the world. Hope you can see the flies on the chickens in the photo's.
Just sitting here waiting for the bus to Hsipaw.