Today we explored Inle Lake- GUESS WHAT - it was great ( I seem to use that word a lot but it was)

Started out at 7.30 and saw the fishermen at work. They stand on one leg, hold the oar with the other and use both hands to either throw the net or the fishing basket in to the water. How they don’t fall in is the question. I could have watched them all day.

We then went to the floating gardens - no need to water as the soil is floating on the lake - lovely tomatoes, squash, other vegetables and flowers are grown.

Also saw the usual shopping opportunities that you find in most tourist places (Silver smiths and weavers) and a couple of monestries / pagodas. However the one that far outshone the others was simply magnificent. It was called Inn Dein and to get there we had to go up one of the rivers that feed the lake - which was interesting as in several places the river had been semi dammed leaving only one space for the boats to go up/down. Each boat would wait and then rev up and go for it!! The Pagoda itself is ok but as you walk up the hill to get to it, you have to pass hundreds of stupas. Some have been repaired, destroyed, improved or restored (Depending on your point of view) others have been left to carry on decaying- it was great.

The other highlight were the floating villages all of which had a different personality of their own but all looked neat and well cared for. There was none of the poverty that was evident in the floating villages in Cambodia.