Fri 18th - Mon 21st April (Week 31)

Fri 18th - Met up with Steph and Vivi at 8:30 and headed off for our day trip on the lake. Stopped at a couple of silk and silver workshops but all quite pricey so didn't buy anything. Saw a Burmese Cat sanctuary, so stopped there briefly to see the very rare and expensive cats. Apparently by 1930's there were no true blood Burmese cats in Burma anymore, so in 2008 they had to find the few pedigree cats from UK and Australia and have been breeding them to reintroduce back into Burma. Went into Phaung Daw Oo Paya to see the 4 revered golden Buddha's and watch the frenzy of men putting gold leaf onto them. There is so much gold leaf on them now that they are just gold blobs and don't look like Buddha's at all ! Went back to Inn Dein and wandered around the beautiful ruined stupas and scrambled up ruined steps for a great view of all the hundreds of brick, white and golden stupas all around. The sky turned very black and it rained heavily just as we got into a restaurant on the river for lunch. Went past some interesting floating gardens with all sorts of vegetables being grown, but the rain and spray from the boat was making us all cold and wet, so we carried on to the Nga Hpe Chaung monastery where apparently there used to be a monk who trained the cats to jump through hoops ! That doesn't happen any more, but did see quite a few cats around. The monastery was packed with people waiting out the rain and as soon as it cleared at 4pm, everyone left and headed back home.

Sat 19th - Had a leisurely day today catching up on blog, photos, wifi etc. Met Steph and Vivi for our final lunch together and said our goodbyes as they head to Yangon tonight. Wandered around the local market and bought a new handbag as I seem to be sewing my old one up almost daily and it is so threadbare that there is nothing to sew it back to anymore ! So thats my old sandals and handbag thrown out now ! Went to a Western restaurant for dinner and I had baked beans on toast and fruit, muesli yoghurt ! Amazing. There is only so much rice, noodles, and curry I can take !

Sun 20th - Hired bikes for £1 each for the day and headed West around the lake. Pretty hot and sweaty already at 9am and really bumpy, rocky road so it wasn't that enjoyable. But did have some beautiful views of lush paddy fields and herons. Cycled down to the Hot Springs but didn't really fancy paying $10 to sit in scalding water in this heat ! Came back to town and had pancakes and chips for lunch. Headed back out at 2pm to cycle down the East side of the lake, passing some pagodas and monasteries. Went to the Red Mountain Estate winery and did a wine tasting of 4 wines - very nice actually ! We've missed wineries after the beautiful ones we went to in Argentina, so it was nice to sit outside, admiring the view, sipping good wine. Treated ourselves to a fancy restaurant for dinner and had 3 excellent Thai dishes for £8 for both of us !

Mon 21st - Leisurely start to the day until checkout at 12. Hired some bikes again and cycled to the winery. Sat in the sun and admired the view with a lovely lunch and bottle of Inle Lake Rose. Really good wine, and with the heat, and the fact we never drink at lunchtime - let alone a whole bottle - we rode home at 4pm a little wobbly ! Brandon kept ringing his purple sparkly bike bell to let me know he was behind me, but this gradually got more and more faint as he got slower and s-l-o-w-e-r !! Got a pickup at 5:45 to the "bus station" - a shop/someones house, and were given plastic stools to sit on, and brought green tea and seeds to eat ! Got on the nice new bus at 6:15 and were quite impressed at the comfy reclining seats and good a/c. However, that was where the positives of the journey ended ! The first few hours were on a dirt road, very bumpy and windy and even Brandon started feeling sick. One poor woman was just sick constantly until about midnight - and I swear I have never heard a noise like it ! I didn't know it was possible to be sick so violently and loudly ! There was of course the usual deafening Burmese music blaring out, which then turned into a screeching sitcom on the TV, and then became rock music until 11pm. Finally thought we would get some peace and quiet (apart from lady being sick), but then had the worlds loudest snorer next to us ! At 4am the driver decided to put on a loud monks chanting track for an hour or so, so needless to say not a lot of sleep was had that night !