Tuesday was my birthday. I had reached the grand old age of 60! It didn't take me long to open my birthday card (thank you Mabel and Alan) and we prepared for a day on the lake.

We had awoken to mist . Having become so accustomed to clear blue skies, this came as a bit of a shock but we set off optimistic that the sun would soon burn off the mist and it would again be hot and sunny. Our guide for the day was a young lady who walked with us through the town of Nyaungshwe to the jetty. We were going to be staying at a hotel on the lake tonight and so our luggage was taken by rickshaw to the jetty and accompanied us onto the boat.

It was cold and damp as we started down the canal towards the lake, and as we picked up speed it got even colder. We were glad of the blankets that were provided. It was a 3 mile journey from Nyaungshwe to Inle lake. Boatloads of locals emerged out of the mist, hunkered down in the bottom wrapped in coats and scarves with plastic sheeting pulled over their heads. It was around 9.30 when we reached the lake and there was a glimmer of light trying to break through the mist. Gradually the visibility improved and in 15 minutes or so we had a clear blue sky .

The lake was beautiful. Situated at 3000ft above sea level and surrounded by mountains, Inle Lake is 11 kilometres wide and 22 kilometres long. Almost as soon as we reached the lake we had a chance to watch the much photographed fishermen. They showed us how they fish with big bamboo baskets and also use nets, thrashing the surface of the water with bamboo sticks to drive the fish into the nets.   Their "foot rowing" technique is what they are best known for though. This involves standing at the rear of the boat, wrapping one leg around an oar and using this to propel the boat. This leaves both hands free for dealing with the fishing nets and allows a good view of obstacles in the water ahead, and of any fish. There were many boats on the lake, tourists like ourselves, locals on the way to market, workers heading for the floating islands and men collecting water hyacinths and pond weed. The weed is sold for fertiliser and fetches £2 for a boatload!

There are islands in the lake and also temporary floating islands . These are about 1 metre thick, secured in position by long bamboo poles and used to grow all manner of fruit and vegetables. The area is well known for its tomatoes. Whole villages are built on stilts and the boat is the only means of transport.

Our first stop was at a bustling market. Here the people from the mountain villages around the lake came to sell their produce. The elderly women were particularly colourful with red or orange scarves wound around their heads.   We visited a nearby temple (our daily golden pagoda) where the main attraction was five Buddha statues. These were just six inches high but over the years had had so much gold leaf attached to them by devotees that they were now larger misshapen lumps of gold. During the Inle Lake festival in October these “Buddhas” are paraded around the lake on a huge golden boat which we saw moored in a boathouse nearby. We rejoined our boat to travel to a village specialising in silk and lotus weaving . The lotus stalks are stripped into individual fibres, spun, died and woven, sometimes alone and sometimes mixed with silk. To make a shirt requires 2500 lotus plants. Not far away was another village where they worked with gems and silver.

Lunch was on the verandah of a stilted restaurant along with a lot of other tourists.   As usual I had fried noodles, today served with fish from the lake. It was surprisingly meaty and good. We chatted with our guide who was a really pleasant girl. She had a 3 year old son whom she worshipped. He was at nursery school which cost £5 a month. She had a degree in Business Studies but no great career ambitions other than to provide her son with the best possible education. She wanted to travel and had her heart set on visiting either England or Switzerland.

First stop after lunch was a workshop where they made paper parasols. In a room at the back we were taken to see some women from the Padaung tribe. They stretch their necks by wearing brass rings. Two adults each had about twenty rings on their necks and there were also some young girls who had fewer. They started wearing the rings at the age of 9 and added one every year. We felt the weight of the rings and wondered what possessed them to put themselves and their daughters through such pain.

Back in the boat we were taken for a closer look at the floating islands and the variety of produce cultivated on the lake . Then we headed for “Jumping Cat Monastery”. This is an old monastery secured to the lake floor by over 600 columns and containing some antique fittings and statuary. But it has become known for its jumping cats. They have been trained to jump through hoops and a performance is arranged for each group of tourists that descends upon the monastery.

By early afternoon our trip on the lake was over and we were delivered to our accommodation, Inle Resort. This was approached by boat and was part built on the lakeshore and part built on stilts in the lake. We had an enormous wooden bungalow with separate living room and bedroom, and a deck extending over the water. It was very tastefully decorated and very comfortable. We had a lazy afternoon. The only disappointment was that again there was no wifi. It had been ages now since we had been able to access email and I was getting really behind with my blog. Still we didn’t worry too much about that and instead sat in the sun on the edge of the lake until the sky turned red at the end of another lovely day .

There was no option but to eat in the hotel. The hotel owner was French and so the menu was reasonably varied if a bit expensive. As a birthday treat I was allowed to have their speciality, stuffed carp from the lake. It was rather good. We adjourned to the hotel bar after dinner but found that we were the only customers and so, after just one drink, retired to our room.

Once the heating was switched off it became very chilly and we had an uncomfortably cold night. Wednesday dawned clear however. Still well wrapped up we went over to the main building for breakfast. “Please take a seat outside” we were told. Surely we should be inside on such a cold morning? In fact the terrace, where breakfast was laid, was a perfect sun trap and we were soon peeling off layers.

It was still chilly on the lake when we set off at 9.00am but we were better prepared today and had put on warmer clothing . There was none of yesterday’s mist and the lake was still and blue. The boatman drove us to another hotel at the southern end of the lake where we picked up our guide for the day. He was colourfully clad as a Pa-O tribesman although he later confessed that he wasn’t really Pa-O but Intha. It was a journey of nearly 2 hours to our destination of Sankar. We travelled past numerous stilted communities, each, we were told, having at least one monastery and a primary school. Many of the houses were surprisingly large. The reason for this apparently is that several generations of the same family will live together in one big house. In one village we heard loud discordant music and rounding a corner came upon a couple of boats packed with people and decorated with multi coloured flowers and parasols. Our guide told us that they were celebrating one of the boys becoming a novice monk. As the channel narrowed we began to see more conventional housing on the shore and people working the fields with oxen and water buffalo . It became increasingly rural as we approached Sankar.

This was a lovely village, once the Shan tribe’s capital. The king built various stupas and temples here in the 18^th & 19^th century. Today these are in a poor state of repair and several are actually in the water following the building of a dam upstream in the 1960’s. We wandered around the ruins and were shown the monastery, the high school (500 pupils) and the hostel where the high school students from distant villages live during the week.

On the opposite bank we were taken to see a rice spirit distillery. They had a pet mongoose that ran around and nipped everyone’s ankles. We were given a taste of the fiery spirit before returning to the boat to travel the short distance to a stilted restaurant for lunch. Here, along with all the other tourists on the same itinerary, we were served some good fresh local produce - fried mixed vegetables, tomato salad, chicken and cashew nuts, sweet and sour fish, steamed rice and black bean soup with potato .

Nearby was a temple surrounded by a sea of stupas of various styles. Unlike those at Sankar these have been renovated (reasonably sympathetically) by Singaporean Buddhists. There are 236 in total and an impressive sight, with the backdrop of the lake and mountains.

We then started the long journey back. The sun was now very hot and after our big lunch and bad night’s sleep we dozed a little. Back at the main lake we visited a boatyard to see some of the typical boats used on the lake being constructed. They were made from teak and all made by hand of course. One boat took about a month to build and sold for about $2500. An engine cost a further $400. The little dugouts used by most of the fishermen cost only $400.

Back at the hotel we had water problems. I had apparently used all the hot water when I showered. After waiting a hour for it to reheat and having made several calls to reception Keith, having found that the City v. Arsenal match was being shown on the television, gave up the idea of having a shower today and watched the football instead.

For once we had a really nice meal. I chose the seafood tagliatelli and it was delicious. After a beer alone in the bar we put extra blankets on the bed and set the alarm for 5.00am.