Today was our final full day sightseeing and was probably the highlight of the tour as we spent the day on a local skiff darting about Inle lake. The second largest lake in Burma and until the 1980's only had 4 villages with two floating markets. Now there are over 30 villages,the floating markets have moved on land,new hotels have sprung and sadly the lake is slowly silting up and getting polluted. It will be about 200 years before it dries up completely but now the locals and incomers make their living from tourism. A few fishermen still try and catch tilapia the old way and people are out gathering the weeds to build up their floating gardens before putting on dredged silt upon which they grow crops. We were able to visit some of the traditional crafts people who carry on regardless producing unique items. Most of the villages are on stilts including a beautiful wooden monastery,known as the jumping cats monastery because the monks trained the cats to jump for money. A practice that has been banned now,the only cats we saw were asleep! During the war the locals had hidden the buddhas in the lake. The lacquer altars were exquisite and none the worse for their ordeal.
The day started with a tuktuk drive to the town jetty where we clambered aboard our transport and set off past all the other skiffs down a wide canal into the lake where a few people dress up as traditional Shan fishermen and pretend to fish . A small payment later and we were off into the lake passing real fishermen who fish whilst rowing with one leg,a unique feature of the lake. Most boats are people gathering up the weeds for their floating gardens. Our first stop was the monastery,then we meandered our way through the gardens and villages on stilts to a silver smithing family,then to see the ring necked ladies( a practice likely to end in the next few years as the rings are heavy and damage the collar bone) after that it was to a boatbuilders where small children were planing

teak planking. Our last stop before a late lunch was to see "secret lotus" weaving. Our final visit was to a local cheroot workshop before a break neck dash up the lake back to our hotel.