Wandering Scotts: Exploring Inle Lake

There is so much industry and activity surrounding the lake it's overwhelming. We only have time for a one day boat journey to the highlights, it is possible to do many treks in this region which intrepid travelers find rewarding.
It's market day so off we go in one of those long tail boats with a very skillful skipper. We no sooner set off and there was a "traditional" fisherman performing for us.....yes we had to make a donation. He's a dying breed after all. It's probably a bit of shame but the much more efficient gill netting method of fishing has consigned this type of caper just for show to earn some tourist tips.

Traditional fish trap fisherman

Traditional weaving

Tourists arriving by boat

Silver smith is popular

Those who live on the lake all seem very busy making something, and of course eager to sell to the visitor.

Lotus weaving

Pulling the lotus fibre

You need 75 lotus plants to recover enough fibre just to make a scarf. This process is so labour intensive.

The local forge

These guys make knives and other iron implements and enjoyed showing us their strength in hammering the heated material.

Floating gardens - tomatoes

Stilt housing

Cigar or cheroot making

Those famous leg rowers of Inle Lake .. not just for show they all do it even little kids

It was a pleasant day only rained on us twice, we also visited the "cat" monastery where the cats are trained to jump through hoops but we just saw the typical lazy cat while we were there. A colleague back at out accommodation who was actually scouting for a British adventure travel company did see the cats perform
but was not sure it was worth the wait for their apparently quite unscheduled show. The people are very friendly, our boat skipper seemed to instinctively know when to slow the boat for another photo opportunity.