7/15 Inle Lake Boat Trip

7/15/2013: It seems that the big thing to do at Inle Lake, once you arrive, is a "boat trip." I was hesitant, since it sounds like a major tourist trap. My trekking crew all agreed to go in on a boat together, although Vitse had to cancel because of massive blisters on his feet. Stef, Vic, and Matt met me at my hotel in the morning and we hopped in the long-tail boat. Unfortunately I left my camera battery charging in my hotel room, so I wasn't able to take any pictures. We cruised back south and pulled into a different canal, then the boat driver signaled that we get out and go to the "market." We didn't see any markets, and I was afraid it would be a market with strictly tourist schwag like mass-produced paintings and various trinkets. We had to walk thirty minutes and eventually reached an actual market where we were the only tourists. It may sound boring, but it's pretty interesting to just wander around and see the strange food products for sale, the funny t-shirts in broken English, and just getting a snapshot of a typical day for an Inle Lake resident.

The next stop was the goldsmith and silversmith shop. Again, I had low expectations, but it was actually very interesting to see each step in the process of extracting silver from ore and then turning it into jewelry. There were a number of kids working on the jewelry, which was disheartening, but we figured maybe they were "apprentices" and not "child laborers" and that if they weren't working in this shop, they'd just be farming or fishing.

After that, we visited the lotus weaving shop, which followed the same format as the silversmith where they show you the raw material and every step along the way and then try to sell you something by the end of it. The shop was built like all the other buildings in the area, on stilts above the shallow lake. Different buildings were connected by rickety bamboo bridges, so it was fun just wandering around. The lotus weaving was interesting - they take the stem of the lotus, break it apart, and there are thin fibers that can be collected and then spun into thicker string. They showed us some women (and some girls) working looms and producing lotus fabric, as well as silk and cotton. The tour guide girl estimated that it takes between 20-25 lotuses to produce one meter of lotus string. There's a huge swath of lotuses floating outside the shop, so their raw materials are cheap, but producing the lotus material is expensive - lotus fabric costs around seven times more than silk, but supposedly Inle Lake is the only place in the world where lotus fabric is produced.

Working the loom

We stopped for lunch at a "floating restaurant," which was great. The next stop was a pagoda, which wasn't mind-blowing. After that we visited a cigar-making shop, which once again was better than I expected. We just sat on stools and watched four women (well, two women and two girls) make cigars while they explained what goes into the tobacco and how the cigars are made. They let us smoke a "sweet" one, which was decent - along with tobacco, it contained banana, anise, honey, and other things I can't remember. Each girl makes around 500 cigars per day.

Cigar making - the fastest  one in the group

 The last stop of the day was a monastery, purported to have cats that have been trained by the monks to jump through hoops. Clearly this was the grand finale, and we had all been looking forward to it. We got off the boat, entered the monastery, and saw a number of cats lounging around. There were also a lot of other tourists, obviously eagerly waiting for a cat jumping show. Unfortunately, it never came. The cats all seemed pretty sleepy, so maybe they had been jumping earlier in the day. We watched some kittens and petted some cats, but that was it. The end of the day was a bit disappointing, but the day turned out to be much more fun than I had expected.

I grabbed some Indian street food for dinner back in Nyaungshwe, which was more like oil soup with bits of beef, then packed up and got ready for my bus ride to Bagan early the next morning.