Market stall

Today we took another boat trip across Inle Lake, this time to the extremely busy market at In Dein (or Inthein). Once past the tourist stalls by the landing stage, where visitors are presented with a huge range of souvenirs, gifts and trinkets (our local guide said that, if we were interested, we should aim to get at least 40% of the asking price), we penetrated the real market, where locals were buying food and vegetables and other goods.  I really enjoyed looking around here and, once again, the image I have chosen for my blip is one of the stall holders.  I was amused by the seemingly odd mixture of goods she offered: cloth and cheroots (both undoubtedly made locally).  All the people are extremely friendly and cooperative and seem to be quite happy to be photographed.

We went on to visit Nyaung Ohak, described by my guide book as a small, weed choked collection of Shan stupas at the base of a hill on which stands the Shwe Inthein stupa complex.  It was quite a steep climb up the hill in the heat (I'm not entirely sure why we didn't take the covered walkway, lined again with stalls aimed mainly at visiting tourists) but the massive collection of gold covered stupas at the top was very impressive.

(Backblipped after my return home because of the slow internet access in this part of Myanmar.)