Fisherman on Inle lake

Up nice and early to get breakfast and then hop onto the boat. It was nice sitting on the balcony next to the canal and watching the morning routine go on. We took the boat through the canal and then into the big bit of the lake. On the way we watched women do there washing in the dirty water and clean themselves with their sarongs on. When we got to the big bit we watched fisherman with their big strange nets. They rowed the boat with their legs. Which looks pretty difficult. Our first stop was at the market. We thought we were seeing a cool floating market but it was on land. It was so big but most of the stalls were exactly the same. We found some cool salad spoons with pearl as the handles and one women told us they were 22,000 kyat and told us we were her 'first customers' so she will give us a good price. As they all say!! We went to a different stall and the first price he told us was 7000 kyat. So we knew she was completely ripping us off. The other two girls we were with we're clearly not getting on. One was very moody. Morag and I said to each other we defos we weren't going to be like that! Next stop was the kayan women (who have golden rings around their neck) who were weaving silk scarfs. It is crazy how many rings they had on their neck. We had some free coffee before getting on the boat and heading to 'paper slamming' place. Morag and I tried on the biggest hats ever. Got a funny picture on Morags phone of us both. It was cool as all the houses are on stilts over the water. We then went for lunch and Morag and I shared fried rice as we had no money left with us. We skipped the pagoda as we could see it from a distance and we had all been a little pagodaed out! We then went to a weaving place. Saw them make string from a lotus plant. It was so clever and fast. They broke the branch and then thread like stuff would come out and then they would roll it together to make it thicker. Saw them use wooden machines to make silk, cotton and lotus scarfs. There was an amazing view of a bamboo bridge from the weaving place. The boat man then took us to a Tobacco making place. There were men outside making a longtail boat which apparently takes 4 months to make one. Inside there were lots of ladies rolling cigars super fast. It looked pretty skilled. Thought it was a good present for Grandpa but didn't have any money for it plus he probably would have thought they hadn't aged enough!! From there we went to a monastery where the monks teach cats to jump through hoops. We didn't see it happen but there were masses of cats in the monastery. We had tea and beans on a tapes. After the monastery we headed back to our hostel. The sky was amazing because if you looked forward you would see lovely sunny weather with amazing clouds and then behind us was completely dark clouds with rain. We were just managing to stay away from it. Morag called to get her results when she got back. So I ran to a local little shop to get some food for when she came back to the room. Felt bad as she was waiting at the door. She didn't do the best which was such a shame. I know exactly what she feels like as I was the same. It sucks. Had some comfort food and we headed out to get a celebratory meal of our 5 year gap life!! First restaurant was really sweet but the food I had was super spicy. We organized a trek with the lady that runs the place. We are heading of the beaten trek and going the opposite route to tourists. We then went somewhere to find pudding. Sunflower place looked super busy and there was a place next to it that was empty so we thought it would be funny going there instead. We got some yummy pancakes. The man was so cute and all the other 'waiters' in there. Apparently they have just opened. We went to a little shop on the way back and looked through masses of sweet painted postcards. Bought 6 of them and will hopefully send them off soon. Walked back in the pitch black which was slightly scary. Went to brush my teeth and you could hear masses of stray dogs howling. Not too keen on the dogs out here!!