I’ve lost track of what we have seen and done since I last wrote! A day on Lake Inle, which is still in the hilly region of Shan, so still cool. it would be very peaceful except for the speed that the boats are driven, throwing up an impressive spew of water behind them. Being a bit of a tree hugger I was worried about the environmental damage this causes, let alone the wake that rocks the local people , who live in stilt houses and know no dry land, who get around in what is little more than a dug out. We were up and down the canals that run off the lake and in and out of ” cottage industry” shops.

There was a bonus, as once a year there is a huge 16 day festival, when Buddha statues are taken round the villages on the lake in a huge gold dragon-painted barge. Long boats with 20 rowers each side with dancing girls, all of which we saw, and some time in the week they race these huge barges on the lake itself. Don’t ask me to describe how it’s done, but they stand as they row, and with their lower leg twisted round the oar they row the boat. If you’re rowing you own little boat, fine, but with rowers each side, you need an equal number of lefties!

A cycle ride was a good break one day, I think it might even have been temple free. One day in Rangoon, and now I’m at the Airport and off to Bangkok

So now the travels really begin, but Asia is no longer quite so strange to me.