Inle Lake Day 1

Breakfast brought a lesson in cross cultural confusion. I order a ham and cheese omelet. The lady didn't hear the word "omelet" and brought me a piece of ham and 2 pieces of cheese. I corrected her saying I wanted an omelet. She subsequently brought me more ham and more cheese. Again, I more forcefully suggested an "omelet" with the ham and cheese. Finally I got the omelet with the ham and cheese on the side. One way of eating it.
After breakfast and getting some email - it is very spotty and very slow here - we learned the Harry had been accepted to medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina(MUSC)! Wow! It is very heart warming to know that one of my kids is going to be a physician. With a nurse and a world traveler, we are very blessed, indeed!
We piled into our boats and took off down the lake. We passed the fishermen with their unique way of paddling. They hook the paddle under their arm and wrap their foot around it to paddle. That way, they are standing on one foot, paddling with the other, and have both hands free to work the nets and traps for the fishing. I've never seen it anywhere else. If the Internet gods allow, I'll upload some pictures and maybe even a video. It may not be for a few days until we get back to Yangon, where the service is better.
We went to an old wooden pagoda. This was built in the 1880s and has more intricately carved statues. All of these are on stilts, since everything here is built over the lake.
We rode through the floating farms. They have miles of floating plants, tied together by bamboo. There is enough solidity for roots to take hold, but we could see everything bob up and down with the wake of our boats. Tomatoes, beans, flowers, etc. They are along side towns on stilts. House after house on stilts over the water, with their boats parked underneath. Some even had electricity and satellite dishes. Most were bamboo sided; some were wood. Bamboo fences separated each.
We went to see the cigar makers. They were rolling the cigars by hand. Very interesting to be there with Elsa, since our grandfather, Martin Stein, had
listed himself as a cigar maker in the 1920 census!
We then went to see the boat makers. They do this the old fashioned way cutting everything by hand. They were ripping a block of wood that was about 16 inches square and 14 feet long, and cutting it into 1 inch boards. With a 2 man saw. About a foot and a half at a time, down this leaf, then down that one, with a small wedge put in to open the slot. Very back breaking and labor intensive. We were told that an electric saw would waste too much wood and yield less. Also, it is difficult to get a permit for the machinery!
We went to the next pagoda which has 5 golden Buddhas. Except they were originally wood, and there has been so much gold leaf applied over hundreds of years that the shapes are just big blobs of gold. They stood about 2 feet high, but the Buddhas inside were only 1 foot tall.
Chang told us it would be an hour boat ride to lunch, but it turned out to only be 1 minute! We went to the ancestral home of Miss Ann, whose father, grand father and 2 further generations were born there. She showed us old pictures of the family from about the 1920s. She now is successful, running 2 restaurants and a hotel, but she made sure that this food was cooked the traditional slow way. A lentil soup, chicken, steamed pork, 2 kinds of veggies - stir fried and steamed spinach - and some beef curry, with some kind of custard desert and we were all stuffed again.
It really was an hour boat ride back to the hotel this time. Fighting with the Internet, it took about 2 hours to get my email. It reminded us of the old days of dial-up modems when we were just waiting and waiting. Literally, it was 7-10 minutes waiting for each one. Sigh.
After a nap, it was dinner time. The French influence of this resort is obvious. The presentations are wonderful and the food is also. Smaller portions so were aren't stuffed. Tonight was some fish with mashed potatoes and sautéed veggies.