Myanmar-velous 3: Shan-tastic!

For some reason, all domestic flights in Myanmar seem to leave before 8AM, so we packed up and got out of Bagan before sunrise. Short, two-hop flight to Heho airport, where we met our new driver and headed out for a morning drive through the Shan state.
Very different landscape here, not so dry, with lots of different plots of farmland. We are also a little weirded out after getting so much constant information for the last three days, because our driver doesn't speak English and we have to guess at much of what we're seeing.

Ladies harvesting wheat; not a lot of dudes doing the farm-work out here...

The main stop this morning is the town of Pindaya and the Shwe Oo Min Natural Cave Pagoda, a complex of caves filled with a truly astounding number of Buddhas.

Look at this crazy-ass spider! There must have been some story behind this, because we saw it a few different places.

Seriously, like SO many Buddhas

Buddha Buddha Buddha Buddha BU-DDAH! (can you guess that tune?)

The sign does not lie.

We also visited a three-generation old paper/umbrella-making workshop to see the family making paper out of plant fibers and fashioning the various parts of umbrellas using hand tools.

Making an umbrella handle with a super-sweet foot-powered lathe. 

We skipped lunch and booked it for Nyaungshwe on the northern shores of Inle Lake for an afternoon/evening off, had drinks and dinner in a small cafe, and called it a night.

After breakfast, we set out for a day of touring Inle Lake, a large lake in a mountain valley. Highlights included floating island farming, many stops to see local crafts, and seeing all these fully functioning villages on the lake that are just like villages on the land, with shops and schools and houses, but the streets are replaced with water. I'll let the pictures tell the rest.

Our journey begins

Out of the way, fools!

These fishermen were totally bad-ass. They're casting nets with both hands and rowing with one leg (the oar is kind of hooked in his armpit), all while balancing ON A BOAT on one leg. This skill is apparently unique to these people, and they even have races with 60+ people on one boat rowing with their legs.

Little shrine to the protector spirit, out in the middle of the lake.

Floating gardens: they grow tomatoes, squash, everything on these floating islands made from composted plant material that gets washed down into the lake from the mountains. The bamboo poles are actually anchoring them to the lake bed.

Here are some men busting up the material for the floating islands.

This is more of the material that goes into the islands. He's dredging it up with a pole.

One water house, coming up.

Making thread out of LOTUS FIBERS!? I didn't even know this existed.

I've never really seen a loom in action, but it's scary complicated: lots of hand-foot-eye coordination, and lots of patience. Also some really interesting engineering.

Local blacksmith re-purposing old springs and struts from cars.

Young boy on his way to becoming a novice at a monastery. 

Two dudes hand-sawing planks of teak to make boats

Ladies rolling sweet, sweet cheroots, complete with corn-husk filters

And with that, we're pretty much done with sight-seeing. We're headed to the beach for a few days tomorrow, which should be a nice end to this trip, and may not be worth writing about. I've been really impressed by this country, its people, and its traditions; I think we did a pretty good job of using our time here wisely, but there's still more to see, and I hope to be back someday.