As soon as we got off the boat in Nyaung Shwe yesterday afternoon, a boatman's brother was at my side touting a boat trip for the morrow, running through the long list of sights/sites to see on the lake: fishing in the typical Inle Lake fashion (rowing with the leg), weaving, cheroot-rolling, umbrella-making, long-necked Padaung women, silver-smithing, Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda, and the Jumping Cat Monastery. There's really no getting around it.
It turned out to be more of a shopping spree than a sight-seeing trip. About the only thing I didn't buy was cheroots -- and I didn't make a donation to the cat treats at the monastery either. Yes, the cats do in fact jump; it's quite remarkable how they go from comatose to leaping without the assistance of a cattle prod, but I saw it with my own eyes.
I loved seeing things being made by hand, and we hung out and conversed a bit with the youth of the cheroot-making and silver-smithing families where we were the only ones visiting at the time.
I loved being out on the water, speeding across the open lake and meandering down narrow water-ways between houses and gardens. And at the end of the day I went for a swim in the middle of the lake. Only the deafening sputtering of the boat's motor detracted from the idyllic.
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