eyes turned skyward: When the sun crests the horizon, and casts the water into a thousand shimmering diamonds, you'll know you've arrived at the place your soul will find peace

Inle Lake - a source of fascination for our group and an eagerly awaited destination. The only trouble was that being at Inle Lake meant that we were nearing the end of our trip, which none of us were ready for.

The Intha People, who live on the lake in stilt villages, are descendants of the Mon people, from the southeast part of the country. Various ethnic groups comprise the population of the lake - among them are the Shan, Pa-O, Kayah, and Danu. Our group would be chartering two boats to ferry us around the lake. We walked to the jetty at a quarter past 7 in the morning, trying to beat both the heat and the monsoon that we knew would arrive later in the day. Unfortunately poor Phil was feeling unwell, and decided to stay at the hotel and rest. We arrived, met our two captains, and climbed into our long boats. We had to float down a canal in order to arrive at the main lake, and it provided excellent people watching - we got a true view of real village life. Women washing their laundry while their children splashed and swam, men repairing their fishing nets or bringing in their early morning catch, floating garden farmers bringing in their produce to market - even the simplest activity of life seemed somehow more interesting, knowing that the people had been living this way since their ancestors ancestors could remember!

It was a little bit overcast, but we were really too excited and happy to care. As we motored down the canal we could see that the mountains around us were wearing small puffy clouds, looking almost like jewelry, the translucent white of the clouds making the verdant green of the mountains seem to pop into three dimensional color. We saw signs for animal reserves and bird sanctuaries, and passed a huge dredge that was in place to pull silt from the canal.

When we came to the end of the canal and our boat entered the lake itself, I think that my jaw actually dropped open. We emerged from the clouds into what seemed to be a bowl of sunlight. The sky over the lake was lapis blue, and all clouds had retreated back towards the mountains. The clouds that remained around the outskirts of the lake looked like little fluffy sheep, so airy were they. Emotion just welled up in me and tears spilled out of my eyes, yet all the while I had the biggest smile on my face and in my heart. We passed people fishing from their canoes and farmers heading to their floating gardens to tend their vegetables. The hour that we crossed the lake was so beautiful - it felt so organic, so natural, to be viewing this way of life that is mostly untouched by the modern world (although, that being said, many of the houses in the stilt villages now have TV!). The floating gardens arae particulary amazing. The people gather the water plants from around the lake and plant them in rows. Once they've grown, the roots of the plants interlock together - not into the lake bottom. This provides stability and the farmers plant all kind of veggies in them. Tomatoes, aubergine, squash, runner beans, okra (ladyfingers as they're referred to in Burma) and so many more.

Our first destination was the pagoda at Phong Daw Oo, where there are 5 ancient Buddha images. Men crowd around to add gold leaf to the small statues - they are so covered in gold leaf that they don't even look like Buddhas anymore! Of course, no women permitted to touch the Buddha statues or apply gold leaf. I asked Joseph the root of this, curious as to if is similar to other religions - i.e. women are impure, original sin, etc. He said that it's partly the Buddhist belief about women being unclean, but it is mostly because the man is viewed as being in charge/more important. Humph! He is a Christian, by the way. We admired the pagoda for a few moments and then walked towards the local market that was taking place. This was truly another local market - by that I mean it was for the locals, not the tourists. This made for great wandering, looking at all of the local produce and home goods for sale. We made a few small purchases, browsing and bartering, before heading back to the boats and going to visit a cotton, silk, and lotus weaving workshop. This was really interesting, as they weave with all three fibers mentioned above. The looms were huge, and the talent of the women very impressive. They, of course, had a lovely showroom where they were selling their beautiful creations, but they were very expensive! We preferred siitting on their cool, shaded veranda and ordering iced coffee to spending all of our kyat on one small scarf!

After this we had a short boat ride to a nearby blacksmith shop, where we viewed them making metal works in a very traditional manner, and then we got to walk across a super sketchy bamboo bridge to a restaurant! At the beginning of the bridge I thought "This looks pretty safe and in really good shape." Halfway across that changed quickly! It was so shaky and wobbly, and once I got to the middle it was easy to see that there were several broken bamboo poles, leaving nothing between you and the water below but about 15 feet of empty air! We safely crossed into the restaurant and were shown to our table. Then, Joseph told us that a local wedding was taking place! So exciting to see! The bride and groom were kind enough to let us come gawk at them and take their picture. We gave them our congratulations and our best wishes and retreated back to our corner! It was so special to see, but we didn't want to intrude on their big day! We ate some really good lunch (I had fried rice with hot basil and baby corn, snow peas, green beans, carrots....yum and SPICY!) and then enjoyed watching the wedding guests come and go. Apparently we were sitting right by the kids table, because there was a table with about 10 little girls wearing their party dresses right next to us. I kept smiling and waving with them, and then Mez asked "do you want a picture with them?" Great idea! So now I have a sweet photos with these lovely little girls.

After lunch we headed to Nga Phe Chgung monastery - this used to be home to some cats that a monk had trained to jump through hoops, but when the monk died the head of the monastery forbid the continuance of the jumping, which is good. There were still several kitties there, though! Temple kittens!

One very interesting thing that took place at the monastery was I spoke Spanish! In Burma! While walking around I saw a group of four people, and as I passed the woman she said "hola" to me. I replied and we made a little small talk, then I enquired where she was from. They were from Mexico City! Who would have thought that speaking Spanish would come in handy in Burma! a workshop where they carve the two traditional boats used by the people of Inle Lake, the canoe and the ****. This was really interesting, and while we were there the monsoon kicked in BIG TIME! Rain just came sheeting down. We waited in the workshop for about 30 minutes, hoping it would let up. FInally Joseph said "ok, we have to go" so we all put on our ponchos and grabbed our umbrellas and hopped back into our boats. It was pretty epic being on the lake in such a big storm, although I know a certain lightning safety expert that would not approve!

Our last stop of the day was to visit a family in their stilt village home. We pulled up to their jetty and piled into the house. Once we were inside Joseph told us that they had no idea that we were coming! "So, we just randomly showed up at some peoples house without them inviting us?" the whole group asked! Joseph told us that that is the culture of the lake people - all are welcome, no invitation necessary. We were just overwhelmed by their generosity in welcoming us. They made us green tea and we all sat in a circle on the bamboo mats on their floor. We then spent on of the most interesting hours of my life, just talking (through Joseph translating, of course) about their lives. The family that lives in the house includes the grandfather, his 5 or 6 children, the wife of his eldest son, and their 3 adorable children - aged 6, 4, and 2. They are floating garden farmers, and they showed us some of their tomatoes. They have lived in this house for about 50 years, and when the children come of age they mostly stay on at home, working the gardens with the family. They have a tv, and they told us that they like Korean and Chinese movies! Of course we had to talk about the World Cup! Myanmar doesn't have a team yet, but they hope that they will in the near future. It was the most peaceful, interesting time and really left us all in shock. Such generosity and kindness - you could tell that they were thrilled to have us there. We took some photos with them, thanked them for their generosity, and said farewell. I think we were all in a minor state of shock when we left! Can you imagine life being like that where we live? A stranger drives up to your house, parks in your driveway, and just asks to come in for no reason. Not only would most people say no, they would call the police! What a better (albeit simple) way of life these people have in that aspect.

Before heading back to our hotel, Joseph had one last surprise for us. We were going to get to walk on the floatiing gardens! Our boatmen pulled alongside one, and Joseph hopped out to demonstrate how it was done. He took a big step, planted his foot on the garden, and stepped off the boat. When he stood on the plants, he sank about 4 inches, but stayed stable! It was amazing! We all got out of the boat and walked around on the gardens for a minute. The plants and the water felt so cool on our hot tired feet. So now we can add "walks on water" to the huge list of skills that Joseph can do (that's become our joke - tour guide, ship safety attendant, chef, coordinator extraordinaire, to name a few!).

We motored back toward Nyaung Shwe, tired but oh so happy. What an amazing day! That evening we went to a local restaurant called the Butterfly and just relaxed together - we made plans for our free day tomorrow. We all agreed that we wanted to hire a boat and go visit the ruins of In Dein, which our guide books described as "The Angkor Wat of Burma!" We'll see about that....