Burmese days….Inle Lake's Floating gardens

While Inle Lake is famous for its iconic leg rowing fishermen……

(this fisherman stopped us to have us take his photo, he told us he was now too old to fish but could give a demonstration……..how could we not watch him!)

……..it is also famous for its very fertile floating gardens…..which are truly amazing…..

it would seem to be quite hard work…..sowing the young plants from a boat….

and having to bring the earth/weeds dredged from the bottom of the lake into the gardens……where they are attached to the lake bottom with bamboo posts….

 this one got a little overloaded and needed to be bailed out….

we meandered peacefully along many canals..

sometimes almost clogged down by the hyacinth plants….. these plants are not native but were brought in and they unfortunately are taking over!  The lake needs to be dredged periodically. However the local people believe that they are good for the lake as they absorb pollution and keep it clean.

This is what the area we were going through looks like on google satellite…

We then went on to something quite different…… we visited some members of the Kayan tribe…
They start to have coils put around their necks when they are quite young. These coils  can weigh up to 8 kg!

and then we went to another 'CAT' place…..the ex Jumping cat Monastery, Nga Phe Kyaung……
No more jumping cat exhibitions, but they still have lots of cats!

Once they saw that the monk was preparing food for them they appeared from all directions….

and followed or even preceded him outside…..

this monastery was quite different from others we have visited, but very interesting….

On the boat ride back to the hotel we had another beautiful sunset…..

Burmese days…..more Pagodas at Inle Lake

We obviously could not escape seeing more pagodas…….

This time we went up a long canal off the lake……rather peaceful except we had to go over weirs to go upstream!

 reaching our first destination...

surrounded by decaying stupas….with banyan trees sprouting out of them….

Our guide showed us one doorway where she said the decorative stucco on one side has crumbled since last year.

this one will probably only have one figure left by next year judging by the crack on the right..….

These pagodas are decaying rapidly.  They need help…but it may be already too late.

Then on to Shwe Inn Thein Pagoda….. which has a main pagoda and 1094 stupas in various states of decay or renovation….
The main complex is about a 700m walk uphill, fortunately covered….….

Here are some pagodas being renovated by families who have made a donation and will have their name on a plaque.

 Unfortunately it would seem that they are not necessarily being restored by skilled craftsmen….

No doubt they will all be painted gold at the end…..but will never bear a resemblance to the decayed ones at the bottom!

Inside the main pagoda there was of course a very large Buddha…

guarded by…..

and off to the side a cat…..patiently waiting…..

 before getting back in our boat …….

we noticed this poster…..…… and agreed with it!