Inle Lake - The Handicraft Tour

The many stops to view handicraft did get tiresome. We saw silversmithing, umbrella making, weaving of silk, cotton, and lotus thread, and cigar making. Some stops were interesting, especially the making of silver artifacts and extracting thread out of lotus stems. There were also women with neck rings at one stop. We learned that they start wearing these rings at age fourteen. A couple of the women were young and spoke English, but I was a little uncomfortable because it seemed like a human zoo.

The souvenir shops weren't my cup of tea. Unfortunately for the Norwegians and I, the people in the other boat shopped a lot, and we ended up waiting for them at every stop. The final straw came at our lunch stop when we sat down to eat and they went souvenir shopping. When we finished our lunch, they sauntered in and sat down. Ugh. We asked the two boat drivers to split, and they agreed.

Back at Ostello Bello, I hung out, had a blast, and again, drank too much.

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