Day 8- Last day in Inle

Today is our last day in Inle. We got an early start thanks to our furry rodent friends (there was a mice infestation in the rooms) and headed out at the peak of dawn to catch a glimpse of the fisherman on the lake. 

Inle lake has a ton of fisherman looking to catch some fish to sell at the markets, or just to bring home for their supper. After some time observing, we realized (and even appreciated) the simplicity of their life. These fisherman aren't necessarily looking to become big executives in the corporate world, but they merely are looking to feed themselves and their family and live a simple, (somewhat) carefree life. It was peaceful watching them hard at work and really puts a perspective as to how different our lives are and what really should be important to us.

We had a big day planned with a lot of different places to visit all over the lake. We started off at a local market where we had to take our cool speedboats throughout. The market was bustling with locals and tourists, and reminded me a lot of Thailand's floating market! Except this one is cooler and not as much of a tourist trap.

We met a girl and her mom that were selling water flowers off their boat. The little girl told us that the money was for her schooling, so of course, dad gave in and bought a bunch of flowers that I had to carry around all day.

Eric's head was starting to burn from the hot beaming sun, so he bought a fisherman hat and wore it around the whole day. Best part of my day.

We then headed off to the biggest temple on the lake.

Eric has become more interested in Buddhism and has been appreciating the temples a lot more. One of his favorite things to do is the gold leaf offering to the Buddha statues. Don't be fooled, they might just look like big globs of gold, but they used to actually be Buddha statues! There has just been so much gold that has been offered, that the statues have morphed into these unrecognizable blobs! And for those of you who are Buddhist, yes, Eric did get yelled at for having his hat on- so don't worry he took it off shortly after.

Our next stop was a quick lunch and then we headed off to a paper factory. We saw how they made paper for everyday use as well as for decorating purposes. This piece of paper is decorated with some water flowers and was made of tree mulch.

Next stop (yes we went to a lot of different places- all via our cool speedboat!) was the silk factory. Here, we got to see how they were able to procure silk from a local plant and how they spent countless hours weaving intricate longyis and other apparel. 

The women use these looms brought over by the British years ago, and to this day, use the same machinery to make all of their products! It costs around $7 to pay the workers to procure the silk, dye it and weave the material (we asked in Burmese) and they sell their items to tourists for around $70! Crazy profit margins, huh?

After another quick stop at a tobacco company, we quickly headed over to the tomato farms. Apparently, Inle produces around 90% of Burma's tomato supply. All the tomatoes are grown on top of the water and are shipped daily to other parts of the country!

We ended the day with another long boat ride back to our hotel and spent some time with the family and grabbed some dinner at the hotel.

I can't iterate enough how great of a trip this has been with the family. As each day passes, we are realizing more and more how lucky we are to have the life that we do. But not only that, we also can reflect on what type of life we want to make for ourselves, and what we really would be happy with. Sometimes I do think that it would be nice to live in a small house above the water, spend the long days playing in the water with the kids and husband, and just do small chores all day.

(yes this woman is washing her clothing in the lake-by hand!)

And then sometimes I realize that we are way too crazy to be satisfied with that.

We leave Inle in the morning to head back to Rangoon! We can't wait- we are getting a bit sick of Mickey and Minnie.