From Mandalay, Bagan, and Lake Inle

Mandalay
View from Mandalay hill: 1 2

Around Mandalay and Mingun (a town across the river from Mandalay): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

The world's largest hung, uncracked bell -- in Mingun.

Bagan
Bagan is a huge area filled with the ruins of temples built between the 10th and 12th centuries: 1 2 3 4 5

Lake Inle

One of our days at Lake Inle was spent on a canoe tour of the lake.

Before starting our tour, we stopped at the boatman's house for tea. While our he spends his days fishing or guiding tourists, his wife rolls cheroots at home. She's able to hand roll about 500 cheroots a day.

Cathy samples a cheroot.

The boatman's son waving goodbye

When the fishermen on the lake get tired from rowing, they row with their leg.

There are floating gardens all along the edges of the lake. Clumps of floating water plants are laid out in rows. Then silt from the bottom of the lake is dumped on top of the floating plant clusters. Various plants are then grown on the floating mud-and-water-plant plots. When we were there, tomatoes and flowers were the big crops. 1 2 3

There are a number of "floating villages" on the lake. I think there were some actual floating structures, but most of the buildings were on stilts on the lake: 1 2