Inlay Lake and then on to Loikaw

30th Jan 17

A day on Inlay Lake then South to Loikaw

Lazy start, then off at 10am for boat trip round the lake. 4 to a long boat with a thumping engine.. these things really shift with a long plume of spray when up to speed. Fishermen on the lake wrap their leg around an oar to paddle slowly looking for fish. Whole townships on the lake, houses on stilts. The local industry is silk making and cigar production all by hand. A woman can make 1000 cigars in a day. Nice lunch and then back to the hotel.. a few hours to kill so Jay and I went for a traditional Myanmar massage. We were laid next to each other on a mat and two mature local ladies came in to work on us..total head to toe with elbows forced into the muscles; very painful..they laughed as we grimaced; no pain no gain I suppose! Equivalent of £5 for 1 hour, I was glad when it was over, but must say body felt good. That night we had western food again for a change.
Easy day tomorrow, 9am start and a pleasant ride through the mountains to look forward to apparently .

Inlay to Loikaw

9am start for the ride through the Shan state mountains; very twisty road, thin ribbon of tarmac about 15ft wide..thankfully very little traffic and no trucks. We had a pleasant ride through great scenery mid 20’s degs; the mountains are covered in trees, very green unlike the Alps; at one point we had to wait as they were blasting rocks. No tourists up here..we are VIPs again when we stop ?

Lunch of fried noodles and veg, very tasty, then we descended to the plain below and temperature warmed up to 30degs , soon we were at our hotel by a lake, welcomed again with cold drinks. An easy day and time to catch up with this blog.