Back again - and some things changed. As the country will be head of ASEAN in 2006 they started with a new airport. Still under construction of course. Than we have major road construction all over the north - cuts travel time - which is good. Apart from that - a few airlines more in and out of the country. The rest happens under the hood - nothing to see for us tourists.
This is my 4th time in the country - so there are loads of other pictures online: winter 2000/01, 2002/03 and 2003/04. So this time there will be less pictures online.
the 1st stop after yangon was inle lake. this lakes bears 17 villages, mostly on stills. the people on the lake are called intha and are quite different from the "land people" and the hill tribes round that lake.
they grow vegetables on floating fields - built out of marsh, soil and water hyacinth. They simply secure them with sticks to the lake ground so they can float up and down with the water level. at this time of the year it is tomato season.
main transport on the lake is with boats (and did you guessed it??) big noisy ones with a diesel engine or boats like this one. The intha are famous for propelling their crafst with one leg (wrapped round the oar) while standing in front of their boat. like this guy here (to prove me wrong he stands in the back of the boat....):
this time of the year the lake is not very deep - but the people told me that there is a few meter difference in and after the rainy season. here you can see the ground quite well. and they try to get as much fish as possible - poor little guys.
other than their male counterpart the nuns go for food in the afternoon - is that cause girls sleep longer? or a competition thing - who knows?
a teaspoon each!
not to much action after sunset....
