It's a great exchange between us, visitors, and the locals, as they smile and wave their hands to us, we wave back, take a photo and they take photos of us. On the train ride here I saw a sign showing two people kissing and an X over it. I later read showing display of affection is prohibited, again not sure for the reason behind it. The main attraction is a wooden boat trip on the lake with options to see the floating tomato garden, pagoda, monastery, and markets. There's a local market and than the tourist market. We opted for local and passed on the silversmithing, silk weaving and the long necked ladies.
Long neck women are still sprung though I sense the young girls are forced to do it for the tourist, which is why we passed on it. However when we visited a handmade umbrella place, 4 long neck women were there. Two were teenagers. They also had a metal ring below each knee, not sure of that purpose. I was told the weight of the neck rings pushes their shoulders down creating the long neck. They never take it off. The girls looked miserable and i thought to myself they are prisoners. I didn't take a photo of their misery; just a pix of this artwork I saw elsewhere.
In the early morning, we saw the famous one legged fishermen. Unfortunately, they don't fish anymore. As soon as they saw us they started posing, which is nice of them and we got some great shots. But i felt like I was at a zoo trying to give a banana to a monkey to do tricks. There are real fishermen on the lake but look pretty regular. Learning as I go.
On our first dat, we rented bikes for $1.50 for the day to visit a nearby teak monastery. It was so beautiful at night We stumbled upon an old pagoda that was pretty unique with little statues with a person's name on it and the date and their state and country. We have guide books but they don't list everything so we don't know much about what we are seeing.
In the afternoon, we biked 30 mins to a winery. Great biking except you are side by side with the trucks, motorbikes, huge buses making us extra dirty. It's been pretty cloudy here but still humid; lucky for us he rain stopped after our first night here. We arrived sweaty and ready for wine. It wasn't the best wine ever but drinkable for some, including me. Still it was a great ride and views!
Pix link of the floating market and so much more on the lake
Pix link of pagado and winery https://goo.gl/photos/ApNxTD26kNx7qo9eA
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