Up and at em and in the boat with Ross and Robyn to head to Sankar, this is a trip that takes in crossing the main part of Lake Inle and then through the canals into the outter lake, visits to this area have only been permitted since 2003 and can only be done with a Pa O guide. We arrive at the Golden Cottages on the Lake and collect our guide, the lovely beetle nut stained teeth "nie nie".
We should have sensed our doom as even before this the boat man spat his beetle nut juice and it caught in the wind and went all over Bruce! Can you imagine his displeasure!! He whistled at the boat man and tried to explain not to spit anywhere near him, the boat man then tried washing it off Bruces shirt! You have to laugh! The new proverb of the day was "man who spit on tourist shirt, become life long friend".
Once we left Golden Cottages we started through a canal that was narrow and had village after village of huge teak houses with people going aboutt heir daily business of washing clothes, themslves, people fishing, boating, farming and it just went on and on, village after village and no other tourists at all.
The canal got narrow after we passed under a large modern day bridge and there was also a bit of current, the boat ran aground onto a sand bank and we sat for a while, the boat men trying to wedge us off with sticks, suddenly the whole boat turned and tipped and three of us were in! There was no time to think no time to try and stop it happening, it just happened, his lordship Bruce was sitting at the front and high side and did not even know we had gone in, there was no yelling as it all happened so fast. Myself, Robyn and Ross all went in. I went completely under the boat with water in my ears and up my nose!
I did hear Ross and Robyn yelling then and farmers came from their work into the water to help put the boat straight and get it off me! I had lovely gravel rash and cuts all up my leg, arm and shoulder on my right side. Sadly my beautiful month old cannon camera ($1600) was still in my hand! It drowned!
Bruces camera got flung out of his hand and drowned within the boat!
I instantly had the desire to cry for my camera but got the giggles instead! Which was probably a better thing to do!
The boat was righted and the tourists back in, Ross still has his camera so snaps of dripping tourists taken and nie nie asking us " are you happy"! Perhaps this was his was of saying "are you ok"!
Thankfully none of us are seriously injured, l ended up worst off as got sucked under the boat in the current, but am ok, can't say the same for my beloved camera!
We stop at a pagoda and more Stupa's, Bruce is certainly getting Stupa fatigue! But what is more interesting is the villages that we are in. Arrival at Sankar and we are deposited on the banks of the canal and there were all these thin boards across the mud. We took such great care to balance on these logs to avoid the mud and then the logs stopped and there was no other option than to step into the mud. Bruce was first in and it went to his knees! Robyn and I got the giggles as Bruce's double pluggers disappeared in the mud! Oh No!
We ended up with shoes off and squelching like pigs across the mud flats, we seriously sank to our knees in parts and l almost wet myself laughing! Still dripping from the boat going over and now mud to my knees!
Sankar means frangipani, we have a walk about this village and it is stunning and we are mourning the loss of our camera and not being able to take any photos.
Back to the boat and back to Golden Cottages to drop off the guide and then back to town. Costs - $5 for the guide, $45 for the boat, lunch at the rice wine distillery was approx $8 ( yes, we tasted 20%, 40% and 60% rice wine, rough as anything!) and at least a two thousand dollar loss of cameras!
We feel a travel insurance claim coming up!
