Water water everywhere...

On the day that happens to be my Unfortunate Landmark Birthday we fly from the small domestic airport at  Bagan north and east to Heho, nearest airport for Inle Lake. Before we get on to that, a word about those domestic flights, and indeed more generally about the way things work around here. The traveller may well arrive in Myanmar expecting things to be a bit - well - dysfunctional. After all, its a materially poor country, relatively new on the block when it comes to this tourism lark. But in this respect our expectations have been utterly confounded. The domestic airlines, for example, run a service that would put our own to shame - punctual and efficient right down to little touches like giving passengers a colour coded sticker to make sure they get on the right plane. The (mostly very short) flights are on clean, well-crewed aircraft and even on the shortest flight they manage to serve everyone a snack and a drink between take off and a smooth landing. Put that in your pipe, Easyjet.
Anyway, Lake Inle, and the Golden Lake Cottages accommodation, To get there involves an hours taxi from the airport to the lake side jetty, then a powered narrow-boat across the lake (disarmingly fast, and once you get over the initial shock, quite a buzz) to the hotel, which can only be accessed this way. With our own cabin on stilts sitting overlooking the lake, it's a fittingly special place to spend a - um - special birthday.
The day that follows is pretty good too - met at the hotel by the latest in a series of friendly guides, and shown to our waiting boat where we pad ourselves and our luggage before setting off on our tour; cruising the waters of the lake in the course of calling by some of the local communities including a market seemingly selling everything; a cheroot-making workshop, and a weaving factory, all topped off with lunch at Grandma's kitchen; a floating noodle-shack; proper noodles, proper grandma.
The day ends with a drop off back on the mainland, and from the quayside a motorbike rickshaw takes us on to our hotel in downtown Nguang Shwe - a functional sort of place which feels a bit of a come-down after the splendours of our little island property. The town itself is similarly initially a bit of a come-down, but over the course of a couple of low-key days, gradually reveals a few charms...