Originally Posted by eamus

Musken, the floating villages were still floating, although the lake was (Bunthan said) quite low. To us it still looked absolutely massive so it is hard for me to really picture what it must be like in the wet season when it swells 5x. We were extremely lucky with the weather in that the week we were there is generally when the end of the dry season - the locals call it the "hot" season, without irony - turns to the beginning of the wet. The relative lack of water did not diminish our lake excursion.

Another interesting side note from the lake excursion was the ride home at night. All along the side of the road there were small tarps set up with fluorescent lights at the top and rectangular pail of water at the bottom. Bunthan explained that these are locals catching insects: crickets mainly, but also scorpions, black beetles and assorted other creepy-crawlies. They rise at midnight to harvest the bugs and sell them to market vendors, who cook them for food the next day. It really was fascinating to see, and a reminder that for all the long days I put in, I really have no idea what hard work looks like compared to these small villagers.