It is customary for boat guides to take visitors to factories along the route.   We went only to the ones which interested us.  Someone, not Kipling this time described the cheroot as a 'Burmese facial feature' and whether of the "whackin white' variety or the smaller green ones, they are seen everywhere.

Inside a small group of women were sitting on the floor.  Each had their own rattan tray with all the makings, a pile of tobacco mixture, filters, the outer leaves, a small pot of glue and piece of plastic attached to a chunk of wood with which device they rolled the cheroot.

Cheroot is from the Hindi, charut, meaning cigar or cigarette, a mixture of tobacco, chipped wood, a chopped corn cob husk filter, rolled in a dried tha-na-phet leaf.  Technically what we were seeing being made is not a cheroot but a local Shan version of one.  The smallest, similar to a cigarette are made from cured and rubbed tobacco, woodchips and sweeteners like jaggery or tamarind rind.

Children just love paddling around the lake waving to visitors and being photographed.   Even quite young children are already proficient in the art of leg rowing