After our homestay we visited some of the floating islands.
They are built of layers of reeds.
First they have the root layers then they cross the stalks until it is thick enough to move around on.
Everything is made of reeds including their houses
and boats.
They burn the reeds to cook their food in clay ovens.
They islands used to drift freely, but now the islands are anchored.
Originally they started just living in boats as crossing the lake took days, then they tied the boats together and added structures on the boats. Finally they just built large platforms on the lake.
The ground was very springy and if you dug down a few layers you could see where the reeds were wet. They raise the houses up on higher platforms so that when the reeds start to sink down their houses aren’t in the water.