Category: Myanmar

Written by mccown @ Weekend Blitz

We loved our first day on the lake so much that we couldn’t wait to explore new parts of it on our second day. We ended up with the same boat driver — we were thrilled to see him again! — and headed off through the foggy morning air toward Indain / Indein (or, as the signs welcomed us, to “Inn Dain”… tomato, to-mah-to)….

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Written by mccown @ Weekend Blitz

This entry is part 20 of 21 in the series Myanmar

We organized a day-long tour of Inle Lake using the only transportation possible: a boat. Although they say you can get a boat tour leaving from Nyaung-shwe for around $20 total, we decided to go on a private boat scheduled by our hotel for about $45 total – this way, we avoided the $20+ taxi ride to Nyaung-shwe AND (hopefully) our hotel bases their reputation and (more importantly) Trip Advisor stars on making sure our boat captain is top notch.

We were ready to go around 7:30am and walked to the end of the hotel dock to meet our captain. As you might have guessed by now, this guy was extra friendly, especially with not knowing a lick of English. Our motor boat was long with two lawn chairs in the front just for us. Luckily, there was a blanket in the boat for us (along with some water) – the wind on the water that morning was pretty chilly, so I was very thankful for the blanket!

Check out where we zipped around in Inle Lake…

In the morning fog, we couldn’t see the mountains that were towering over us, but we could make out shadows of fishermen in nearby boats.

We headed first to the floating market—it changes locations each morning of the week but, wherever it’s located, the locals (and tourists) find it and it’s bustling every day. After tying up next to boats and walking across several of them to reach land, we passed right by the souvenirs and tourists and headed to the back of the market to the locals’ area. We found all sorts of non-souvenirs for sale: live fish, dead fish, live chickens, dead chickens, vegetables, fruit, rice… anything you need to live, you could find it at the market because that is the only “store” they have. Efficiency at its finest.

Floating Market “Parking”

 

Floating Market

Floating Market

Floating Market

Floating Market

Floating Market

It was a crowded, smelly, lovely place.

After wandering the aisles and smiling at the friendly vendors (one woman even insisted we sample whatever she was selling… some sort of egg-y dough), we headed back to our boat.

He zipped us all around—we visited the slightly-touristy-but-also-very-interesting craft workshops ranging from silver jewelers to silk weavers to cigar rolling. While we didn’t make any purchases and felt a little overwhelmed by the sheer (I’m about to make up a word here…) touristy-ness of it all, it was still interesting given that, even though, yes, these craft workshops are built just for tourists (and sell just to tourists), they do harken back to the old days where it wasn’t just for tourists. So, it does show a nice history of life on the lake.

Silk workshop

Silk workshop

Cigar workshop

Cigar workshop

Next, we stopped was at the Phaungdawoo Pagoda.

Phaungdawoo Pagoda

It was your typical pagoda but this one was surrounded by water (it was in the middle of the lake) and was crawling with locals. The sun was beaming down, […]

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Written by mccown @ Weekend Blitz

This entry is part 18 of 21 in the series Myanmar

Inle Lake isn’t just a lake, it’s a way of life that’s other-worldly, even when compared to other lesser-known parts of Myanmar. Its beauty is seen in glimmers of the 70,000 Intha farmers and their way of life, from paddling with one leg to living above the water in wooden + bamboo houses on stilts (with TVs in every window!).

 

 

 

 

An Intha fisherman on Inle Lake with his huge net

Myanmar is a country full of surprises to any traveler, but Inle Lake has the most surprises of all.

We saved Inle Lake for last on our Myanmar itinerary because we had such high hopes. It seems to be the top of list of just about every traveler’s visit to Burma … and now we know why! And, although Mandalay and Yangon are so colorful, so full of Burmese life — and both are certainly cities I will long remember — they are and never will be Inle Lake.

After flying into Heho Airport, a taxi from our hotel picked us up and then drove us about 65 minutes to Inle Resort, past rice paddies, farms and roadside stands. We paid the mandatory $10 tourist fee at a road stop and soon arrived to the actual lake and were just as mesmerized as we’d hoped we be.

Sightseeing on our drive from Heho Airport to Inle Lake

And, while our hotel was beautiful and our hotel room was even better (Jeffrey surprised me with an over-the-lake bungalow!!), the lake was more than we wanted. The early morning mist made the surroundings so magical and the fisherman didn’t mind the passing boats– only seeing what we couldn’t see in the murky waters. The water, though shallow, was inky and thick, making the whole day on the lake sort of like what you’d expect from some fairy tale’s far off castle-land (wait, does that even make sense?). The sunsets seemed brighter, the people friendlier (despite the fact that this was the major tourist stop in the country) and the surroundings more magical.

An Intha fisherman on Inle Lake

Arriving to Inle Resort by boat

Exploring Inle Lake by boat

I’m veering off the format of our usual EAT DRINK SLEEP post that I’ve been doing for each city we’ve visited because Inle Lake is a bit tricky – while there are plenty of places to eat, sleep and drink, they’re all on a lake, so it’s hard to walk or cab to these places alone. For that reason, we ate all of meals either at our hotel or just across the street at roadside stands, so I’m not sure that our typical post would be indicative of anyone’s time at Inle Lake unless you’re staying at the same hotel… One note: as much as we enjoyed staying on the lake and watching the sun set over the inky waters, if you’re on a budget but still want to see the lake, Nyaung Shwe is the place to be. The small town is […]

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