Inle Lake

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We arrived in our van in Inle Lake, a small town in the mountainous Shan State bordering a lake, obviously. I was told that 'Inle' means lake in Myanmar. So basically Inle Lake is lake lake.

We sadly said good-bye to our comfortable (relatively) vehicle and settled in to spend a few nights here; it was quite a few nights of one nighters on our ride up. Our first full day we hired a boat to take us on a tour of the lake and the surroundings. This was one of our favorite activities in Myanmar. We rented the boat for less than $2 per person for the full day. We visited a local market, Indien (a collection of old stupas) and several workshops (blacksmith and silk). Also, we stopped by the 'Jumping Cat' Monastary where the monks teach the strays living in their monastary (I guess they're not strays then?) to jump through hoops - very interesting to see. Though it was kind of disturbing as I was watching a mom cat with her kitten - the kitten was convulsing and died, right in front of me in the monastary. So Jill tell's the monk; the monk says yes, it's dead, picks it up and tosses in the bushes outside. I'm not sure what I expected but being in a monastary with the monk, it seemed a little harsh.

The highlight of our tour was cruising around the lake and observing the locals who live on the lake, literally. So when they leave their house to visit their neighbor 20 meters next to them, they have to step on a boat and paddle for those 20 meters. To top it off, the day was perfect, sunny and no rain. Only downside was that my camera battery died halfway through the day and I missed out on too many photo opportunities which is why there are a lack of pictures of most of the sights that we visited that afternoon (and sunset).

Quick shout-out to Golden Kite serving up home-made pastas with importing mozzeralla and parmesan. Somehow, this family in the middle of Burma, got it right. Tagliatelle with bolognese was delightful.

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Photos

Corolla Stationwagon
Jill and I were invited into a local wedding for some tea and cakes - we of course obliged.

Local Parade at Inlay
The participants march through town on their way to the monastary where they make donations - note the money plants

Local Fisherman on the Lake
The whole leg paddling technique is unique to this region but it seemed that these guys would only use the leg technique when they saw us - the foreigners. How nice.

Locals on the boat

Lake Houses

Heading to the Market

Stupas at Indien
Last picture before the camera died.