People at the market

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The market we visited was one of the many on a five day rotation which caters for the locals and, inevitably, the tourists. Rather than being one of the "floating markets", which are a great tourist draw if noting else, this was on the edge of the lake to enable commerce between the lake people and the local inland and mountain villages.

The boat park was pretty chaotic but it was the organized chaos of people who do this every day, including several floating souvenir stalls that pulled up to us on the way in.

Our pier was at the closest corner of the market and we had a space reserved for us; in fact, there was space reserved for all tour boats at that particular corner because it was closest to, yup, the souvenir stalls - two rows of em. Another tour boat pulled up while we were at the market, so there were eight tourists - all stingy backpackers - for the 20 or so souvenir stalls to cater for. I think one of the girls in the other boat may have bought some trinket.

Nearby was the cartpark. Oxen and carts were spread out over a field empty of their produce and waiting for their masters to return, hopefully with money instead of goods. I've said it before, but it was like stepping back a hundred years. The only changes over the past hundred years or so, apart from a few wars and colonizers, seemed to be that some clothes were made in China, some boats had engines, and they could buy plastic kitchenware. Other that that, it could have been a set for a 19th century movie.

There were a wide range of minorities around, many in their traditional dress, buying and selling and creating a great spectacle for camera toting tourists like myself. I loved it.

We managed to get a cup of tea and local pastries for a doller (for three of us) which Peter, a hard core breadline backpacker, seemed to think was outrageously expensive. The rest of the time was spent trying to identify the produce that was on sale. This was no easy task - people who make clothes from lotus stems can turn anything into food.

A couple of hours of wide eyed staring later (by us and by some of the locals) we reboared our boat, ran the gauntlet of the souvenir boats (whew!) and escaped to the open lake enroute to the first of our planned tourist traps.

Continued from A boat trip on Inle Lake

Related entries: Inle for tourists, A few pagodas on Inle Lake, Living on the lake

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Photos

A Shan woman selling produce
I have no idea what she was selling, nor why she (and others) wear what looks like a traditional tea-towel on her head, but she did make for a good photo. She didn't manage to convince me to buy the yellow stuff!