Beautiful Inle Lake

Inle Lake is one of Myanmar’s premier attractions and it doesn’t take more than a few minutes on the lake to understand why.  The lake by itself is beautiful, a wide expanse of still water surrounded by mountains and hills.

Houses along Inle Lake, with mountains in the background.

But in addition to the natural lake there are fishermen in long, narrow boats slowing fishing in the still waters of the lake. There is a gorgeous beauty to their movements, as they still fish using traditional methods of basket nets. In order to free their hands for the net they hold their oars with their legs.

Fisherman in Inle Lake

Stretching to get that oar movement

And on top of the beautiful lake and fishermen are several “floating villages” that dot the lakeside. These villages have houses that are all built on stilts several feet above the water. Like a Venice without any of the islands, boats are used to get around anywhere, although there were also a few raised walkways between main buildings.

Boating through a floating village

The “Streets” in the floating villages were beautifully reflective

The villages were very cool, and it was fascinating seeing how household elements were adapted for life above water. The outhouses, for example, looked like a tough fit.

An outhouse in a floating village

The villages mainly support themselves by growing plants in “floating gardens” around the lake and selling crafts.

Tending to the floating gardens

Rows and rows of water-grown tomato plants

Beautiful lake + stoic fishermen + floating villages = a can’t miss attraction.

We did the standard Inle Lake tourist activity and hired a boat and driver to take us around the lake for a day. On the advice of other travelers we negotiated with the driver to pick us up an hour earlier than normal, giving us not only a beautiful sunrise over the lake, but also getting us ahead of the crowds.

Sunrise over Inle

Heading into the lake on the cold morning

Young fisherman in the morning light.

Sunrise over a few lakeside homes

Fishing at dawn

We visited a local market at one of the floating villages, with an impressive array of all types of spices, meats, and food.

Jami at the market

Women displaying their foods

Spices galore at the market

So much meat

A young girl chopping the meat

The prepared food at the market was amazing as well – some of the best noodles I’ve had in Asia!

Market noodles

The craft shops, while touristy, were also an interesting peak into the livelihoods of the people on the lake, even if many of those lifestyles appeared to be disappearing.

Jami with two members of a long-neck tribe

We were staying in Nyaung Shwe, the biggest city around Inle Lake and major hub for most tourist activity there. We had been warned about the town, but turned out to really like it.

Main street, including the sidecar bike taxis

The “other” main street – the river to Inle Lake

It was charming in its own way, with a small enough size to make walking easy, but enough restaurants and shops to keep things interesting. And while the main street was a little too touristy, we found that just walking a block or two away from the crowds left us in competely local areas without any other tourists around.

A busy shipping canal in town

The quiet backstreets – an easy and fun stroll.

It was relaxing just watching the kids play with their kites (a huge activity in Nyaung Shwe,), and workers load and offload goods onto boats.  Along the way we even ran into a very nice lady who invited us to have tea at her house and showed us postcards and pictures from visitors all over the world. The language barrier made nearly any communication impossible, but smiles and laughter went a long way.

Our welcoming host

Her grabdson was initially cautious, but started to want to help us out.

Our host’s house, a very standard house in town.

But our favorite activity in town was probably just sampling the food from the town’s many eating options.  There were the standard roadside Myanmar cafe’s with their child-size seats and free tea;

Free tea is a staple of Myanmar cafes – and good!

As well as a great night market where stalls offered meat of all kinds to be cooked in front of you.  Due to the language barrier and the different appearance of several of the meats, it wasn’t always clear what we were eating.  But it was good (for the most part).

Jami selecting our dinner

Our cook couldn’t wait to have his picture taken, but he wouldn’t smile

The tomatoes (a specialty of the floating gardens in the lake) were also amazing, far better than what is available in the US.

Inle tomatoes

To sum it up, I can’t recommend Inle Lake high enough – a beautiful surrounding with a fun, laid back, and friendly town.

Friendly kids, including a monk-to-be

Jami discussing tomatoes with a teacher/restaurant owner