Inle Lake (part 1)

 The local five day rotating market.

 Taking tribal women back to their village.

 Not sure it is the safest way, but it looks like fun.

We took one of these longtail boats.

 They carry everything on the water system.

 The old way.

 Jumping small dams.

 Our driver.

Out fishing.

 The ruins at the Inlay Shwe Inn Tain complex.

Saturday, June 2^nd.

This was another of the best days of the year. We left the hotel at 8:00 and took a little truck to the jetty where we caught a longtail boat for our day on Inle Lake. The boat is about thirty feet long and a little wider than a canoe, with a loud motor on the back with a long shaft propeller that can be raised or lowered in the shallow water as necessary.

As we took off, it started raining lightly. The boat was open, but we had a raincoat to hide behind. The boat hits good speed and the driver has to be careful about turns and cross traffic because it is not really very manoeuvrable. We were headed for about an hour ride to another temple complex. I was disappointed, as I would like to spend the day on the lake and wasn’t really interested in more temples. However, happily I was wrong.

Inle Lake is the second largest lake in Myanmar with an estimated surface area of 44.9 square miles (116 km²), and one of the highest at an elevation of 2,900 feet (880 m). During the dry season, the average water depth is 7 feet (2.1 m), with the deepest point being 12 feet (3.7 m), but during the rainy season this can increase by 5 feet (1.5 m). It lies between two small mountain ranges.

Although the lake is not large, it contains a number of endemic species. Over twenty species of snails and nine species of fish are found nowhere else in the world. Some of these, like the silver-blue scaleless Sawbwa barb, the crossbanded dwarf danio and the Lake Inle danio, are of minor commercial importance for the aquarium trade.

On the way across the lay we came across the famous ‘leg-rowers’. A fisherman balances on one leg at the end of his wooden canoelike boat while setting his nets and paddles with the other leg. Incredible to watch. I took a few videos as well which I will post when I get home.

On the way up the canals our driver had to jump our boat up or down through narrow openings in small dams used to control the speed of the water flow during the rainy season. We landed at the west side of the lake where we found the local five-day rotating market (it moves from place to place in a cycle). Again, markets are always a great way to watch the locals interact and to interact with them. You can also see what they have for sale and what they eat.

From the market we walked about twenty minutes to the Inlay Shwe Inn Tain complex. This is a large area consists of over a thousand abandoned pagodas built in the 14^th and 18^th centuries. Most have been looted and the Buddhas they once housed have disappeared. Most are falling apart from neglect and the weather. The sun had come out too, which made it even nicer. The people have built a larger pagoda here in more recent years and the government has been ‘preserving, conserving and renovating these cultural heritage pagodas’ and has allowed some people to finance the rebuilding and repair some of the old ones, which I am sure UNESCO is not happy about. So there are two sections, the newer area in the middle and the older, much more interesting ones around that. Amazing place.