March 4-8, 2013. We could have taken a bus to Nyaung Shwe, the closest town to Inle Lake – about fifteen hours or more on an ancient bus over winding, pot-holed, decrepit roads. Or we could have taken a bus to Thazi, over similar roads, and then a train through spectacular scenery to Shwenyaung, and then a taxi to Nyaung Shwe. The trains are also ancient and decrepit, and narrow gauge so they rock from side to side and back and forth like a bucking elephant. And since there is no air-conditioning all the windows are open and all things blow in, dead or alive. Or we could have taken the boat back to Mandalay, then a train to Thazi, overnight in Thazi in one of two suspect guesthouses, then a train to Shwenyaung and finally a taxi to Nyaung Shwe. I’m sure you get the idea. We like to travel but we are not masochists. Instead we chose to risk flying on one of Asian Wings elderly, but certainly not decrepit, turbo-props.
From Don: So now I know why we had to be at the airport so early: as soon as all the passengers had checked in we were directed into the departure lounge and then soon after that we were on a bus heading out to the plane that had arrived five minutes earlier. We were on the plane and in the air, thirty minutes earlier than scheduled: they don’t bother with scheduled flight times, they just go when all the passengers have checked in. We arrived at Heho, had our passports checked, collected our bags, found our driver and were on our way to Nyaung Shwe five minutes before our flight was due to arrive.
Alison again: We drove through spectacular mountain scenery to arrive one hour later in Nyaung Shwe, and transferred to a long-tail boat for a one hour ride first down a canal, and then Inle Lake itself, to our hotel in the middle of the lake.
Don’s photo
Our hotel! Because we’d belatedly decided to fly between towns in Burma (except for the boat from Mandalay to Bagan) we had to rearrange our hotel bookings, giving us an extra day at Inle. By this late date the only room we could find available for that one night was at a five star resort in the middle of the lake. How tragic.
The hotel met all our wildest dreams and more. We thought we’d died and gone to heaven. It was literally in the lake. There was a central reception and restaurant area, with long walkways branching out on either side. Off the walkways were luxury cabins, each with its own private deck and lake view.
Decorative detail, hotel entrance
We watched the sunset from the comfortable chairs on the deck. Or was it sunrise? I can’t remember. I was too busy luxuriating.
We did something we’d never done before. Even though we were packed and ready to go about an hour before we needed to, and even though there were hotel staff waiting outside to clean the room, we sat on the deck luxuriating and enjoying the view right up until checkout time. We weren’t going to give up a precious second in that beautiful place.
I’d heard about the leg rowers of Inle Lake, and seen pictures of them. When we arrived at the end of the canal from Nyaung Shwe where the water opened up into the lake itself we saw them – men standing in the stern of their boats with one leg wrapped around a single oar moving it steadily back and forth in an easy rhythmic practiced motion. We were immediately captivated. The blue lake, the blue vista, the small wooden boats with huge basket nets, the rowers standing tall, leg and oar moving as one unit. We’d landed in another world and we were both filled with excitement.
Don, being less gullible than I am suggested they were greeters for the tourists. And he was right. We passed this opening into the lake four times over the course of three days and they were always there, however we also covered a lot of ground (so to speak) in our fairly extensive travels up and down the lake and frequently saw the genuine fishermen of Inle Lake, rowing with their legs. Theories as to why this method of rowing evolved range from it providing both hands free for handling the fishing nets, to needing to stand to be able to see the reeds and weeds in the water ahead. Either way it’s completely unique, I think, to Inle Lake. What a sight. We saw so many of them and it never got old.
The other main form of transportation on the lake is long wooden boats with un-muffled, deafening, soul-shattering engines, and a long-tail propeller. Speedy and fun. Hang on to your hat! In this case both my hats – very early morning cold. Brrrrrrr.
Photo from Don
I got to see the leg rowers race! Talk about lucky! Our first afternoon. Don is napping. I hear drumming. Close. I follow the sound, down the walkway from our cabin, over a small wooden bridge to the building next door, and there they are – two drummers on the deck of this big building facing out to the water drumming as several boats full of people arrive. I catch this shot of one of the drummers during a break.
Then the two racing boats arrive each with sixteen men. The racing boats are very different from the fishing boats. They are long and straight and have a bar along the centre for the rowers to hold on to. There are festivals of races on Inle Lake, but not at the time we were there. I’d love to be there for a festival, but to get to see even one race with just two boats felt like a miracle from nothing. Suddenly there it was, there I was, in the right place at the right time.
The winning team
We’d read about the stumpy lumpy gold Buddha’s at the Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda at Inle Lake. Well they certainly are stumpy and lumpy. There are five of them in the middle of a big “stage”, and men only have been placing so much gold leaf on them for so long, in prayer, supplication, devotion, hope, yearning, reverence, and maybe even in surrender, that the original forms are no longer recognizable. They are stumpy lumpy piles of gold, in a splendiferous setting complete with whirling and flashing lights and beautiful altar offerings. Along one side, as part of the offerings we saw three or four carved watermelons, one of an elephant, one of a lion (the mythical chinthe or leogryph) and one of a hintha bird (the same mythical bird used as the design for the royal barge and copied for Karaweik Palace in Yangon).
On entering the pagoda we had to pay 500 kyats (about sixty cents) each to the door keepers to be allowed to take photographs.
Sometime in September/October the pagoda has a festival, lasting about twenty days, wherein four of the lumpy Buddha’s are paraded around the lake in one or more elaborate gilded barges pulled by hundreds of leg rowers in traditional long boats. The barges, again, are copies of the royal barge, based on the revered hintha bird. Now that would be a sight to see. However we did see the gilded parts of the bird that are attached to the barge. And a second housed in a very large boat shed. The barges must be enormous.
The people of Inle Lake are predominantly Intha as well as several other minorities including Pa-O. They are self-sufficient farmers, devout Buddhists and live simple lives in houses of wood and woven bamboo. Villages are in the lake itself, on the shores of the lake, and on the shores of the many canals that run out from the lake. It’s a very watery world. Some people are occupied in making the wooden boats everyone uses. We visited a home where boats are made but I only took photos of the little kids playing under the house, and the bigger kids playing soccer (football – the Burmese are completely wild about football!) on a tiny bit of land next to the boat “factory”. I think the big open boats used to ferry all the tourists around go for about $3000. Quite a few women are also employed in the hand-made cheroot industry that Burma is famous for. We visited a factory. There were about a dozen women sitting cross-legged on the floor, their tray of supplies in front of them, their hands flying with the grace and precision that comes from years of practice, rolling a perfect cheroot every time, then tying them into bundles of one hundred. Apparently they make about one hundred every hour, eight hundred in an eight hour shift. That’s a lot of cheroots! They are commonly smoked by both men and women.
Streets of houses in the water
Cheeky kid mugging for the camera
An enduring image from somewhere in Burma, possibly Mandalay or Yangon, but really it could have been anywhere in Southeast Asia: A man riding a motorbike. A woman sitting side-saddle on the back. On her lap is breakfast in a plastic bag. No plate, or container, just the plastic bag. She is eating with chopsticks as the bike weaves through the traffic. Some things you just don’t get to photograph, but the image remains.
There are five weekly markets rotating around the villages of Inle Lake. In the next post – a visit to two of them and the truly astonishing floating crop gardens.
All words and images by Alison Louise Armstrong unless otherwise noted.
© Alison Louise Armstrong and Adventures in Wonderland – a pilgrimage of the heart, 2010-2015.
Oh my gosh, another fantastic virtual tour with vivid photographs guiding the way! The inviting smiles, the blue canopied sky, the vying seagulls, the racing boats… As an intentional minimalist, the hotel in the lake especially resonated with me.
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Thank you Laurie. The landscape was so beautiful, and the Burmese people so friendly. A really magical place.
However the hotel was not that minimalist in that each cabin had full western style bathrooms, electricity of course, I think even wifi. It really was a 5 star place – with a lake view no matter which way you looked 🙂
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utterly fantastic. Lovely photography accompanied by a great descriptive blog.
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Thank you. I’m so glad you enjoyed it, and yes, it really was utterly fantastic 🙂
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So interesting, especially the leg boat rowers. So beautiful to see how humans adapt to the conditions they live in. Love the sweet faces!
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That’s what I think I love most about travel – seeing the endless amazing creativity of how people adapt to their environment and make life work. It feels like a benediction, a grace, to be continually exposed to it. That, and the landscape, and the sweet faces.
❤
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how lovely, it is a benediction, to Witness how the Divine plays in oh so many forms…..xx……
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Yes.
xox
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Thank you for going, taking pictures, writing about it, and inspiring us!
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You’re so very welcome! It definitely was/is our pleasure, and also a pleasure to pass it on.
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Alison and Don, Your photos continue to astound me. I particularly like all the great fishing experiences you captured. But I must say I’m also quite partial to Hello Kitty! 🙂 ~Terri
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Thanks so much for your kind wordsTerri. Sometimes the photos work out. Thank goodness! And I had great subject matter with the lake and the leg rowers.
I couldn’t resist the Hello Kitty moment – too cute 🙂
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Captivating narrative and photos of this wonderful place; rowing with the legs is intriguing! And cheeky kids seem to abound world wide 🙂
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Thank you Angeline. I so enjoy both the writing and the photography so it’s wonderful to get some positive feedback.
Loved that cheeky kid – what a little imp he was. Fun.
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One legged races, carved watermelons, and lumpy Buddhas… fun blog. And peggy had the same airplane experience in Kodiak, Alaska a few months ago. As soon as everyone arrived, off the plane flew. –Curt
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Thanks Curt. So it’s not just in third world countries that scheduling is “creative” 🙂
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thank you alison…that was magical! kateb
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Thanks Kate. Burma is magical!
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Beautiful photos as always 😀 I love visiting your blog!!!
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Thanks Angie. Glad to hear you enjoy it 🙂
xox
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Alison and Don, this post leaves me spellbound – not just from the photos but also the lovely descriptions. Your storytelling is so detailed and full of excitement, I felt like I was there listening to it firsthand, over a home-cooked meal. And the portraits of the two door keepers at Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda – their expressions of pure joy and warmth had me totally entranced. I’ve just been catching up on the Burma series, and now you have me convinced that I should go this December.
Apologies for the late subscription too – thought I had pressed the “follow” button a while ago but it turns out I hadn’t!
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Hi James. Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m so pleased to hear you enjoyed the post .What you said about feeling as if you were listening to it first hand is just what I strive for so it’s gratifying to hear I’ve succeeded.
Re going in December if you’re staying in hotels you’ll need to book ahead at least 3 or 4 months. Our original plan was to go last Dec after India but all the mid range hotels were booked so we switched to March. Don’t know anything about hostel/homestay type accom but I bet there is some – but AFAIK very few are on the internet.
Thank you for following. I hope you continue to enjoy the ongoing saga.
Have a great time in Myanmar!
Alison
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Thanks in turn for the advice, Alison. I’ll most likely be heading there for Christmas so right at the height of peak season – friends who have been recently told me that I could expect room rates of US$100 per night. And that was for January and February! I thought about going in March instead but wasn’t so keen on the heat and dust at the tail end of dry season. Was it much of a problem while you were there?
James
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We were there about Feb 20 to Mar 10. Yes it was hot, but we’re used to the heat so we didn’t notice it that much, and it was really dry, much nicer that humid heat. I don’t remember it being extremely dusty so it must have been okay.
Hotels: May Shan in Yangon – pretty down home and plain, but clean enough and had all we needed. Smart Hotel in Mandalay, a little smarter than the one in Yangon :). Kaday Aung in Bagan – kinda dark 70’s charm and decor but again had all we needed, and The Amazing Nyaung Shwe Hotel in Nyaung Shwe – very good. And the 5 star in the middle of the lake Shwe Inn Tha Hotel – really worth the extra cost for one night $127 total for one night – we got there at about noonish, and left at noon the next day. Added cost for transport from Heho airport to the hotel $40. From the Shwe Inn Tha we hired a boat to go to stumpy buddha pagoda, and boat and cheroot making places in the afternoon, also saw the rowers race. Next morning hired a boat to go to early morning market(will be covered in next post), and then a boat to take us to Nyaung Shwe via floating crop gardens (also in next post). Totally worth all the extra cost for the experience of staying in a hotel in the lake.
All hotels in good locations, all about $60 to $70 per night (except Shwe Inn Tha), all have wifi, all can be booked online.
Don’t know how long you’ll have there but must sees for us – Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, at least a day in Bagan to see all the temples and climb to the top of one for sunset to get the whole panorama, and at least 2 days at Inle Lake. We had 3 full days in each location (Mandalay as well) plus travel days.
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Wow Alison, thanks so much for the pointers – that’s a wealth of information right there! I’ll make a note of the hotels you stayed at… I’m glad the vast majority were under $80 per night. At least that’s a little easier on the wallet! Speaking of Mandalay, it’s funny that you echo the sentiments of a solo traveller I met last May – he told me that he really disliked it, for the grime and chaos and ugliness. Strangely, my father went about 10 years ago and he felt the exact opposite… Mandalay to him was more charming than Yangon (which he found too spread out).
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We didn’t hate Mandalay (assuming you’ve read my posts about it) and found plenty to do/see there that filled the senses, just not at the top of the list. The activity at the river there has to be seen to be believed, and the boat ride down to Bagan was fabulous. I think we maybe even liked it a little better than Yangon, but Shwedagon is not to be missed.
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Alison, this is my favourite travel blog out of all the ones I have read around the web. Thanks again for sharing.
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Danny, I’m not ignoring you! I just found this in my spam file (sometimes WP just gets things mixed up).
And it happened on one of the *best* compliments!
Thank you so much.
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What a marvelous excursion and hotel. The photo of your, burrr and all, is lovely. Lovely post. xoxo
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Thanks Paulette. The hotel was a dream.
It’s was entirely Don’s idea to put in that photo of me 🙂
I think I look kinda silly, but it was exactly what was needed at the time.
xoxox
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wow! Loved seeing your lovely countenance, too, Alison.
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Thanks Marga! Wow yes – Burma is jaw-dropping and wow and wonderful.
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Alison, these are fantastic photos that bring back many happy memories for me. Inle Lake was a magical place. Your photos are vignettes of Burmese culture. What a joy it is to travel with you!
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Thank you so much. Yes, Inle is very special. Glad you’re enjoying the journey.
Alison
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Hi Alison. The photo of the sun is beautiful. The five star hotel looks marvelous. Those men are talented with their rowing! I’m sure that was fascinating to see. I bet they’ve got good balance and strong cores.
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Thanks Pam. That 5 star hotel was heaven, and the whole experience of Inle Lake magical and other-worldly. So glad we went. Yeah, strong balance and strong cores must be a big part of it. They all seemed so skilled, having been doing it since childhood.
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My heart fluttered when I saw the beautiful 5 star resort on stilts. What an amazing experience, what a sunset/rise. Just breathtaking!
The leg rowers are so unusual, but so beautiful all at once. What a catch to experience the race?!? How amazing to have been there for that. How amazing to have captured the beloved Hello Kitty underwear?!? LOL What great shots, as per usual.
The Pagoda on the lake is just mesmerizing. There’s some images you have captured on this trip that I truly can’t imagine seeing in real life, as they’re so far off from anything I’ve really seen. Your Bagan post absolutely did that to me, and this one has as well.
Streets of water and houses on stilts is just so exotic, and so beautiful. I’ve completely gone from 5-100 in terms of my curiosity to travel here due to these posts.
What a memorable and gorgeous adventure.
~Andrea<3
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Thank you so much. I’m glad you’re enjoying all the tales of our travels in Burma. Isn’t the Hello Kitty shot a hoot?! I just couldn’t resist 🙂
Oh and yes that 5 star hotel was a miraculous little slice of heaven. And the leg rowers race another miraculous piece of serendipity.
I think you’d better plan a trip to Burma/Myanmar! If you want any more detailed info let me know.
Alison xox
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Alison and Don, before stumbling upon your blog I never thought of visiting Inle Lake should I go back to Myanmar one day. But your beautiful pictures and lovely description totally changed the way I see the lake. And thank you so much for the information on hintha bird. I’ve been curious about that creature which is ubiquitous in the country.
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Oh you must go to Inle – it was one of the most magical places in Myanmar for us. The top 3 were Inle, Bagan and Shwedagon Pagoda. Oh and Maha Muni Pagoda in Mandalay. And there’s many other places that we didn’t get to – apparently there’s some beautiful beaches too.
There’s a bunch of info on the hintha bird on wiki – it’s part of Hindu mythology too.
Thank you for your lovely comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
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