Inle Lake - In a Day

From Mandalay, we flew to Inle Lake. From the airport we drove straight to our private long tail boat.

The lake is locally known for the villagers that live on the water including their local fisherman who stand on one leg on the back of the boat while using the oar with their other leg.. did I mention they were also fishing!?

There are single fisherman that work with bamboo drop traps as well as larger teams who drop nets then beat the water with their oars to scare the fish into the nets.

Our boat took us to the hotel before lunch to check in and drop off our bags. I saw a small sign in the distance and wondered if that is where we were going, but noticed there was some thick vegetation growing all over the path so it must not be it. Guess the driver didn't mind as he just sped up. This is one of the more interesting hotel entrances we have ever experienced in all of our travels. 

Upon check in we found out we were the only guests in the entire hotel - that was definitely a first!

For lunch we went to a restaurant on the water which was nice - the view of the lake was fabulous!

Next door to the restaurant was a cigarette workshop where women handmade local cigar looking cigarettes. The women get paid per bundle of 50 so they really pump these things out fast.

Leaving the restraunt a local kid helped us into the boat and pushed it off for us, we gave him a small tip and his face lit up. Only in South East Asia can such a small tip make someones day, so we did it often.

The next stop was a lotus weaving factory. Having no idea what the guide was talking about we were intrigued. After heading up some small canals off the main lake we arrived, just in time as a cock fight was just starting. I guess someone is having chicken tonight.

At the factory we sat down for a demonstration on how they extract the lotus fibers and weave them into the finished product. Later in the trip you will see me wearing my lotus scarf, which was great to keep the sun off my neck.

This is a family run operation and everyone is involved.

After a bit of shopping we were off to visit some gold leaf Buddha statues... by boat of course!

In Buddhism they apply thin gold leaves to buddha statues and this ritual is very popular in Myanmar. So much so that at one point these gold statues were really Buddha statues, but after years of gold leaf offerings the shape has changed to this.

After this we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.

After breakfast we checked out and were back on the boat, this time taking a canal to some ancient pagodas, but the ride inland was equally as interesting. We passed many locals going down stream to do some shopping in the market.

After a 45 minute boat ride we arrived at our destination, a quaint little village along the canal.

These temples and and stupas were in very bad condition from years of looters and earthquakes. Our guide explained that each of these buildings were constructed by a family and "treasure" was placed inside them so looters have done a great deal of damage "treasure hunting."

At the top of the hill there are more modern stupas. 

Then it was back down hill, back to our boat and finally back to the airport. We could not have imagined we would have seen so much in just a little more than 24 hours!

Dark clouds started to appear and we hauled butt back to the pier. Just as we got off the boat it started to rain, I mean pour. We got very very lucky with the weather! Next stop - Bagan!