Inle Lake   

The Inle Lake is the second largest lake in Myanmar with a length of 22 km and a width of 11 km and one of the highest at an altitude of 900 m. It is known for its floating gardens and flower beds, but especially for its "leg rowers".
We lived in Nyaugshwe, about 5 km far from the lake. The town is a popular traveller’s destination with a moderate infrastructure.
From here, the boat tours depart to the lake. Because of a tip from our travel forum, we met Min Min and he became our guide for the next two days and it was great.    

( Click for large image !)

In the morning at 8:30 clock we started our boat trip. It was very cold and foggy, but when we arrived in Indein it was already bright blue and became warm. The market here was just great. The hillside people come down from the surrounding villages to sell or buy their goods one time per week. It was a really colourful market scenery and we were thrilled.

Another highlight here was the very nice Indein Shwe Pagoda with its 500 m long white colonnade. At the top you can find still a relatively large pagoda complex.

The lake is in addition to its sheet of water also well known for the stilt villages, the floating vegetable garden beds and plantations and many of small and larger channels. Main mode of transport is of course the boat and it is rowed really mostly with the legs.
Our trip on the lake takes the whole day and Min Min shows us not only the usual sights but also the local characteristics.

Late in the afternoon we went back again. Now were more fishermen with their fish traps on the lake than this morning. In the warm evening light there are great photo motives for us. All in all it was just a fantastic day!

The next afternoon we went with Min Min and his brother with the motor bikes to the surrounding villages on the west side of the lake.
Each of the villages here is specialist, one process the sugar cane, the other roasted peanuts make tofu and all sorts of sweets from sticky rice. It was totally interesting, especially to get really good products under very simple working conditions.