Cruising Inle Lake

I had enquired several times about excursions to Inle Lake and the standard itinerary was about USD 17. What they don’t tell you is that the price is for the whole boat, which seat five. When divided by five, it becomes a really cheap daytrip. Finally, something cheap in Myanmar … because there is a freemarket supply-and-demand for a change.

I managed to gather a group comprising of a German couple and Dutch couple, all of whom I had kept running into in Nyaung U and here in Nyaung Shwe. We had all ended up at the Gold Star Hotel but they had to move due to the hotel not being able to take them beyond the first night.

We met at 0830 at my hotel and walked down to the jetty with the boatman. The boat was set up with five seats each with a blanket and a lifevest. We cruised on the river and wetlands past the “Birds Preservation Area” (sic, taxidermist at work) before entering the lake.

We slowed down to see the Intha fishermen at work. They row with one leg wrapped around the oar leaving both hands free to tend to their fishing nets. They must have amazing balance.

Text continues after this gallery.

We proceeded to Hpaung Daw U to see the markets, ceremonial barges and the temple. From there on, the day was largely a shopping trip.  While I’m not a shopper, I enjoyed learning about the traditional crafts and the cottage industries that have become of them.  We saw:

• Lotus stem fibres were spun into thread and woven into fabrics.
• A blacksmith made knives, scissors, betelnut cutters etc, where everything was beaten by hand. A young boy sat on top of the furnace pumping the bellows by hand.
• Local cigars were rolled by hand. Some were flavoured with star-anise and others with pineapple.
  Silversmiths made intricate jewellery.
• Bark was hand-beaten into a mash before being made into handmade paper and then umbrellas.
• They had some longneck Padaung women here on display; I don’t like using people as an “attraction” like a petting zoo.

The shopping (window-shopping for me) experience was broken by lunch. We then cruised around what seemed like a neighbourhood of bamboo homes with water for roads. A floating village or water village, if you like.

Around sunset, we dropped into the Nga Pe Kyaung (better known as the cat monastery). While there are plenty of cats there, their gym master has passed on and the remaining monks don’t have too much interest in pussy-calisthenics. So the cats don’t jump through hoops for nobody no more.

We cruised the Floating Gardens where vegetables (largely tomatoes) are grown on trellises in the shallow water. It was nearly dark when we got back at 1830 into Nyaung Shwe. The group reconvened for dinner by chance for a local Myanmar-style dinner at the Lin Htet restaurant.