Day 3: Inle Lake

Today's journey takes us to Inle Lake, loosely described as the Venice of Myanmar, and deservedly so, given its picturesque lakes painted against a canvas of bluish green mountains. But first, the ride from the airport to the hotel!


The airport’s called Heho Airport, and all the people working in the airport, including the porters and the ticketing staff are dwarfs. They walk in amazing unison with the tools of their trade on one shoulder singing in complete rhythm, “Heho, Heho, its off to work we go”… But seriously, the only thing that clues you in that this is an actual operational airport is the fact that there are airplanes present. Otherwise, looks-wise, it bears little difference from the craft shops or silk workshops that we have visited so far.


We met our guide, Miss Wah Wah, (great name huh - it means yellow in burmese - the girls are named after colours here), who escorted us to our ride. The journey to the hotel was an hour, and my dad said it best when he graphically described the ride as effectively displacing his heart, liver, lungs and various other organs completely out of alignment.

Okay, so it was a rough ride, but the sights along the way were indeed priceless. I’ve nicknamed EJ “Scooplet”, chaser of natgeo worthy prize winning photographs. She took them all, from the herd of cows, to the bullock carts, to the free range chickens, and me. Again, it’s like stepping into a bygone era, I mean, when was the last time you heard the words “bullock cart”.




The hotel was wonderful. Best in Inle in fact. This would be the first time I’m staying in the most premium accommodation my destination has to offer! The highlight of this leg of the Myanmar adventure would have to be the boat ride.






Inle is 22km long and 11km wide, and is home to around 70,000 folks. (see..I was paying attention). They are a self sufficient community. A large percentage of Inle’s population live in self-constructed bamboo stilt houses, which “float” on the river itself. Its really an architectural miracle since some of these homes have actually warped over the years and lean dangerously to one side. Still the people who live in these homes are the real stories.





Coming from a country like Singapore, the biggest irony is to sense the feeling of contentment among the people. Here, they are less concerned with transparency of charity foundations, the collapse of all moral values because of casinos etc etc. All they seem to be focused on is catching fish #5 for the day. They make a living largely from fishing. Inle is famous for its fisherpeople who balance on flat bottomed boats and steer with one leg wrapped around the oar. It also has a thriving farming community on free floating farms that produce crops such as tomatoes and vegetables.




The only other industry of significant scale is silk weaving, which employ mostly womenfolk. Such simple lives, yet they manage to invent their own methods for fishing, building houses and farms on water, and weaving beautiful threads into colourful fabrics. I come from a country significantly more advanced in its stage of development, yet I wouldn’t dare to lay claim to the skill sets these people possess. Makes one wonder about progress.


There is a strange innocence about them. As my mum noted, there are very few beggars, as compared to other tourist traps in SE Asia. I think it may have to do with the strong Buddhist influence. Monks ask for alms so it wouldn’t be right to compete for that valuable 1 USD. In fact, a kid asked us for “MONEY”, and was scolded by his other friends, and soon retracted his request. Ask to take a picture of them and they, especially the children, freeze into a cheery pose.


Actually, what made me so uncomfortable was the fact that we can’t help but look like tourists. They seem to readily tolerate our presence event though we are obviously intruding into their lives. Of course we bring with us the tourist dollar but just imagine if an European tourist comes by your work desk every 10min and asks to take a picture of you and your stapler.

Inle was really an eye opener, and a most relaxing journey into another time. Well worth the trip.