Inle Lake Photos
Seagulls Video


Inle Lake was spectacular. There are mountains nearby and the lake is surrounded by houses on stilts and floating gardens. We took a boat across the lake and seagulls swarmed low over our heads hoping we would throw food to them. The boat next to us did start throwing food and the flock quickly grew. It was an amazing sight.

I was sick the second day there, but my friends ended up being invited to and attending a wedding rehearsal, which I have heard from other people who have visited the country, is actually a common occurrence. Anyone in the area when a wedding is going on is invited and encouraged to attend, including foreigners. It didn't sound like wedding rehearsals back home because at this one there was dinner and dancing, just like at the actual wedding. My friends had a great time and I'm sorry I missed it.

We had a great time taking a day-long boat ride down to a lake south of Inle. It was a bit off the normal tourist trail and the whole way kids ran to the windows of their stilt houses to wave at us as we passed. We visited what I call a pagoda forest that had beautiful bells that rang in the wind. As it was explained to me, these pagoda farms are created when the government built a large pagoda and then villages built their own personal pagodas around it.

I was very disappointed to find out that the renown floating market in Inle had been turned into a tourist market only selling souvenirs. The Financial Times has named Myanmar one of the top destinations for 2012, so I'm glad I beat the even bigger rush of tourists that will soon arrive, but I still felt a bit like I missed the opportunity to see the country in its purest state. Olli got sick again that day and ended up flying back to Yangon because he couldn't stomach another long bumpy bus ride.

An example of how great the Myanma people are, I left my shoes at a shop on the southern end of the lake on the day I arrived. Most places in southeast Asia make you take your shoes off before entering and I forgot to put them back on before I got back on the boat. I told the boat driver that I would hire him the next day to take me back and pick up my shoes but I had to cancel because it was the day I spent sick in bed. However, that evening the boat guy showed up at the hotel with my shoes and didn't even want any money for retrieving them. I, of course, paid him anyway. I don't even know how he figured out which hotel I was staying at.