The Famous Legrowers of Inle Lake, Myanmar

When I traveled in Myanmar I ofcourse visited the famous Inle Lake. It is a freshwater lake located in the Nyaungshwe Township of Taunggyi District of the Shan State, part of Shan Hills in Myanmar. I came from my two day and one night trip near Hsipaw. The day I came back I took the nightbus from Hsipaw to Nyaungshwe. I came there in the middle of the night, I hadn't booked a hotel yet and the one that looked great online, with a swimmingpool, was fully booked. We were in the back of a truck with a couple of tourist driving around town, at some point we were at Hotel Brilliant. It looked great and the price was a bit higher but it was clean, very new and I wanted to sleep really bad. I booked a room for 3 days!!

Brilliant Hotel

The first day I just biked around the lake, exploring the area. It was great weather to be biking. I could take a bicycle from the hotel all day around. I went around the lake and on the other side I visited a temple on a hill. At that point I could cross the lake with a boat, I did. At the other side I went biking back to the hotel. I was really tired after that, the next day I was a bit sick. I went to the doctor also. It didn't felt good. The doctor saw immediatly what was wrong and gave me pills. I had a bacterial infection, I ate something bad somewhere..... read about that here.

After taking the pills and sleeping I could go on my trip on the lake. It was one day later but I felt great again!! That morning I was brought to the lake by the daughter of the female boss of the hotel. The family was so sweet!! When I was sick, and really felt alone they brought me tea and fresh fruit every couple of hours. So Sweet!!

With homemade lunch on the boat

At the lake they had arranged a boat for me. The boat would take me to everything worth seeing on the lake. If I had any other requests I just had to say it to the man. He gave me a blanket because it was early morning and still fresh. I sat in the middle of the small boat on a chair and off we went.

We entered the lake and immediatly I saw the famous legrowers. They were there ofcourse posing for all the tourists. I got some nice pictures in the morning sun. The first person that came to the boat I gave a bit of money for his posing for me :)

The lake has a real authentic feeling because of the manner of fishing. You see all kinds of ways, with big baskets and small baskets. Also just fishing with a rod.

I  also saw them hitting the water with the oar and I guess the fish will come up and they can catch them somehow.

Also with a small cage, they will put it in the water and hope some fish will swim in there. They put them there and will come back later in the day to pick it up again.

When we went on we came at a village in the lake. It is located in the lake. No land or what so ever close, only water. Life on the lake looks so difficult but they are so adapted to it. They don't seem to miss any land under their feet.

Great reflections

They did manage to get some area to grow vegetables and flowers. A floating garden. They stick the ground with a poal to the ground. The lake isn't that deep so they can  stick it to the ground easily. On the land that appears they can grow all kinds of things. Vegetables is logical but flowers? They use the lotus flowers to make thread to make nice shawls and carpet and all kinds.

Floating garden

I also saw a couple of longneck  women sitting in a shop. They were making cloths and were working there. The longneck tribe is not to visit from here. I was told it was not that closeby.

I also visited the factory where they make thread of the Lotus plant. And then ofcourse nice clothes.

I also went to a wood factory.
Everybody needs a boat on the lake so it is the best selling product.

There is a story about a monastry with jumping cats. I've been there too but there are no jumping cats anymore. The monks probably have got other, better things to do. There was a time that the monastry had lots of tourists coming there especially for the  jumping cats. Still, there were lots of cats on the small island of the monastry.

It was a great day on the lake. 

I really enjoyed the great views and the long boattrip over the lake!!