8^th September 2013 – Lake Inle

Lake Inle is a small 22km long, 11km wide seems like a real-life Atlantis where the plug has been partially pulled, and you must hop in a boat to gossip with a neighbor only a few metres away.  The lakeshore and lake islands are home to 17 villages on stilts, mostly inhabited by the Intha people.

The Inles style of religious architecture and Buddhist sculpture is strongly Shan-influenced.  It is deep within the Shan hills, west of Mandalay.

We spent 4 nights here, to get a feel for the area, making bookings on our own, and using a guide as and when required.

We visit one of the places on stilts where cloth is made from the stems of the water lilly, being cut, in the photo bellow

The water lilies being used are in the foreground

Women working on looms both for making the water lily cloth and silk

On our way back, it’s the rush hour!  People are paddling home from market

This is the traditional way of pushing the paddle, with the foot, so that they can stand up and see where they are amongst the tall reeds.  Those reeds have now been replaced by beds of tomatoes – no need for hydroponics here, the roots of the tomato plants are in water!

Here the water hyacinth is being cleared out of the channel

Bringing in the bamboo stakes for more tomato plants

Baskets of tomatoes being brought to the main town for onward transport