Our last destination on the tour was Inle Lake. It’s the second largest lake in Myanmar and at a height of 2,900 feet. We took a trip on a long boat to various sights on the lake.
Inle is a bit like Venice (they need to use this in their marketing!). Houses are built on stilts and everyone travels around by boat. 100,000 people live on the lake! They grow crops like tomatoes in floating fields which are pinned down by bamboo posts.
Floating fields from our boat
Traffic jam
Fisherman posing with his net
The fishermen have a unique style of rowing. They row their longboat with their leg. The water is shallow, and they stab the fish in the net with spikes on the end of the pole.
Row, row, row the boat
We stopped at the “Jumping Cat” monastery. Apparently one of the monks taught the cats to jump through hoops. He must have had special “cat whispering” skills to train cats to do anything. Unfortunately the monk died so there’s no one to train the cats anymore so they just lie around sleeping. I think the monastery should really rebrand, but I guess they wouldn’t get as many visitors.
Cats not interested in jumping
They still need Pagodas on the lake.
Women from the Karen tribe add gold-coloured rings around their necks. They start at the age of nine, and add more at certain times. Apparently their necks aren’t really longer, it’s just that their collar bones are pushed down.
Women from the Karen tribe
Weaving
Not from the Karen tribe
Monastery with 5 Buddhas
The Royal Barge
Scene from the restaurant
Houses
Cutting teak planks to build boats
From Inle we flew back to Yangon for our last dinner with the group before all heading off on our separate ways.
Next stop Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
