Inle Lake is one of the biggest tourist areas here. It is a very serene freshwater lake – 13.5 miles long and seven miles wide – fringed by marshes and floating gardens.
The people live in stilt-house villages and Buddhist pagodas rise above the water.
Minority tribes live in these hills and descend from their villages for markets in the towns of the region .
The fishermen were on the lake as we whizzed past in our longboats . They have a unique style of standing on one leg and propelling the oar with the other. They also have boat races between the villages using this same technique.
We were heading to a large village where we were to witness one of the big festivals of the area, where the Buddha image is taken by Royal Barge to visit smaller villages where the people can't get to the Pagoda for worship. There was a very festive atmosphere with boat races, food , music and dancing. We were so lucky that our visit coincided with this.
The local villages are also artisans and we went to the usual silver, weaving etc factories.
On the return our boat took us through areas where there were tomatoes growing on floating gardens... thousands of them, which are sent to other parts of the country.
We spent about 8 hours on the water in very hot sun so we were exhausted on our return.
About an hours rest and a shower then off for a traditional meal. In most cases I have been a bit disappointed in much of the food. I expected it to be a bit more highly spiced but it's not ... then it is possible that they are toning it down for us. We seem to be getting a lot of fried rice and noodles.
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