We spent the entire day on Inle Lake in long, wooden boats just wide enough to be fitted with large, white, wooden deck chairs in a row of 5 provided by our simple, but very comfortable hotel. Our boats rocketed across the lake lifting the bow out of the water about a foot or so. Passing by leg rowers (traditional for the area) collecting lakeweed to be bundled, dried, fertilized, floated and staked into the lake with bamboo poles. Inle lake is surrounded by mountains making land a premium.
Most people live on the water in stilted houses where they create floating gardens to farm tomatoes and other vegetables to sell at local markets. The area reminded me of Venice. Literally towns were built with waterway streets.
Partway through our tour of the villages we wandered through a local market where I picked up some jade necklaces. After walking up a very long incline to yet another pagoda, we took a side trail back to view a “waterfall” which turned out to be a spillway for a local dam. Most enjoyable was the bamboo forest with plants I’m guessing were 40 feet tall.
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