XCountries: Lake Inle

Lake Inle, in Shan state, is one of the corners of Myanmars tourist triangle; a big lake with silted houses, floating villages and traditional fishermen.

I flew up with Dhe from Yangon and had the honour of sharing our plane with the probable future president of the country Aung San Suu Kyi. I even got a smile as she passed by us. She's particularly popular in Shan state and there was a raucous crowd there to greet her and a big convoy of cars following her out the airport.

Shan food is meant to be some of the best in the country (Shan noodles are particularly appreciated) but while the food we ate was good, we were both a bit ill to appreciate it properly (possibly my fault by only washing a lettuce in tap water in Yangon).

Nyaungshwe

Life is centred around the lake we had a pleasant afternoon zipping down to the far end to see some of the sights and with the particular goal (of Dharini's) of playing with the cats at the Burmese cat sanctuary.

The stilted houses are very pretty, and it's great that they all seem to have electricity. The power lines casually strung across the open water are a little disconcerting though.

Something about electricity and water...

The most attractive sight on the lake are the fishermen; hauling in nets, elegantly balanced on one foot, with the other wrapped around the oar, gently propelling the narrow wooden boat forwards and backwards.

Dhe had to go back to work on Monday so I dropped her off at the airport and with my private taxi for the day (inter town transport is far from easy here) did a little trip out to Shwe Oo Min cave: a cave full of Buddha's.

A big, high ceiling-ed cave with multiple caverns, packed with thousands of Buddha's of all shapes, sizes and materials. The first cavern is the most impressive, closely packed with hundreds of big and small golden Buddha's stacked so high you can momentarily lose yourself wandering the narrow Buddha lined alleys.