Inle Lake

Inle Lake is a cool place to relax for a while, where an hammock with lake views, an old book and a fresh beer is the best plan. When I arrived at Inle, the situation was a little bit catastrophic because of one full week raining non stop. All the streets were so flooded that people struggled to cross the lake’s bridge in ankle-deep water. As I had a huge itch on my right leg, I was stuck on my lake shore. Yes, that was definitely the perfect day to stay at the hotel with a fresh beer and an old book 😉

The following day I did the classical tour by boat, a must of Inle Lake. I visited the floating market, some temples, floating gardens and some workshops with traditional products, where I bought one more scarf for my collection 😀 .

Life around the lake is very interesting and there were many photo opportunities. I could also see some Paduang women (better known as giraffe women) but sadly they were more a tourist attraction than just local people hanging around.

Next day, I joined a Belgian girl and a French couple who seemed to know the area very well for a bicycle ride through the shores of the lake. I don’t know why people don’t explore Inle’s shores, they just stay floating on the lake’s waters. The first stop was the Red Mountain Estate where a French entrepreneur decided one day to grow Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and other grapes from France and Spain. There we decided to do a little wine tasting just to cheer up our way. Red wines were OK, white wines were so so.

Back to the path, we crossed some hamlets and rice fields to a small floating village where we stopped for lunch. There were not great sights or interesting architecture on our way, just simple landscapes colored with all possible greens and blues. There was even a teak bridge, must probably known only by locals, but much more poetic than U Bein bridge in my opinion.

After lunch we came back to the guesthouse through the same path.