Inle Lake

Inle Lake is the last stop on the tourist route.  There are two options -- stay in town and visit the lake by boat or stay in a hotel on the lake.  We stayed on the lake (Myanmar Treasure Resort) in a bungalow that was suspended over the water.  It even had an outdoor shower.

Hotel rooms

We had another wonderful guide and saw some amazing things.*  Inle Lake is famous for:

• Floating gardens  - crops grown on floating islands secured into the lake bottom by bamboo poles. See http://tinyurl.com/l28zdfv for more information and pictures.  
• Fishing technique

• Leg rowing

• Shopping -- each village on the lake centers around one industry and the local market alternates between villages.  We visited the silversmith village and the textile village and bought things at each.  It was interesting to see how the textiles were made and we got very nice scarves.  I am not sure how authentic it all is but the shopping was good.

We spent New Years Eve and Susie's birthday at Inle Lake.  There was another mandatory dinner but this time it was well worth the money.  The best part was the pre-dinner carnival.  I won one game of chance and Susie won three times - including two games of skill.  There were even prizes.  The highlight was the New Year's Hot and Famous Fashion Show.  This involved cross-dressing by one male and one female employee from each hotel department (maintenance, housekeeping, kitchen, etc.).  The best part was that the entire staff got stop what they were doing to watch the fashion show.  Below is the program for the evening.  We had to skip the Spicy Disco Dances because we had to get up early to catch a flight back to Yangon.

    

*  We also saw some incredible pagodas and Buddhas.