Traveling to Southeast Asia: Crossing Inle Lake

Another night bus?

Despite our bad experience last time we decided to get yet another night bus to get from Bagan to Inle Lake. The lake is the most known water of Myanmar and a very popular stop for tourists. However, it is so big, that you only notice the amount of tourists in certain areas.

The lake was covered with plants on large parts so it looks like we are driving through a river
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The longtail boats seem to throw more water in the air than actually move the boat
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Everything was lush with green
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Noemi and Thibault decided to get off the bus early and hike the rest of the way towards the lake. A very popular hike, thats why my sister and I decided against it (in hindsight we should have done it). We stayed on the bus for a little more and got to Nyaung Shwe, the largest town at the lake. We arrived at about 4am in at our destination. It was still pitchblack dark but a few tuk-tuk and taxi drivers where already waiting for us at the busstop. Being on a budget we declined the offers and started to walk. As most of the time we didn't book in advance so got our travel guide and looked up some cheap hostels. The best one we found was about 2 or 3 kilometres from the busstop. So we walked.
All we saw while walking through the warm night where tons of stray dogs and a guys throwing his garbage into one of the channels that lead to the lake. (In Myanmar there doesn't seem the be much awareness about protecting the environment..)

There where whole villages built right into the lake
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Fishers scaring their fish into swimming into their nets
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Arriving at the hostel, a modern not very beautiful building, the not very friendly staff told us that they didn't have any beds free. We walked all the way to the edge of the town only to find out it was all for nothing! By now the sun was starting to rise and we didn't want to walk all the way back with the sun burning down on us. We got a tuk-tuk and found a very nice guesthouse in the center of the town. After checking in we catched up on some sleep and went exploring.

The town wasn't very exciting, however we stumbled upon a restaurant called "Paw Paw's" (Tripadvisor Link). We were just looking for a place to eat lunch, but it turned out it wasn't an ordinary restaurant. After ordering two salads (which where amazing) the owner Zi Zi got into a conversation with us and told us the story of the restaurant. She had founded it alone and now runs it to support young women form the area to enable them to live in the city and get some education. All the women working there are her fosterlings. If you ever travel to Nyaung Shwe be sure to check it out and have a chat with her! I heard in the evening they sometimes struggle to serve all the people fast but if you go there for lunch you should be fine.

As everywhere in Myanmar also the lakeside was full of temples and pagodas
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Our guide told us these stuppas (thats what you call the small ones) where about 200-300 years old. Impressive!
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The forbidden boat ride

The main reason we got to Nyaung Shwe was to get a boat across Inle Lake to reach Loikaw. We heard that Loikaw is one of the least touristy places (in which tourists are allowed) in Myanmar and wanted to check it out. The result of some research was, that you could get a boat across the lake for 10-15$ if you travelled from South to North. It was that cheap, because you could ride in the daily boat with the locals. However we needed to go from North to South.
At the peer we asked around where to get tickets and as always we got pointed from one place to another. Every single one of the boatdrivers was more than happy to rent us his entire boat for a day to give us a ride down, however this would cost about 10 times as much. Finally we found a guy who could speak decent english. He explained to us why we had such a hard time finding a ticket on the local boat. The local government of Nyaung Shwe forbids tourists to ride in the same boat as locals. The government in the south of the lake however allows it. Thats why people can get a ride from South to North so cheap.

Tons of fishers on the lake, however the amount of fish is starting to decline due to the polution
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That's how crossings look like on Inle Lake
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A small hut to provide shadow for the workers on the fields by and on the lake
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Being a business man he proposed a solution, on how we didn't have to charter a whole boat and he would also get a cut of it. He would rent us a boat to drive us one of two hours into the lake. There we would change into the local boat. So we had to pay a little more than the locals but still not as much as renting the boat just for us.

We agreed on meeting the next morning and got into a comfy tourist boat with chairs on it (normally the people just sit on the bottom of the boat leaned against the side). The ride was great from the very beginning, the only downside being the extremely noisy engine of the longtail boat.

The Inle Lake is really big so the ride across it would take the whole day. Luckily we did make some stops, at first we stopped at a small village, merely 5 houses, to pick up a few people, some supplies and ... a motorbike! The boat would already sway hard if someone got on or off, so putting a motorbike on it seemed a little crazy to me. They didn't even think twice about it, 4 people lifted it up and placed it in the back of the boat (which was only a little wider than a meter). The bike was for the two young teachers we also picked up, so they could drive from school to school.

A woman at the first stop we made doing what ever the hell that is (if you know please tell me)
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If you ever asked yourself how to get electricity to a village in the middle of a lake.. That's how
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When we were travelling for about 2 or 3 hours I was getting nervous about catching the local boat. However when I asked our guide she told us, we would stay in the boat for the whole journey, since there happend to be enough people for it to pay off. So in the end we did what we wanted and rode with the locals, just a little more expensive. I wasn't too sad about it since the chairs were really comfy and it was much easier shooting pictures than when I would sit on the bottom of the boat.

Around noon we stopped at another village, where some pottery was made and sold. We also got to try making some and didn't fail too miserably. The weather on the lake was quite strange since the could stayed REALLY low. Soon after the stop we drove towards some heavy clouds. The weather changed from burning sun to raining cats and dogs in less than a minute. You wont believe how greatful we were for the raincoats the guide gave us. After 20 minutes of doomsday rain it stopped just as fast as it came. The bottom of the boat was filled with water.

Our sorry attempts on pottery
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It looks like he is standing on a field of grass but its just the lake covered with plants so thick you can't avoid thinking about the Dothraki sea ;)
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Boat.
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It was already towards the end of our ride, we were once again on an very open part of the lake and could already see our destination when we suddenly got slower..
We were out of gas! In the middle of the water, kilometres from each shore we just drifted in circles. The driver had already called a friend for help, but he had to get his boat and drive all the way to us first. So there we sat turning and turning in the hot sun. It was quite relaxing until I realized I wasn't relaxed, it was just my brain getting grilled making me feel dizzy.

These two boys swam right across the channel with their cows, where the longtail boats raced by with only their heads sticking out. I wonder how they didn't drown, must be quite hard to swim with balls as big as theirs
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I just loved going through these narrow channels between the plants!
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After some time the friend arrived and we made the last 20 minutes to our destination harbour. From there we took a taxi for another 2 hours and arrived at Loikaw in the evening.

More on that and our stay at the former capital of Myanmar next week :)
Stay tuned

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All shots in this post were made with my Olympus OMD EM-10 Mark II with a 14-150mm lense in manual mode.

If you want to learn more about my travel through southeast Asia you can read the previous posts here:

• 1. Bangkok
• 2. Myanmar, Mandalay & Malaria?
• 3. The best trainride of my life
• 4. Hiking through rebel area (1/2)
• 5. Hiking through rebel area (2/2)
• 6. Bagan, plain of a thousand temples

There is a new chapter coming each Thursday

If you want to know more about me check this out:

• Introduction to steemit

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!steemitworldmap 20.607721 lat 96.918297 long Photblog about my amazing ride across beautiful Inle Lake d3scr

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