We woke up very early so as to go on a boat trip in the Inle Lake. As I was having breakfast at the Hotel upper terrace I noticed it was slightly foggy but took some photos nevertheless. The anchoring flat canoe port seemed fairly close, as seen from above.
We actually reached it after a ten minute walk from the hotel. Because the flat bottomed canoes didn't take more than four of us at the same time, Chocho had to hire three of them. We hanged around for a while till she had given intructions to the canoe riders, so it must have been six by the time we took to the lake.
Amidst the morning fog and light rain we managed to see the well known local "leg rowing" fishermen, who made up a show of "gymnastic" oriented figures with their fishing nets. I don't suppose they were fishing but rather waiting for tourists to come by, or so it looked, though it was impressive anyway.
A little but further we came across two fishermen collecting sea weed, which vaguely reminded me of my childhood in central Portugal, where fishermen used to do the same (it is no longer done) and later take those heaping quantities that sometimes covered the whole flat boats to be used in the fields as fertiliser.
As we headed towards the Phaung Daw Oo area we could see quite a few scattered houses made of wood or woven banboo on stillts, some of which were quite impressive. Being the second largest lake in Myanmar the Inle Lake's estimated surface is of 116 square kilometres with a population of around 70,000 Intha living in the four cities bordering the lake, as well as the numerous villages along the lake's shores.
As we approached the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda we could see the golden barge that annually carries the Buddha images which are temporarily taken from the pagoda during the festival with the same name.
(To be continued)
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