2007 Biking Burma

Inle Lake…

We cycled next to “outrageously picturesque” Inle Lake which is 878m above sea level, 22 km long and 11 km wide. Around its shores and in stilt-houses in its waters live 70,000 Intha peoples, “sons of the lake”.

The Intha row their boats standing up and using one foot wrapped around a single oar. They fish using a variety of interesting contraptions. They grow tomatoes and other goodies on floating hyacinth. They weave scarves from the stem fibre of lotus plants. They train cats to jump through hoops at a water-bound monastery.

At a 13th century monastery up one of the tributaries that feed the lake we wandered barefoot and alone through a forest of dilapidated stupas.

In the town of Nyaungshwe just north of the lake we visited the palace of the 33rd and last Shan prince, the “Very Just King of Great Lineage of Yawnghwe State Who is Full of Dignity and the Arbiter of Life”. The military have in recent years converted the palace to a Buddha Museum and removed all evidence of the Shan prince. All other Shan palaces were long since burned to the ground – a people’s history eradicated.