Inle Lake Part 2

The touristy thing to do in Inle is go on a boat tour.  Don’t be put off by this.  The boat tour was well worth it.  We actually saw very few tourists, maybe only 4-5 other boats while we were out and about.  The standard boat tour costs 18000kyats and can fit up to 5 people.  For an extra 2000kyats you can go to Indein.  K and I decided to pay the extra $2 and go to Indein, and I’m very glad that we did. 

Every boat tour follows a standard itinerary.  Unless you are very specific on where you want to go and what you want to see, you’ll follow the standard itinerary.  K and I weren’t too picky on where we wanted to go, so decided to just go with the flow.  

Boat parking lot at the market

There is a local market that rotates among the villages on the lake.  On the particular day that we went, the market was at Than Taung, which is not actually on the lake rather a 20 minute walk inland.  Perhaps it was for this reason that we were the only foreigners there.  It was neat observing the market business and the local Pa’O women with their brightly coloured headscarves (or beach towels!).  I wasn’t 100% comfortable taking photos directly of people.  My moral compromise was to be a bit of a creeper and take photos discretely.  Not sure if it’s a better way or not...

I can't resist cooing over babies!

Other stops we made were to ‘workshops’, which are basically tourist traps where locals show you how handicrafts are made and you browse a showroom.  Some of them were interesting, like the silversmith and the lotus silk weaving.  Some of them were pointless, like the blacksmith and the boat making, as there was no one explaining the process or making the sales pitch.  One handicraft workshop that is particularly controversial is the Padaung weaving workshop.  Padaung or Kayan women are an ethnic minority who traditionally wore brass rings around their necks to elongate them.  They are not from the Inle Lake area.  Rather, some have come to the area to be tourist attractions themselves.  I was very uncomfortable watching the women sit on the patio while other tourists would sit next to them and take photos.  It was like getting photos with Santa, except that these women were just being who they are.  The Lonely Planet says that many of the women prefer this kind of life over the village life they had in their poor villages.  I suppose there are worse ways to be making a living.  At any rate, I wasn’t comfortable taking photos of them or posing with them.  

Kids coming home from school.  They have waterways instead of roadways!

Another stop we made was the Phaung Daw Oo Paya, which is the most important religious site in the area.  This stop really showed how tourism has affected how things are.  The entire bottom level of the pagoda was a market selling souvenirs etc...  We ate lunch overlooking the pagoda.  It was a nice break from the constant sun (one of the downsides to taking an open boat!).  

Phaung Daw Oo Paya

The most impressive stop was Indein.  Starting at the bottom of the hill, there are many ruined stupas.  In our travels thus far, all stupas and pagodas that we had seen had varying degrees of restoration.  Here at Indein, the stupas had been left to the elements and were becoming ruins as the jungle moved in.  It felt like we were Indiana Jones exploring these stupas.  One interesting observation was that many of the Buddhas here were headless.  I wonder if there was once conflict and that was the result.  I don’t know for sure though.  Once you make you way up the hill to the main pagoda, there are many signs of restoration.  In fact, once you are at the top of the hill, all the stupas are completely rebuilt and painted.  There is a long covered walkway that leads up to the top of the hill, which is lined with hawkers selling various souvenirs and knick knacks.  Since we showed up at the end of the day most of the sellers were gone.  Nonetheless we never really experienced a hard sell in Myanmar.  All the hawkers and sellers we met were quite polite and understood that no meant no.