Inle Lake | Myanmar

Still working on photos from the trip to Myanmar, this was an amazing trip with lots of photos and stories to share, so I’ll keep them coming.

It’s way difficult to decided which place I prefer the best, all of Myanmar was certainly magical, needles to say the days in Inle Lake were beyond my expectations as well. Inle Lake is among Myanmar’s top attractions, surely visitors are coming here to experience not only the landscape but also its people and culture.

Inle lake is a fresh water lake, the second largest and one of the highest in altitude in Myanmar, the population is about 70,000 and most of the people lives in small villages around the shores and on the lake itself. I’ll have another post soon featuring the villages.

The main way of transportation for the locals is by small boats, and sometimes larger ones equipped with diesel engines. As mentioned before the lake is fairly big, about 45 square miles, so our group moved around with small motorized boats.

The people of Inle Lake are called Intha, they support themselves by tending floating gardens of vegetables, fruits, and of course fishing. I have witnessed the intense labor that takes to build these floating gardens, the farmers gather weeds from the bottom part of the lake, they bring them back in the boats and make them into floating beds in their garden areas. Here are some photos made early morning during one of our first boat rides capturing this activity.

Fishing and rowing is distinctive here, locals are known for a style that involves rowing standing in the back or front of the boat on one leg and use the other leg to wrap it around the oar and push the paddle through the water. Our guide tell us that this unique style is needed because most of the lake is covered by reeds and floating plants, making it difficult to see above them if sitting. Fishing nets are also very particular for the lake.

The place is sort of mystical, mist hangs over the lake before sunrise creating and atmosphere and colors that are truly unique, we chased this light, also the magical sunsets and wandered around remote villages.

Like every other region visited in Myanmar the Intha is incredible warm and welcoming, on our first day here we meet a fisherman working in the lake, we photographed him and our guide made arrangements to see him again the following morning for more photos.

Nevertheless the photographic opportunities in Inle Lake are endless, of course I got carried away and snapped a lot, the light creates all kinds of color palettes, the lake is like a giant mirror that reflects the changing patterns and colors of the sky in a way I haven’t seen before in any other place, from cool and misty blues to unique warm clouds.

Hope you enjoy the photos, as always feel free to comment….

I’ll have more photos of Inle Lake coming soon in further posts, be sure to subscribe to get updates.

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That’s all for now, more coming soon…

If you want to travel with me, please check out the upcoming photo tours and expeditions.