Inle Lake: Rural Myanmar

     This was a grand day.  Awakening to blue mists over Inle Lake, after breakfast we took the canoes exploring the life of the lake, then took a canal six kilometers inland to Indein Village where the minority ethnic groups of the region --Intha Mon, Pa O, Palaung, other tribes of Shan state-- lived.  On the way, we stopped to visit a school, and from the school took a footpath to a cheroot factory on stilts over the water.  We were welcomed almost like family, given free cheroots filled with a mixture of tobacco leaves, tobacco stalk straw, chicory, and sweet jaggery.  A relaxing ride along the canal found us at Mr. Toe Restaurant where we stopped for lunch.

     In Indein Village, after lunch, we saw raw rural life unadorned by conveniences, people going about their day, noticing but unconcerned about our presence. We walked up a hill to an almost mystical complex of pagodas, both ancient and modern. Many of the pagodas in Myanmar are golden gilded marvels, built by kings or queens who could command the wealth and manpower for their construction. Here we saw the decaying ruins of centuries of history, some of the earliest pagodas being build of brick, and not gold leaf covered, and smaller pagodas build by families with lesser wealth but still of account in their community. Back on Inle Lake, we stopped at a silk factory where they made cotton as well as silk scarfs, shirts, and runners. I purchased a couple for my family back in California. We boated back across the lake to our cottages as the sun was setting, and night fell into the blue mists of the lake.

     This was the Burma I'd come to see. I was not disappointed.