Inle Lake Trek - Myanmar

Our trek to Inle Lake (see Wikipedia article) was one of the best ways to see how the people of Myanmar live outside the big cities. We started from the small town Kalaw where we found a group of three others who wanted to do the three day hike to Inle Lake. The trip cost 30,000 kyats ($24) each and included food, lodging, and Harry the guide. The first day was mostly scenery and visiting some of the small villages along the way where we ate lunch or spent the night, always leaving gifts and smiles. On the second day we visited traditional Burmese village, where the monastery is the center of cultural life (see article). They invited us to watch one their annual events where they made rockets and sent them flying over the nearby rice fields (see pics). We spent the night in the monastery where we ate and took a well needed shower. The final day was spent hiking near the lake and then taking a boat to a town at the north end where we found some pizza and beer.

After relaxing for a day we headed to Bagan – land of 4,400 temples (see blog).

Again pictures can explain the trip better than I can. Many of them are of the people we met in the villages and their daily agrarian life.