Inle Lake (Burma): Beyond the Tourist Traps

By Anastasiya
July 28, 2018
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Burma is one of the most beautiful countries we have even visited and Inle Lake is one of two reasons why Burma is in our top (the second one is Bagan). We spent two days there and dedicated one of the days to the boat tour. We hired a guide called Ky at the Joy Hotel where we were staying. At first, we sailed the conventional route which was extremely touristic. However, Ky was kind enough to take us off-route and to introduce us to his village, home, and family.

The boat trip

“The Normal Boat Trip” in Inle includes at least 9 destinations. At the time of our visit, it cost around 20 dollars per person, and there was no need to book anything in advance. Every hotel arranges boats. The boats depart early in the morning and arrive at around 5 PM.

Similarly, Ky and we started early in the morning. While tourists were departing for their tour, locals were bringing harvest for the market.

The landscapes of Inle Lake are amazing, first of all, because people’s houses stand in the middle of the lake and you can observe simple everyday life of the Burmese.

The second essential part of the landscape and one of the symbols of Burma abroad is Inle fishermen. They balance amazingly to row with one of the legs or keep their nets:

After enjoying these views, we got to the first trap at our first stop in the Inle market (it is held in different places every day). Familiar with the long-neck Karen tribe from Thailand, we knew that that these women are kept in captivity by the local businessmen to attract more tourists. Similarly, in Inle, these women were kept in the market shops to attract more foreign buyers.

The market included one interesting shop, however, in which one can watch the traditional art of umbrella-making.

The second stop seemed more innocent: the Hpaung Daw U Pagoda was truly beautiful.

However, the market was the obligatory part of it too.

Once in a while, other boats approached tourists to offer what they did not quite need.

The third stop was at the Gold and Silver Smith that included the showroom and the workshop in which you can watch jewelry-making too.

Beyond the conventional tour

This was the last straw: we did not see the point in visiting shops only at our tour. This is when we begged Ky to bring us somewhere else and he was kind enough to agree. At first, he brought us to two more pagoda destinations:

Second, he suggested to bring us to his own village and we happily agreed. When coming, we passed by the kindergarten and stopped by to say hello to kids.

Then, Ky brought us to his own home, which was the most beautiful experience of that trip. He showed us around his own and his neighbors’ rice and other fields:

And around his home, approximately 40 square meters room.

In the meantime, his family cooked for us and we had meal together. We got to know his wife, sister, brother-in-law and a new kid.

Bicycle ride

We learned a lot from them. Ky told us that his biggest dream was to buy a boat. At that moment, he could only hire boats and thus received really low salary for his guiding work. Buying a boat would have allowed his family to live much better. Also, we learned that contemporary Burmese try not to give birth to too many children, since healthcare and education are expensive in Burma. Raising a child is very pricey, and giving education to him or her is another rather unachievable dream. Despite these difficulties, Ky and his family were very cheerful, grateful, and hospitable.
Burmese hospitality and beauty amazed us. In a way, the experience was similar to that in Pamir, where people are very poor, yet, are ready to share everything with you, and where the landscapes are also amazing. We recommend to visit Inle, but to do your best to meet its people rather than see the markets. Another way of doing this is renting a bicycle and making a day trip around. This will complement your boat trip, and this is the route we recommend for the bike.