Inle lake
near Nanthe, Shan (Myanmar [Burma])
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It is best to embark on one of the motorized canoes that navigate the lake. They can be hired in Nyaungshwe. Motorized canoes do not carry seats, but their owners usually put small folding chairs that make the trip more comfortable. Only this way it is possible to enjoy this wonderful scenario that will be opened before our eyes and contact the inthas or "children of the lake". Little is known about this culture, however in Burma they enjoy enormous fame for having adapted to their environment like nobody else. The natives of the lake use a procedure to row that, up to now, is exclusive of their ingenuity: standing in the stern, supported on one leg, they roll the other extremity in the oar. Both, leg and rowing, describe a wide semicircle that drives them with great ease. Along with their acrobatic ability to row, the inthas also demonstrate that they are the most skilled aquatic farmers. Taking advantage of the shallow depth of the lake, they have managed to create authentic floating islands. Instead of growing on the shore of the lake, they collect hyacinths, algae and other aquatic plants on the same surface. Then they anchor them to the bottom with bamboo stakes, creating fertile and maneuverable plots of vegetable culture about three meters wide by one hundred meters long.
In the floating markets
Inle Lake is also known as the Smile Lake. And the reason for this qualification is very simple: its inhabitants are hospitality that disarms completely. If your sympathy and the beauty of the lake were not enough to make the visitor fall in love, the colorful touch is provided by the markets that rotate every five days through the coastal villages, so the most practical thing to know in which place each time is to ask to the natives. Ywama, on the west bank, is one of them, probably the most famous. Here everything is bought and sold from the boats.
From monastery to monastery. It is necessary to reserve some days of the trip to approach the Buddhist monasteries that dot the region. There are more than a hundred, but you do not have to visit them all, of course. Approaching two of them is enough. The Nga Phe Kyaung, or Monasterio del Gato Saltarín, is a beautiful wooden building built on pillars. With a bit of luck, you have the opportunity to see the task that usually occupies much of the time of the monks who inhabit it: the training of cats to jump through small hoops. The second, Paung Daw U, south of Ywama, is the most important monastery in Inle. Here five small statues of Buddha are worshiped.
In the floating markets
Inle Lake is also known as the Smile Lake. And the reason for this qualification is very simple: its inhabitants are hospitality that disarms completely. If your sympathy and the beauty of the lake were not enough to make the visitor fall in love, the colorful touch is provided by the markets that rotate every five days through the coastal villages, so the most practical thing to know in which place each time is to ask to the natives. Ywama, on the west bank, is one of them, probably the most famous. Here everything is bought and sold from the boats.
From monastery to monastery. It is necessary to reserve some days of the trip to approach the Buddhist monasteries that dot the region. There are more than a hundred, but you do not have to visit them all, of course. Approaching two of them is enough. The Nga Phe Kyaung, or Monasterio del Gato Saltarín, is a beautiful wooden building built on pillars. With a bit of luck, you have the opportunity to see the task that usually occupies much of the time of the monks who inhabit it: the training of cats to jump through small hoops. The second, Paung Daw U, south of Ywama, is the most important monastery in Inle. Here five small statues of Buddha are worshiped.
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