10 September - Inle Lake (Myanmar/Burma)

It was an early start again for the 35 minute flight to Helo, the airport for Inle Lake. On the way to the lake a village was pointed out to me and which was a Nepalese village where the Nepalese military people, who had arrived with the British during the Second World War, had stayed on after the war was finished. 

Views of Inle Lake

Views of the Shweyanbuye Temple

Then it was a visit to a silk weaving factory in Nyaunashwe. All travel after being picked up from the airport in the morning was by motorised canoe as it was too far to travel round the lake by road.

The local taxi

Heading for the bridge

Getting thread from the lotus stem

Spinning the lotus thread

Kayah tribe women and children

Weaving silk

Local cigar making where the women each make 1000 cigars a day with the record being 1200 a day.

Sorting the leaf by size

Rolling cigars

Cigars for sale

Lake Views

Buying fresh caught fish

Fishing and agriculture are the main occupations on the lake, and I do mean ‘on’ the lake as the growing of tomatoes is either on natural or man made islands. A man made island begins with a raft of bamboo into which rubbish and just anything vegetable is piled and allowed to rot for about two years before being planted with tomato plants. The natural floating islands are cut apart with a very big saw and towed to other parts of the lake as required.

Growing tomatoes

Growing tomatoes

   Photographs of the Inle Resort Hotel