Inle Lake

Inle is a shallow freshwater lake at around nine hundred metres in the Shan hills, some twenty kilometres long, and the way of life on it is genuinely unlike anywhere else. The Intha build their villages on stilts over the water, farm floating beds of matted weed and lake mud anchored with bamboo poles, and row standing at the stern with one leg wrapped around the oar, which leaves both hands free for the net. Boat trips run from Nyaungshwe at the northern end and take most of a day.

What you actually see

• The stilt villages - houses, workshops and monasteries built out over the water on poles.
• The floating gardens - beds of weed and mud anchored with bamboo, planted with tomatoes.
• The leg-rowing - the Intha technique of rowing standing with one leg around the oar.
• The rotating market - a five-day market that moves between lakeside villages, worth timing for.

When to go

November to February is the cool dry season, and mornings on the lake are genuinely cold at this altitude. The Phaung Daw Oo festival in September and October moves images between villages by barge. Dawn boat trips catch the mist and the fishermen going out.

Honest expectations

The fishermen posing on the bow with a conical net near the northern villages are performing for photographs and expect payment; the real fishing happens further out and looks quite different. Boat tours are routed through weaving, silversmith and cheroot workshops that operate as shops. Long-neck Kayan women are sometimes placed in these workshops for photographs, which is worth declining.

Nearby

Nyaungshwe is at the northern end, Kalaw is the start of the trek in, and the Kakku pagodas are southeast.