Inle Lake

This resplendent and well-maintained pagoda houses five Buddha images so heavily overlaid with gold leaf placed by devotees so as to make their original shapes unrecognizable. These images were brought back by King Alaungsithu in the 12th century from a expedition to the Malay Peninsula.

all in bold painted letters that the considerable extent of water on our right is the Hnget Min Kone dam.

Mulberry, cotton plants and rain trees are close by with small clumps of medium-sized trees further in the distance. The southern Shan hills loom through the mist ahead, about an hour out of Meiktila. Presently the road ascends ever so slightly and then flattens again. Htanaung and rain trees are no longer present. Instead we see clumps of bamboo and plum trees beside the road. We climb once more, the gradient is not steep but we are now definitely in the foothills with the hillside rising just above to our right and the ground to the left dropping some six to nine metres.
 
More bamboo forests appear with smaller trees with darker green interspersed on the hills. The road becomes even for some distance then rises again on a steeper gradient. Our car reaches Yinmabin where we take lunch.

The journey onward is a continuous ascent with only a few short stretches of even road. Forests of dry leafless, medium-sized trees and thorn forests fill the hillsides. The vegetation is greener, the trees larger with denser foliage as we advance. Small hamlets in valleys and lowland along the wayside look fresh and verdant with banana, coconut, mango and other trees.
The road takes many hazardous twists and turns as it winds uphill, sometimes on the left, then on the right side of the adjoining hill, with steep cliffs or wooded hillsides towering first on one side of the road and then the other. Away from the cliffs are deep valleys with dry stream beds or with water trickling down the hills.

We now enter Ywama, called “the floating village” since all its streets are canal or chaungs. Ywama’s daily floating market is one of Inlay’s most well-known attractions.

The main market day is Wednesday when there is a tremendous bustle of activity. Buyers and sellers all congregate in boats laden with the produce and products of the Lake. Fresh fruit, flowers, vegetables, meat and fish, opium weights and brass artifacts, bags and clothing are traded and there are many kinds of handicrafts for the souvenir hunter.

The next stop is Thar Lay village, famous for weaving. Almost every house has a loom for silk and cotton weaving. Many cafes cater to the hungry and thirsty. Nearby is the main attraction, the Phaundaw Oo Pagoda.

Some roads run along Inle Lake, connecting the lake with the surrounding hills into the Pa - Oo villages. A hiking trip into the valleys and the villages of the Pa - Oo people is a real memorable small adventure. The Pa - Oo's run the Golden Island Cottages, a small Inle Lake hotel placed on stilts right into the lake and they are very helpful to show their beautiful county. You can also watch Inle leg rower.

Misty green wooded hills at times seem to pop out on one side with others coming into sight ahead.

Tiny settlements with cultivated patches on flat stretches are more frequent.

Logs piled by the roadside indicate we are in a logging area. In the Shan State, this is one of the main timber production regions for commercially valuable hardwood such as teak, padauk (Pterocarpus macrocarpus), pyinkado (Xylia dolabriformis), (Dipterocarpus tuberculatus), Ingyin (Pentacme siamensis), Thitya (Shorea oblongifolia) and pyinma (Lagerstroemia speciosa).

There are a few hairpin turns with low concrete guard walls at the most dangerous spots. Traffic is fairly heavy —ubiquitous Japanese pick-up trucks with roof-top passengers, buses, trucks, vans, saloon cars, government vehicles, coaches and quite a number of bowsers — both on the up and down runs. Vehicles on the downhill route stop well in advance to allow ample time and space for those coming up to safely negotiate difficult passages. The same rule is applied at bridges.

We are beyond Pyinyaung — another centre for transshipment of timber — and are now at an altitude of about 610 metres. The scenery is pleasant, the surroundings are lush and green, the air is cooler and the rays of the sun struggling through the mists bear down more gently. A decided contrast to that phase of our trip below an elevation of 300 metres.

A hairpin turn and soon our truck passes Wetphyuyit, between mileposts 61 and 62, negotiates another uphill hairpin bend and then rolls through Yay-ywa. Both are large villages, the latter within eight kilometers of Kalaw. Soon we enter Kalaw, a popular hill resort during British days, 112 kilometers from Meiktila and 70 kilometers west of Taungyi.

Located on the western edge of the Shan Plateau at an elevation of 1,300 metres, this small, peaceful town feels cool and pleasant even at noon in dry season.

Small pines appear on the landscape with a few hills not far off and we notice ducks and water buffaloes which we have not seen for some time. This is a favourite tourist stop. A good starting point for hikes to nearby Palaung villages through pine woods, orchards and bamboo groves. The terrain is now flat and the road passes through beautiful country. This region produces temperate climate fruits such as pears, peaches and oranges in addition to rice, tea, wheat, soya beans, groundnuts, tobacco, potatoes, garlic, sunflower seeds and dried green cordia leaves used as cheroot wrappers.
 
Some 10 kilometers on lies Aungban, a popular stopping place. Shortly before we get there, a road branches north from the main road in the direction of the small town of Pindaya 41 kilometers away where the Pindaya Caves are located. The caves contain thousands of Buddha images in a limestone ridge overlooking lovely Boutaloke Lake and are a Shan State tourist attraction. Nearby the Shan paper is manufactured, made from mulberry bark and mainly used to produce the pretty umbrellas.


 

We continue in an easterly direction from Aungban to Heho, the nearest airport for Taungyi and Inlay, then to Shwenyaung. Here, the eleven kilometer road to Naungshwe and Inle turns off to the south while the main road leads to Taungyi. The land around is wet, flat and green with paddy cultivation in progress. Duck, water buffaloes and egrets abound.

The Nankand canal from Shwenyaung to Inle Lake parallels the road on the east. Lead and eucalyptus trees, orange blooms of gold mohur, red clusters of flame of the forest and a profusion of red and white bougainvillea greet us as we motor to the principal lake town Naungshwe, one kilometer from the north end of Inle. This is the jump off point for excursions around the famed lake.