Reflections on Inle Lake, Myanmar's Biggest Tourist Attraction

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One of Myanmar’s top tourist attractions, an Inle Lake tour is best taken with a local who can reveal the unique way of life there.

Inle Lake is the second largest lake in Myanmar after Indawgyi Lake, located in northern Shan State – a 22 km long valley-set, silvery-blue water basin at 884 metres above sea level (2900 ft) that snakes into tiny canals with miniature hand-built dams.

In the main town of Nyaung Shwe, the sound of motorboats signals the arrival of a new dawn, where tourists flock to the main pier to embark on day trips. Touring Inle Lake in a wooden longtail boat is one of the top four travel activities in Myanmar, alongside the never-ending temple landscape of Bagan and the two main cities of Yangon and Mandalay.

Here, tradition remains. Intha Fishermen paddle by operating the oar using one leg on the reed waters amongst the bamboo stilt houses, and weavers toil away in workshops. Floating gardens grow fruit and vegetables on the lake’s average 2-metre depth, while buffaloes bathe in the muddy waters and migratory birds find sanctuary in the protected Wetland Sanctuary. These characteristics have put Inle Lake on a Tentative UNESCO list.

However, new construction booms and canals are being widened to ferry through more eager-eyed passengers. Such sights make you realise the swift power of tourism yet ignite hope that the ambience and traditions of the area will not be completely ruined by rapid change.

A fisherman with a green net, standing on his wooden boat Inle Lake in Myanmar practicing the traditional method of rowing the oar with one leg.

Reflections on Inle Lake, Myanmar’s Biggest Tourist Attraction.

Contents

Start in Nyaung Shwe – The Lakeside Township
- Best Time to Visit Inle Lake
Getting Around Inle Lake
- Inle Lake Tours

Start in Nyaung Shwe – The Lakeside Township

For those coming from Bagan, it’s a long 10-hour bus ride, and from Kalaw, it takes around two hours. I took the trekking route, finishing the three-day rural trail of the Kalaw to Inle Lake Trek that ends in Nyaung Shwe (also known as Nyaungshwe Township), the main town on the northern stretch of the lake. It’s the largest township of the Shan State’s Taunggyi District, so it remains the main transport hub and tourism focal point for lake access.

Nyaung Shwe’s lake expanse of bamboo stilt house communities, floating gardens, waterside shops, restaurants, and craft workshops are built around a population of nearly 190,000 people. A cluster of bungalows, family-run inns and spa hotels makes it easy for visitors to stay overnight and enjoy the sedative atmosphere.

Best Time to Visit Inle Lake

Inle Lake is best visited between October and May to coincide with Myanmar’s optimal weather seasons: October to March is the dry winter season and the best window for birdwatching, and March to May is the hot summer period. Should you visit Inle Lake between May and October, you have a higher chance of downpours as this period marks Myanmar’s wet, rainy season.

Boats of tourists on a shallow water canal on Inle Lake with bamboo stilt houses lining the banks.

Nyaung Shwe, Inle Lake’s main town and access point for tours.

Distanced view of a community of bamboo stilt houses in the middle of the vast Inle Lake basin surrounded by mountains.

Inle Lake communities and floating gardens, surrounded by mountains.

A woman on the back of motorbike smiles to the camera while passing a makeshift roadside stall with a bright green roof in the leafy Nyaungshwe Township.

Life in Nyaungshwe Township.

Getting Around Inle Lake

Travelling during the low season in May, the Myanmar heat was intense, so I chose to visit the lake as early as possible before the midday sun dominated and scorched my skin on the open deck of the boat.

Starting at 9 a.m, I choose a half-day, three-hour sightseeing tour. I opted out of the full-day, approximately six-hour temple and monastery hopping addition of the standard tour to concentrate more time peacefully observing the lake communities and way of life and visiting a traditional weaving workshop. You can barter a trip based on what you would like included, or if you are staying for more than one day, visit the Buddhist temples in your own time.

Inle Lake is remarkably tranquil. Its vastness means it never feels congested, even as dozens of tour boats operate simultaneously. You feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere, mist-covered mountainous Shan Hills in the distance, gently floating and passing people working on the water, digging up lake weeks and building earth soil mounds for floating gardens or locals relaxing on the wooden thresholds of their water-protruding wooden houses.

A tour, however many hours you choose to spend, provides an insight into the community of the ethnic Intha (Tibeto-Burman) people who call this place home – the iconic standing, one-leg oar rowing fisherman, the stilt structures that thrive there amongst Buddist shrines and golden pagoda temples, the protective biosphere landscape surrounding it and the locals who regularly traverse its waters.

Two fisherman in blue t-shirts load their wooden boat with piles of weeds in the middle of Inle Lake, Myanmar.

Fisherman at work gathering lake weeds.

Three Inle Lake fisherman - one standing and rowing the oar with his leg and two seated - on boats stacked with wooden goods, in front of a floating garden.

One leg oar rowing on Myanmar’s iconic reservoir, transporting wooden goods.

A man in a straw hat, purple shirt and brown Longyi standing on the end of a narrow wooden boat, poking the shallow waters of Inle Lake with a long stick.

Gathering lake weeds for use in the floating gardens.

Three fishermen casting nets into the waters of Inle Lake next to a floating garden. Behind are the forest covered mountains.

Three fisherman cast their nets on the second largest freshwater body in Myanmar.

A young boy uses a long bamboo poll to steer his boat stacked with wooden logs on a stilt-house filled, green garden canal on Inle Lake.

Floating villages in small canals.

A man rows a long wooden boats through waters lined with bamboo stilt houses belonging to the Intha people of Inle Lake.

The bamboo stilt houses belong to the Intha people of Inle Lake.

A person rows a long, dark wooden boat between a red houses and a bamboo pole wall in a floating garden on Inle Lake.

Bamboo walls of the floating gardens.

A fisherman on Inle lake standing up on his boat, dropping a green net into the water and rowing the oar with one leg.

One-leg rowing is a tradition in Inle Lake.

In front of a floating village in Inle Lake, a fisherman stands on the end of his boat rowing the oar with his leg. In front of him a man sits in his boat, heavy with solid objects.

Standing, one-leg rowing allows the fishermen to see the weeds in the shallow waters.

In front of a large stilt house in the middle of the vast Inle Lake, men build a mound of soil on the water, for the creation of a floating garden.

Men building a mounds of soil on the lake, for the creation of a floating garden.

Two people standing at a dark longtail boat, in front of a large, caramel coloured bamboo stilt house.

Longboats and bamboo stilt houses. Everyday life on this great basin.

Large wooden stilt houses on a large green floating island on Inle Lake in Myanmar.

A larger community on the Unesco bioreserve.

A man rows a boat past the golden stupas and tiered pagodas of a Buddhist Temple on Inle Lake.

The golden stupas and tiered pagodas of a Buddhist Temple on Inle Lake. Intha are mostly Buddhist.

A Burmese woman with painted cheeks works a weaving machine in a bamboo house.

Visiting a traditional Weaving workshop on Inle Lake.

A line of people holding colourful umbrellas in a longboat, being transported across the waters of a large reservoir.

Local boat taxi.

Men loading their boats with bricks for transportation across the lake.

A man rows a long canoe past a huge lake side house on stilts.

One of the larger stilt houses, typically where you will find some of the workshops.

A standing man and a sitting young boy on the ends of a long wooden boat on the calm water of Inle Lake.

Generations of Inle Lake fisherman practice.

A motorised longboat parked at the green banks of a lush lakeside village with a mint green house and red and gold temple complex.

Temples on green islands in the serene corners of the lake.

Inle Lake Tours

It takes a little effort to sort your tour of Inle Lake – it’s time to get up early and test your bartering skills.

Boat hire on Inle Lake costs approximately 15,000 Kyat ($16) for the full day. Half-day options will only save you around $3.
Bartering takes a long time, so allow plenty of time to arrange your boat trip before your desired time.
Start as early as possible, around 8 or 9 am, to time workshop visits when the sun is at its peak heat.
Consider a shorter sunset tour to see the lake in a different light.