Reflections on Inle Lake, Myanmar's Biggest Tourist Attraction

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to handpicked partners, including tours, gear and booking sites. If you click through or buy something via one of them, I may receive a small commission. This is at no extra cost to you and allows this site to keep running.

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.

Fisherman on Inle Lake in Myanmar balances on one leg to row a wooden boat while holding a green fishing net.

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

Article 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.

Two wooden longboats navigate a muddy brown canal lined with stilt houses and lush trees in Inle Lake, Myanmar.

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 lush mountains.

Inle Lake communities and floating gardens, surrounded by mountains.

A woman on the back of motorbike smiles to the camera while passing a roadside stall with a bright green tarp 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 row wooden boats loaded with goods past a floating garden in front of misty mountains.

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

A man in a straw hat and purple shirt stands on a wooden boat, using a long pole in the shallow Inle Lake waters.

Gathering lake weeds for use in the floating gardens.

Three fisherman on long wooden boats cast their nets in a floating garden on Inle lake to a backdrop of 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 past a stilt-house on a green garden on Inle Lake.

Floating villages in small canals.

A man in a wooden boat loaded with goods rows past stilt houses and power lines on Inle Lake, Myanmar.

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

A person in a conical hat rows a longboat past a bamboo fence and a garden-set red stilt house on Inle Lake, Myanmar.

Bamboo walls of the floating gardens.

Fisherman in a red shirt leg-rowing a wooden boat while casting a green net on the calm waters of Inle Lake.

One-leg rowing is a tradition in Inle Lake.

Two men row wooden boats loaded with goods past floating gardens and stilt houses on Inle Lake, Myanmar.

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

Men building a soil wall on water in front of a wooden stilt house with a red roof on Inle Lake, Myanmar, with misty green hills in the background.

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

Two people standing in a dark longtail boat in front of a woven bamboo stilt house on Inle Lake, Myanmar.

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

Large wooden stilt houses with corrugated metal roofs sit above the floating gardens of Inle Lake, Myanmar.

A larger community on the Unesco bioreserve.

A man rows a boat through brown waters 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 wovan bamboo house.

Visiting a traditional Weaving workshop on Inle Lake.

A row of people holding colourful umbrellas in a longboat, being transported across the wide waters of Inle Lake.

Local boat taxi.

Workers unload wooden crates from longboats onto a stone dock lined with corrugated metal buildings at Inle Lake.

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

A man rows a long canoe on Inle Lake, Myanmar past a large wooden stilt house with a tiered thatched roof.

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

A standing man and a sitting boy on the ends of a long wooden boat on the calm water of Inle Lake backed by misty forest hills.

Generations of Inle Lake fisherman practice.

A motorised longboat parked at the green banks of a lush lakeside village with a 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.