• Things to Do & See
  • Best Time to Visit
  • At A Glance
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Things to Do and See in Inle Lake

Visit Floating Gardens & Fishing Villages

The floating vegetable garden is the first thing that would hit your eyes when coming there. It’s on the surface of the water and creative of the Intha. The unique garden was created by hyacinth roots and seaweed, the top is the mud, using thousands of bamboo sticks to keep the garden on the lake and not drifting away. The floating gardens with a bunch of chilies, cucumber, peanut, tomato,..etc.. and even flower gardens is one of the special creation of the resident here. The most beautiful image in Inle Lake is probably the people fishing by foot. Most of the fishermen are men, especially since they use both legs and hands to catch and toss net. Specifically, those fishermen use one leg to stand on the nose of the boat and the other leg holds a pole, while their two arms are for netting and fishing. If you want to join in this experience, just ask the Intha guide you how to do.

Get around some local handicraft villages

Spend a small amount of time to visit some handicraft villages to have an insight into unique local traditions such as lotus weaving village, silverware village, cigar village… Besides, Inle is also well - known for the Kayan people - long neck people, who are talented weavers in the field of making the most beautiful lotus flowers by handcraft, they weave cloth without machines or looms.

Come over Shwe Inn Thein Temple

Well-known for its 1,000 ancient towers built with unique architecture, you might spend a day tour to visit all over small temples. The average height of the temples is about 3 meters, standing close together like serial artificial hills on the ground. The main color of those ones is gold and red brick. However, there were many accident temples destroyed over time because they built up for so long time ago. Finally, you should not miss grabbing for yourself a lot of wonderful photos right here the sun goes down.

Best Time To Visit Inle Lake

When to visit The weather in Inle Lake is the same as in other parts of Myanmar. In general, there are three seasons in Myanmar. Fall from October to February next year. Rainy season starts from July to September. Autumn is more suitable for tourism in Myanmar than all. From November to February, visitors to Myanmar are very crowded because of this less rainfall, mild climate. In May, July, and September there are very few tourists to Myanmar. The tourist season is winter visitors, the price will be more expensive, if you save money, and then choose the season to go offline.

Inle Lake General Information

Location: Burma Center
Language: Burmese
Currency: Kyat Myanmar (MMK)
Time Zone: GMT +6:30
International Dialing Code: +95

People, City, and Culture

People

Inle Lake is home to the Inthar people - a minority of Myanmar. Inthar in Myanmar means “the people live on the lake”. From thousands of years ago, Inle Lake was home to all the social activities of the Inthar people. The people here built houses and architectural works on the lake beside have lived in four cities bordering the lake, the numerous people have lived in many villages along the lake and on the lake. In addition, that would be a mistake when not mention to the leg-rowers of Inle Lake is famous for incredible sailing and fishing capabilities by foot, and the long-necked Kayan woman.

City

This place is roughly 600 km from Yangon, Inle is a fresh lake located in the mountains. It is one of the two largest freshwater lakes in Myanmar with the main inhabitants living on the lake. Inle Lake has been selected by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the five new destinations in Asia that travelers should explore. Inle Lake also means "big lake". Inle is about 889 meters above sea level, surrounded by high mountains and covers an area of 220 square kilometers. The deepest lake is about 6m. Water levels vary seasonally between the dry season and the full water season of about 1.2 m.

Culture

In Inle Lake, Intha people love to plant and fish, because this is a large freshwater area. It is often said that "visit Inle without eating tomato salad is considered as never coming here". Although the inhabitants live quite sparsely, most of them live mainly around the lake with traditional villages.

Transportation

To reach Inle Lake is effortless, you can choose the most simple and popular means such as the long-distance bus. However, you can pick up some other means to get to Inle: train, plane. On the other hand, to explore Inle Lake, you have only one option: take a motorboat. A motorboat usually carries 4 tourists and costs about 10$ a day with life jackets and umbrellas.

Phone & Internet

Although some places provide free Wi-Fi the transmission speed is sluggish and spotty. You had better buy a local sim card, it works better.