Our last major stop and probably the most beautiful place in Burma was Inle Lake. The lake is fairly large but not that deep (2.1m to 3.7 m at the deepest point). The main mode of transportation is a flat boat. The people of Inle Lake (called Intha), some 70,000 of them, live in four cities bordering the lake and many smaller villages. This community lives by fishing, growing vegetables on floating gardens and tourism.
The fishermen are known in the world for using one of their legs to steer the boat and fish with a circular cage.
Typical Inle Lake fisherman
Most of the fishermen who still fish like this, are more interested in having their pictures taken than fishing. Since this is one of the most iconic image of Burma (the Lonely Planet guide for Burma has a Inle Lake fisherman on the cover), we spent a fair amount of time taking pictures of them. We came back to the spot where they were fishing twice for sunrise and once for sunset. It could seem excessive but shooting in the pre-dawn morning from a moving boat with several photographers requires a lot of coordination and stillness. After the first sunrise sesssion, we had a discussion and review of our images with Tuan, both could find a lot of issues with our images, so we worked out another game plan for the next morning.
We splitted the two photographer boats even further, creating two independent groups that minimized interactions. For the first sunrise, we had a really nice fog layer on the lake, that added a bit of mystic. The second sunrise, it was a clear day, so we got a warmer light on the fishermen.
The sunset session was easier in a way, we were shooting from “dry” land. Not quite actually, we were shooting from a ponton, we could use our tripod but that was required that nobody moves during the image capture. After a couple tries, we settled as a group as a regular routine of 5 minutes of shooting (nobody moves) and 1 minute of trading places. We did not plan for this, it just happened. The images of the fishermen above are a little staged because the fishermen are wearing a traditional outfit (which they never wear in the street) versus the fishermen below wore their normal clothes (t-shirt from a soccer team).
When we crossed the lake at one point, we passed this young fisherman, who was actually fishing for himself. It didn’t use the traditional net, he used a “regular” net.
Real fisherman
Isle Lake real fisherman
Close up of their fishing technique
The deepest point of the lake.
After several days visiting the lake, I had a similar feeling of Venice, where everything is carried by boat: food, livestocks, market goods, kids. I took a couple images, trying to show you the view from the boats.
Everything is carried by boat.
This could be the Grand Canal, minus the pagoda. That was the day of the floating market in this city. Everything was brought by boats, a very similar feeling as in Venice.
Similar feeling of Venice.
Our hotel was the Inle Lake Treasure hotel, I have shown you what it looks like inside in this post, but the boat arrival is exceptional. You approach the hotel thru a private lagoon. Once inside the lagoon, they don’t use the engine, the hotel supplies two staff that bring the boat to the ponton using their unique one leg rowing technique. It’s simply magical. When you come at night, it’s even better.
My favorite hotel, arriving at Inle Lake Treasure Resort
Inle Lake Treasure Resort at night
Our hotel in the pre-dawn light.
The story of the sunken boat. Each time I travel, I look from any images about this country that is unusual, memorable and interesting. One image that stuck to my head was the image of an Intha boat half sunken. Even before arriving, I was asking our guide (John) if he could ask some fishermen if they knew where we could find an old sunken boat. No one we asked knew where to find such a boat.
Out of despair, we asked our hotel, expecting a negative answer. It turned out that the hotel had an old boat that was half sunken. They offered to tow it to be better spot for the sunset. Never underestimate the power of a good bellman.
The story of the sinked boat.
This is my 10th post about my trip to Burma and my last one. You can find all the posts below. Burma is a wonderful, amazing, friendly country and I will go back. I have only scratch the surface. Many thanks to John (our local guide), Tuan (our photo guide), Phuoc (our travel tour operator) and all the participants of this trip.
- part 1: Burma/Myanmar – Shwedagon pagoda
- part 2: Burma/Myanmar – Sule Pagoda
- part 3: Burma/Myanmar – Kandawgyi Lake
- part 4: Burma/Myanmar – Kyaukhtatgyi, Nga Htat Gyi and Botataung Pagodas
- part 5: Burma/Myanmar – Bagan pagodas and temples (Shwesandaw, Shwezigon and Sulamani
- part 6: Burma/Myanmar – Bagan monks
- part 7: Burma/Myanmar – Mandalay
- part 8: Burma/Myanmar – Food and lodging
- part 9: Burma/Myanmar – Off the beaten path Pindaya caves and Kyaiktiyo pagoda
All the images presented here are available for licensing or as fine art prints.