Lake Inlay 2 Oct to 4 Oct

Lake Inlay is about 300 km NE of Yangon. It is about 22km by 11 km and surrounded by hills. It is very pretty. There are 17 villages on stilts around the edges. The local tribes grow many different fruit and vegetables on sort of mud islands. It is weird being driven in a long skinny boat through rows of tomato plants and seeing villagers in boats tending them and other crops. There are also many fishermen who have an interesting technique of tending their fishing net with both hands while standing and propelling their small boat with a leg wrapped around 1 oar. We stayed in one of the several fancy resorts that were built a few years ago when Burmese tourism looked like it might take off. Unfortunately it hasnot and the resorts looked mostly empty. I had a lovely room looking out onto a lush garden on the edge of the lake. The meals we had were really delicious – using the local ingredients in interesting ways.

Our local guide was Marlar, a member of the 1 million Pa-O people who live mainly in the hills around the lake. The Pa-O have a cooperative who own and run one of the resorts that we had a meal at. They put the profits back into their community – eg sealing roads to their villages. We visited a market – sloshed our way through mud up and down rows of unusual fruit and veggies, dodging colourfully dressed people in their tribal costumes. At one end were the bamboo merchants – about 10 wagons loaded with really long bamboo poles and at the other end were buffalo, cows and a pig. Apparently the buffalo are for hire.

We visited several villages and an orphanage with delightful children who sang some songs for us. All the travel, from village to village was by boat, sometimes at sunset or quite early and the different lights on the always still water were lovely.

A highlight of our time there was seeing the annual festival of Phaung Daw Do. 5 imges of Buddha are normally kept in the biggest of the areas pagodas. Once a year 4 of them ( 1 has to stay there in case the barge carrying the other 4 sinks) are taken around the lake to visit other Pagodas. The very fancily decorated main barge is towed by about 50 long boats being paddled by about 80 to 100 males between about 12 and 70 in age. Each boat is paddled – standing with 1 oar each - by members of one village and all the villages have a slightly different costume. Each boat is accompanied by what appears to be a tender carrying relief rowers and several often apparently overcrowded boats filled by the women of the village. Some of the accompanying boats hold small family groups with a little altar.
The timing of this festival depends on the moon and is linked with the end of the Buddhist lent. A slight downside for us, linked to the end of lent was the amplified chanting of a monk from a nearby pagoda. From 5am to 10pm he told us of Buddha’s teachings – but the monks speak a different language that other people do not routinely learn, let alone foreign tourists. So what was the point? ( Many of the local people only speak the language of their tribe, and only learn Burmese when ( and if) they go to school)