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Previous: Yangon - Taunggyi
This is the Joy hotel where I had a nice room with bathroom and balcony for only 4 dollars a night. I mention these prices because some of my friends who like to travel, but who always go with organized tours costing more than a hundred US dollars a day, find it difficult to believe how cheap backpacking around the world can be (anywhere but Europe and North America).
Nyaungshwe is a small Shan town five kms up this river north of Inle lake.
The last Shan Sawbwa (king), Sao Shwe Thaike had his palace there. He had been the first president of Myanmar in 1948 but he was imprisoned by Ne Win in 1962 and died in jail.
There is general agreement that the Intha (children of the lake) people who moved into the marshy lands around Inle Lake, came from Tenasserim in southernmost part of the country but nobody knows exactly when, 12th, 14th, or 18th century.
The Intha speak a Burmese dialect and are Buddhist.
They are good fishermen and they practically live on the water. They are renowned the world over for their unique method of rowing their boats with one leg while balancing on the other.
You have to see it to believe it, it's as if they were walking on water.
Their villages are built on stilts in the marshes surrounding the lake that the Shan did not want to occupy.
The Intha's unique characteristics have attracted a lot of tourists. Most Inthas are fishermen but some have stopped fishing and have grown prosperous from the tourist industry as you can see from their houses here and below.
Inthas are hard-working, they have to be to prosper in a marsh. They grow vegetables on the floating gardens you see here.
I know of no other place where this is done. They gather huge amounts of these floating aquatic weeds to form the base of the long rafts shown in the previous photo.
Then they dredge up muddy silt from the lake bottom with these long handled baskets until their boat is about to sink, and bring it to their gardens where it is spread on the raft of floating weeds to create farmland.
No wonder tourists come from afar to see these remarkable water people. Two more below.
As mentioned before, the Intha are hard-working, They build their own boats and caulk them with a hard resin that looks like the lacquer used to make lacquer ware. The old master boat builder below was evidently a highly respected member of the community.
I found them handsome and friendly people even though I could not really communicate with them.
The two pictures below were taken in a cigar factory.
And finally here is the Burman guide and boatman who showed me around. I'm sure I wrote his name down somewhere but I just can't find it!
