Inle Lake and the floating village Monastery - Myanmar (Burma)

Inle Lake is usually part of the must-see tour in Myanmar. To travel there from Yangon (the capital of Burma) you can take a plane at the airport, and then hire a driver to take you to the lake, where you can spend a couple of nights at any village. Taking a flight in Myanmar is the simplest procedure in the world. You can usually show up on the spot and buy your ticket right there. The airport is very old-fashioned, but thanks to that it is friendly and totally lacking of the global security paranoia that is unknown and unnecessary there.

Among the best trips in the area is the floating village. You can do a boat tour around the lake and visit some of the many floating villages that are there. Many of these villages are many centuries old, and are floating in the lake. It's interesting to watch how the local community works building homes for the newer families, and visiting the floating factories, shops and houses. Some of these factories how can visit include paper, jewelry, silverware, lacquerware, weaving, food, and many other. The floating plantations are quite amazing as well. At some places the boatman can let you get-off the boat to step on some of the huge floating plantations. But usually only one person may stand on a same small area, so as not to sink. The natural flora that forms the bushes where you step are sometimes just enough for one person to walk on at the same time.

The main Buddhist floating monastery is very ancient as well, and pretty amazing. It's huge and beautiful, and has a long and interesting history. Right at the center of the main shrine there are three deformed golden statues that look like huge golden eggs. These are actually quite ancient Buddha statues that have been added so many gold leafs during the many centuries, following the local tradition of worshipping the Buddha statues, that today you cannot recognize Lord Buddha's shape any more. But still the pilgrims and devotes go and stick more 24K gold leafs. In order to be sure that only the highest quality pure gold is used, you can only use the certified gold leafs that are sold in the temple.

There is an interesting story about these statues. Once a year there is an important buddhist procession, and those statues are carried on a beautiful boat prepared for that special religious festivity. After some time the statues are brought back to the shrine. This ceremony has been taking place for many centuries. But some centuries ago, perhaps because of a bad weather or storm, the boat sank and the statues were lost for some time. I don't remember if they even mentioned that they were lost for some years... but this part I really don't remember well.

The thing is that they were recovered, and returned to the shrine to be worshipped as a miracle.

Another interesting thing to watch when you visit Inle Lake is the traditional technique that the local fishermen have, for rowing and for dropping the fishing net. They attach their one rowing rudder to their let, and then row by moving their leg while they stand on their other leg inside the boat.