Day 2: Lake Inle

Day 1 in Myanmar took us from Yangon Airport via a short domestic flight to Heho Airport and then on to our first real destination of the trip: Lake Inle.  The hotel for our first two nights is an unexpectedly upmarket establishment, with very well appointed cabin rooms on stilts over a small lagoon next to the main canal leading into Lake Inle.  All very picturesque, the only downside being the incessant and fairly loud chugging of the long-tail boats racing up and down the canal outside our back door.  But I suppose that is preferable to listening to the planes coming in to land over Heathrow.

Today (Day 2) was our first outing on our bikes, which are impressively well specified and well maintained.  First stop after a short ride was a winery.  Yes, I didn't realise that they made wine in Burma either, until some appeared at last night's dinner.  So naturally we had to have a tasting session.  Slightly weird drinking wine at 8.30 in the morning, but hey, we're on holiday!  Verdict: I don't think the French wine producers need to worry too much about the Burmese competition, nor indeed do even the English wineries.Then it was another short ride to the start of the Inle Lake tour.  Leaving the bikes behind for the rest of the day we boarded long-tail boats, which took us around the various tourist attraction on the lake, including the local fishermen, who have their own unique style of propelling their craft using their legs to move its single paddle.   Naturally there were various Buddhist temples to visit too (I suspect the first of many that we will be seeing on this Myanmar trip.)

And so finally back to our hotel on our taxi boat, followed by a flock of seagulls eager to eat the snacks thrown to them by our guide.

Lake Inle

View Larger Map