Our trip to Inle Lake was a great way to wrap up our two weeks in Myanmar. The lake is located in the middle of the country, about a 12 hour bus ride northeast of Yangon. We spent our time here relaxing after our trek, enjoying time on the water, and soaking in the areas around the lake (including a beautiful winery)! Here are our favorite activities from our time at Inle:

Taking a Boat Ride Around Inle Lake

Hiring a boat to take us around Inle Lake was the highlight of our trip. We met up with Jiří and Aneta, our friends from the Kalaw trek, to spend our first day post-trek sharing a boat. We had a blast!

The boat ride lasts all day and costs about $20 USD. We organized this through our hotel, Sweet Inn, which gave the boat driver a laminated copy of all the attractions we should see. This was really helpful as we didn’t have do to any planning nor struggle through the communication barrier to let the driver know where we’d like to go.

One of our favorite parts of the boat ride was watching the fishermen at work. Their technique is really unique; they paddle standing up and with their legs so they can easily see the water while using their hands for the fishing nets. Some of them along the typical tourist route will pose for pictures with their nets in the air (and then paddle up to you for a tip), but there are other authentic fishermen just doing their thing and it was fun to get pictures of both.

The boat made several stops, including to a temple, a monastery, several workshops, and a market. These were all pretty touristy, but we still enjoyed getting a glimpse of what the Inle community is like and the kinds of work done by people living on the lake.

Inle Lake is also home to many floating farms growing all sorts of crops including tomatoes, cucumbers, and gourds. It was interesting to see the farmers harvesting from their boats.

Our last stop was to see the sunset, which was beautiful! We had some more fishermen float up to us doing poses with their nets, which was an entertaining sunset show. Look at their coordination!

Going for a Bike Ride Around Inle Lake

We loved renting bikes and riding around the lake. We made it about halfway down the west side of the lake before paying a driver to take us and our bikes to the other side so we could ride back. Renting bikes cost about $2 each for the whole day and it was a great way to see the lake from a different perspective. We did a terrible job taking pictures on this day but we had so much fun!

Red Mountain Estates Winery

There is a beautiful winery on a hill overlooking the lake and we loved it so much we went two days in a row. They offer a wine tasting for about $4 per person and have a restaurant where you can order a bottle (or two), grab a snack, and watch the sun set over the lake. It was magical and really tasty! Getting to and from the winery took us about 30 minutes by bike from our hostel in Nyaung Shwe.

Nyaung Shwe Market

There is a large market that rotates around the Inle Lake region on a 5 day schedule and we happened to be in town on it’s Nyaung Shwe day. You can buy nearly everything at the market, from food to clothes to household items and more. We bought a nail clipper for about $0.70!

John also splurged on a haircut from a stand just outside the market  – it cost $2.62 including a tip! We couldn’t get over how affordable everything was in Myanmar!

We had four days in Inle Lake and while we could have seen the major sites in less time, it was nice to slow down and relax after our trek and get to re-visit some of our favorites like the winery. We hope to make it back someday!