Burma continues: Along The Golden Kite Route to Inle Lake and Beyond

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Burma continues:Along the Golden Kite Route to Inle Lake and beyond

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Blog 7 08.11.2020.  nguptatravelscrapbook.blogspot.com

The most iconic image of Inle Lake

Why is Inle lake famous? 

Inle Lake is Myanmar’s Natural Sanctuary. It is the second-largest freshwater lake of Myanmar (The first one is Indawgyi Lake) in the lap of Shan state and bordered by its beautiful hills and fertile valleys. Inle Lake feels much different from the rest of the country with its carefree, hilly and cooler climate with dense greenery and tranquil blue waters. Stilted fishing villages, monasteries and pagodas scatter the lake and its shoreline, with the nearby market town of Nyaung Shwe adding colour and chatter to this rustic sanctuary.

Stretching roughly 24 Km and 10 KM in width, the picturesque Inle Lake is the substance for the surrounding towns and villages. Amongst the multiple ethnic communities that populate the hills are the Intha families, a fishing culture, who are also a part of the community, living entirely on the waters in stilted houses on Inle Lake. We spotted the fishers rowing across the lake in their slim canoes with their distinctive leg-rowing technique, setting up one of Inle Lake’s most defining and iconic images. The fishers wrap one leg around their single oar, fixed to the stern of the boat for rowing while balancing the bodyweight on the other leg and keeping both hands free to catch and secure fish using the netted cone-shaped basket. 

On Inle Lake 

It was a long bus journey from Mandalay to Inle Lake (covering nearly 330 KM, South-east bound) with an overnight stopover near famous Pindaya caves. 

What is the Golden Kite route?

In Burma, the four popular destinations (Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay and Inle Lake) chart in the outline of a kite and hence is hailed as The Golden Kite Route. Much like The Golden Triangle,  in North India, encompassing Delhi, Agra (Taj Mahal) and Jaipur (The Pink City).

There were a few more stops en route, including an impromptu stop opportunity to take part in ginger crop harvesting along with the roadside fields. Our party was on the ginger fields, digging the rhizomes of the grounds and helping the locals to collect the product in their sacs, gaining an earnest experience.

On the day of arrival to Inle Lake, we stopped for lunch at Golden Kite house, one of the many cafes, bars and restaurants perched along the shores or even in the middle of the lake platformed on stilts. They served us a local dish named River Fish Celebrations (shallow-fried Snapper) with boiled potatoes and rice, being their main staple.

Golden Kite Restaurant

Pagodas at the riverbank

Following lunch, we proceeded in a motorboat, cruising past floating vegetable and fruit gardens, and took pictures of the anglers repeatedly to ensure the finest, nicest and the most priced click. We stopped in the stilted villages to visit cottage industry workshops, including famous cheroot making from tobacco grown on the lake,  silk weaving, silver-smiths and lotus fibre cloth workshops, etc. It was an excellent opportunity to interact with resident communities, and support their projects by buying locally made products, boosting the local economy. 

Cheroot Production 

Scenes of the local market in Inle

The floating vegetable patches produce several tonnes of tomatoes apart from growing other vegetables to supply the entire country. We saw wide belts of silt and tangled water hyacinth in the middle of the lake several times. Inle Lake recollected the memories of our visit (1985) to famous Dal Lake of Srinagar, Kashmir,  thronging with houseboats and Shikaras (canoe-shaped boats)  and floating vegetable gardens. Boats take the surplus produce to the local markets,  held each day in different villages on a weekly rotation system. The next morning our guide took us to one such local market where local tribesmen and women dressed in their finest traditional garbs, sell their products, including the traditional handicrafts. We visited a few of the ancient monasteries amongst the many gilded pagodas, shrines, and other religious sites dotted along the lake shores. We noticed that the Inle lake region was full of visitors, most of them spending two nights here. Inle lake setting is truly remarkable for its brilliant dawns and dusks. I have posted a few pictures below, which I clicked lazily with my mobile phone. 

Visiting a local Pagoda

Dawn at the Lake from our boat

Beautiful sunrise 

Breakfast served in the boat.

Dusk views from our Hotel Antara while sipping Mojitos in the Happy Hour. 

 Initiatives are undertaken and challenges remaining.

 "I want this lake to last longer and the floating gardens to the last longer, too. I want this environment to stay beautiful for future generations." Says a local billboard.

Inle Lake is under significant threat of pollution because of the release of sewage, over build-ups, tourism and the overuse of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in the floating gardens and nearby farms.  Deforestation in the adjacent hilly areas causes soil erosion, landslides and floods contributing to climate changes.  And the lake is getting shallower.  Inland NGOs, environmentalists and ecologists have taken initiatives, but the challenges remain as ever. In one such initiative, UNESCO declared Inle Lake as Biosphere Reserve (BR) in June 2015,  joining the world network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR). 

What is Biosphere Reserve (BR) 

BR is learning reserves for sustainable development, providing local solutions to global challenges. The lake provides a livelihood for over 200,000 people inhabiting the lake and its surroundings, who engage in fishing and varied agriculture. The local community of Inthas are very active farmers on the shores of the lake and surrounding hills and are skilled in hydroponic agriculture (locally called “Yechan”).  It is horticulture where they grow crops without using proper soil, by utilising minerals and nutrient solutions applied to the roots. 

The increasing use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers, which pollute the lake water, has become a challenge for adequate water quality. MONREC (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation)  is currently undertaking a campaign to raise awareness and promote the use of natural products, hence causing less pollution of the lake. BR alongside promotes the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable developments in the entire area, while recognising and regulating social and ecological system in Inle lake. This way BR not only helps the local inhabitants who have adapted to their unique lifestyle but also helps them to earn their livelihoods in the increasingly adverse biophysical environment. 

How could our travel party make our contribution?

We all agreed to collect and donate money towards the purchase of one simple, non- motorised boat, which can provide a daily livelihood to the much needed. Burma travel experiences encouraged me to explore the world mindfully and responsibly.

One of the donated boats by our travelling party

Pindaya caves and Hsin Khaung Taung kyaung Monastery

Pindaya Caves are the site of an enormous, intricate network of limestone grottoes packed with nearly 8000 Buddha statues and images.  The figures are carved out of marble, lacquer, teak or regular stones and adorned with gold or silver leaves, varying in size and style. The place was full of visiting schoolchildren, worshippers old and young, bowing before these Buddha images, offering flowers, and incense with folded hands. 

Pindaya caves

Inside of Pindaya caves

 

Novice Monks in the famous teak Monastery visited as the last stop near Inle Lake.

On the last day of our trip, we took a flight back to Yangon from Hohe and stayed overnight there. After spending 14 days together in the company of our tour manager, Yvette, tour guide Sam, and 26 fellow travellers, we bade farewell to each other while having an extravagant dinner at Le Planteur Restaurant, Yangon in its stunning decor and stylish settings. 

I acknowledge and am grateful to my readers to Page View, my blog comprising 7 posts so far.

My next blog would conceivably be about Dharamshala (home to Rev Dalai Lama and Tibetan Govt- in Exile) and McLeod Ganj, in the foothills of the Himalayas in India. I have spent some time there with several visits from the UK while helping there at a local charitable medical facility.