Surrounded by mountains on both sides, this sprawling lake is home to stilted villages, floating gardens and a relaxed atmosphere. This area has relatively cool temperatures compared to other parts of the country due to its elevation. The main hub with tourist services and accommodations is located at Nyaung Shwe at the North end of the lake. The Inle Lake area requires an entrance fee upon arrival. The fee is $10.
The most popular activity here is hire a boat to take you out on the lake past the famous fisherman, a monastery, numerous local stilted villages on the lake as well as the floating gardens. We found a constant price being offered to take us both out of 18000 Kyat. It’s a nice boat ride from Nyaung Shwe at the North end of the lake to the villages at the South end which takes about 20 – 30 minutes. We went to villages demonstrating weaving with silk and lotus thread, silver smithing as well as making cheroots and cigars. All over the lake you can see fisherman trying to get the days catch and at the lake entrance near Nyaung Shwe there are fisherman posing with their wicker nets for tourists to take pictures.
Another fun activity is renting a bicycle and riding the loop. You can either head west or east out of town and head down about 7 km on either side of the lake where you hire a boat to transport you and your bike to the other side and you continue the loop back up to town. The cost for both of us and our bikes to get across was 8000 Kyat. It’s a great ride that takes in the countryside and only takes a couple hours.
This was one of the most difficult places for us to find budget accommodations that were available. We were offered to be taken by tuk-tuk to an inexpensive guesthouse at the bus station upon arrival but decided to skip the fare and search one out ourselves. Pretty much all the guesthouses we came across in town were booked up. Most of the other places were out of our price range ($ 30 – 40). We did find one place that had a room for $15 but the shower water pressure was very weak so we decided to keep looking. After doing an entire a full circle of town from the bus terminal we came across a motel that offered us a room for $20 with breakfast included but reduced the price to $15 if we skipped breakfast. Not wanting to search anymore we decided to go with them. The only downside to this place was that they offered free wifi but it ended up being the neighboring travel agencies wifi so the signal was pretty weak. My advice would be to take the tuk-tuk offering a ride to an inexpensive guesthouse at the bus terminal rather than walk around and find your own.
There are numerous restaurants around town selling a variety of cuisines. We ended up eating at a few places but mainly just got the inexpensive noodle and rice dishes that cost 1500 – 2000 Kyat. Anything else on the menu was 3000+ Kyat. The beer stations around town also serve up good noodle and rice dishes for the same price and have draught beer for 700 Kyat.
Embrace the Odyssey 