You can see there’s something strange about this lake from Google Earth. The shoreline is an unnatural shape
Up close these patterns and villages are over the water
Over hundreds of years they’ve built rafts of floating lake weed (4 feet thick) and grow vegetables on them. 60% of Myanmar tomatoes come from here, for example.
The small towns are built on stilts. The poor build the homes out of bamboo which only last 5 years.
Here’s a tour of the village of Paung Daw Oo. The people have the same name. The video ends with an excellent view of the floating fields. Plus two young kids rowing with their feet!
We started off early in the morning. Beautiful
Dredging the bottom for raft weed is happening everywhere
A guy standing on a beginning raft
Lotus flower fields supply the factory here that weaves cloth for (only) Buddha statues.
They pull the fibre out of the flower stems
She can ‘roll out’ 10 meters of fibre a day
A dyeing area
On her phone
Lotus and silk weaving are a principle occupation of the village women
Separating the threads looked hard. Mesmerizing, she had a magnetic grace
There’s a festival on dry land close by. 5 small Buddha statues are taking the annual tour of all 37 lake villages. Monks and locals apply a little gold leaf and over the centuries have become amorphous shapes
For Facebook. A story coming up on that
What the heck, curious about how the incredibly thin square fragment I buy sticks, I try it. I bought another and will stick it to my fridge or something when I get back
A magical lake
A very old painting of the lake from before the floating fields
For more on this place go here: Inle Lake Wiki