Inle Lake, Shan State, Myanmar

                      

                                          “I think somehow we learn who we really are and then we live with that decision.”

                                                                                            –  Eleanor Roosevelt

               I saw Inle lake for the first time from the cover of lonely planet copy which my boyfriend got as a welcome gift two years ago. Ever since I always want to visit this peaceful watery world.

               Beginning of the low season in Myanmar, we decided to take a 3 days and 2 nights vacation to escape our busy life style. This holiday was arranged by my boyfriend and everything was kind of a bit surprise for me (a good surprise).

          We travelled from Yangon to Heho airport by domestic airline, the airplane (ATR22)was very small but the service was great. The private car picked us up from the airport and then they dropped us off at the pier in Shwe Nyaung. From here, we took another 35 minutes on long tail boat to the hotel.

The Inle lake is 44.9 meter long and the average depth in the dry season is around 7 feet. This lake is like no other place in the world, nine of endemic fish species and twenty species of snail can be found. This place also hosts a variety of migrating birds.

                

                 

                       

This lake surrounded by Shan Mountains and it gave stunning sunset backdrops for our journey.

           

                   Our guide took us to one of the fishing spots on the lake for the photography. The fisher man showed us different posts in exchange for some tips.

                                     

                                     

                        Our Boat passed through a series of canals fringed by stilt-houses, floating gardens, schools and Buddhist temples.

                                       

                       

                     We were finally arrived at our hotel at the end of the day, Hooray!

                   

 
 Santums hotel was so elegant and this place offered a real relaxing retreat. Our Junior suit was a nice surprise with lake view. Room was huge and bed was so comfortable. There was also welcome fruit and sweet waiting us in the room. The pool was refreshing and it was so gorgeous with Inle lake's view. I enjoyed every moment at the hotel.

                                                      View from our breakfast table

First agenda of the day was a breakfast and then a full day tour. Our tour guide showed up at the hotel dock early in the morning with three mountain bicycles. It was a hot day and I have not been working out  for years, so I was a bit worried if I could complete the tour.

                          Our first stop was a temple, we adjusted our bicycles and we had a little discussion on the route. We rode on the small roads and went through small villages. People here lived in very simple house of wood or bamboo and they were farming for a living. Local were so friendly to us and they waved and greeted us along the way. We saw people from different ethnicities walking up and down the mountain during the journey. Even though the road was a bit rough but there were so many things to see and I completely forgot about the distance.

                      

                        After one and a half hours, we got back to our long tail boat, we put our bikes back on the front.Then we cruised to our next destination, Phaun Daw Oo Pagoda.

                      

                      

                    
My first impression with these Pagoda were an ancient Mon style. Even though most of the pagoda lost their gold part but there were telling a lot of stories for the last eight hundred years. 
 
On the way back we walked through shops which were surrounding Pagoda selling traditional Shan and Burmese merchandise.

                 Our final stop was local restaurant and then we just decided to head back to our hotel. I felt too tired to have another one and a half hour ride and we wanted to just swim in the pool.

      
Finally, I would say we had a perfect vacation and this place was unexpected romantic Hotel was so nice and Sunset from the pool side was romantic moment ever. Daily activities was well organised and I could not be really happy about everything.