As we approached the other end of Inle Lake, and eerie calm settled. Our guide has turned off the motor again and is not rowing towards our destination, which I suspect is not very far away. There were rows and rows of houses on stilts on the lake. In contrast to the houses in Nyaungshwe which are all built on land, these houses are built entirely on the lake bed itself. Fortunately, it is a shallow lake so it is not really that difficult to build here. This place was something reminiscent of the floating village of Chong Kneas on the Tonlé Sap in Cambodia, only this one looks much better organized so it was much less depressing.
What I found amusing what that the village had something akin to streets, except they were just water. The houses were organized in rows such that that it was easy for villager to go in and out of the houses via the “streets”. How do they go out? By boat of course! If you need to borrow something from the neighbor, you’d need to get the boat to get there. It was truly interesting to see such organized living on a lake. And to think that they have been living here for years. The houses on Inle Lake do not seem to be the sturdy type though, but I don’t think cyclones reach this part of Myanmar.
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