Inle Lake

The final few days of my trip. It's been an amazing experience.

The Inle Resort is tucked along the edge of the lake, quite isolated from any villages or other resorts which makes it a great place to have a rest before I head home.

It was an early start and a very cool ride across the lake to see the villages that sit along the shore, catering to tourists as well as providing organic produce for the area.

Our first stop was Shwe Inn Thein Paya, which has 1054 weather beaten zedi (stupas) dating from the 17th and 18th centuries (according to Lonely Planet anyway). Some of the structures were very well preserved. Inthein village is also one of the places for the five day rotating market which is the biggest. Once you get past the tourists and find where the locals shop, it's a colourful place full of strange looking food and interesting people.

I spent the rest of the day visiting craft workshops - silk and lotus flower weavers, cigar makers, boat builders and silversmiths. Some workshops were full of tourists while others were quite empty. We managed to dodge a huge storm while I had lunch and kept relatively dry.

Of course no day would be complete without a pagoda to visit. Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda sits in Tha Lay village and is the holiest religious site in Southern Shan State. It has a couple of golden barges which are used for special ceremonies which are worth a look as is the pagoda compound itself.

On the way back we saw the floating gardens, rows and rows of tomatoes which looked like they were growing on the water. And, we had to make a stop to take photos of the fisherman, rowing with one leg while they cast off their nets - one of the most famous images from Myanmar.

Sunset by the lake, mojito in hand finished off a really fantastic day. More sunset pictures!Read more