The Inle Lake - Traveling with two monks on Myanmar's pearl

What do you actually do without electricity? Some of you may have experienced a power outage before. Only when you have experienced one may you realize how dependent you are on electricity.

We had a "power outage" every day, as at certain times it is simply turned off throughout the city during the daytime. And when we had electricity, it came from a generator. By the way: For the regional conditions there, we were in a very civilized town, to be exact in "Nyaung Shwe". While carriages were driving in front of our hotel door and there were an average of 3 stray dogs in every small street, we lived in a kind of enclave, even though we only had electricity for about 6 hours during the day. A private pool, a beautiful, huge room and the best breakfast we have had on the trip so far made these 4 days even more beautiful.

The highlight of this trip was definitely our day tour on the boat on Inle Lake. Not only because of the lake and its many facets, but also because in the morning during breakfast we spontaneously decided to do the tour with two monks.

We immediately got along well with both of them and within 5 minutes the plan was made. We set off about 30 minutes later. We had never seen the two before, but we simply liked them.

While Naing spoke English quite well, the other monk did not speak this language. Naing told us so many things about the things we saw, but also his own story. Like 90% of the monks, he also comes from poor conditions. Many of them certainly see a chance in becoming a monk to lead a better life. Many children from poor families choose the path to the monastery because their parents can no longer provide for them. So did Naing... As we have learned, monks mainly live on donations.

The highlight that Naing showed us was a "pagoda forest". The "Indein pagodas". Yes, we can't see them anymore, but they had something very special about them, although not positive: They were partly very old and dilapidated, which gave the area a certain charm.

We would like to present you the other highlights of this day trip in pictures:

Pay attention to Nadine's neck. She has long admired the women of the tribes who wear this jewelry that makes their necks very long. This is because the growth of the collarbone is stopped.

The other days at Inle Lake were both sporty and relaxing. In general, quieter days were announced. During a bike tour to explore the surroundings, we met extremely original, very nice locals, with whom we spoke. Max arranged to play soccer with them the next day. But unfortunately this did not happen due to lack of time.

Overall, the area around Inle Lake is a beautiful, nature-rich area. Probably everything seems even more beautiful if you come from a city like Yangon, but that doesn't change this judgment too much.

By the way, tourists are almost completely absent in the Inle Lake region, just as in Yangon. Maybe there are more during the main season, but even that is doubtful. Myanmar is simply completely undeveloped for tourism. We feel like two absolute exotics.