Inle Lake was my natural next stop in Myanmar after Bagan. Many people do the 3 day trek into Inle Lake from Kalaw, but I decided to pass since I was running out of time. The lake, located in the Shan State region, is beautiful and serene. The livelihoods of the village people are completely centered around water.

Arriving on December 23, I was lucky to find a place to stay at the newly founded hostel, Song of Travel Hostel in Nyaung Shwe. This is the only hostel in the area and it was entirely booked— I clearly wasn't the only one who thought spending Christmas on the lake was ideal. I quickly chatted up Evan who was working the reception desk. I learned he is also from San Jose, went to a high school not to far away me, and did speech and debate. Small world. I was really excited about the fact that we had most likely crossed paths at a speech tournament years ago. Speech nerds for life!

The obvious activity to do here is the boat tour around the lake. I first noticed that all the fisherman were rowing with a very distinctive style. They row by standing on one leg at the tip of the long boat with the other foot wrapped around an oar. How they manage to paddle with one foot, balance, and actually catch fish is beyond me.

Admittedly Inle Lake has become a bit of a tourist trap, and our boat driver took us to various areas of the lake with mostly shops. My group became increasingly frustrated and began to make sarcastic comments "oh look, more things to buy" every time we stopped. We wanted the real Inle Lake, not the tourist version. Don't get me wrong, the lake was stunning, but I was more interested in discovering authentic Myanmar. You can try to tell your boat driver about specific places to visit, but they will usually just take you on the general tourist route around the lake. Plus, they don't really speak English.

One of the stops was at an umbrella making workshop. Walking in, I saw a few women and girls with gold rings around their necks and limbs. People had said these long-necked women could be found in Inle Lake, and I was definitely curious. However, upon seeing them, I felt immense shame. These women were not from this area, and they had brought all the way here to be paraded around for tourists. If there is one thing I detest the most, it is people being shown off like spectacles. I felt really uncomfortable about the entire situation, so I took the time to speak with them and learn more about their way of life. I really was genuinely curious about why they wear the gold rings. After a while, I finally had the courage to ask if I could take a few pictures. With an extremely guilty look on my face I continued to repeat sorry and thank you. The ethics of this entire situation is very questionable and I realize I am most definitely a hypocrite for still taking part.

I felt a little bit better at the next stop where women were making textiles. This was genuinely very interesting to see how they created these intricate silks all from hand. Inle Lake is also home to lotus silk, which can't be found anywhere else. One silk lotus scarf takes months to make, since they are harvesting silk strings from lotus flowers which they then spin into thread. The entire process is fascinating. Their method for making patterns on scarves was dumbfounding: the patterns are actually dyed onto a single strand of string prior to weaving. It's really hard for me to explain, but all you need to know is that it's ingenious.

The majority of villages around Inle Lake are very untouched, but for a less touristy experience it would be best to just bike around the entire lake instead. Still, I had such a wonderful time lazying around on the boat taking in the scenic views and seeing what life is like on the water. You do get the chance to stop at a number of temples on the lake which are beautiful. The villagers I saw on the long boats fascinated me, and it was so charming to see the wooden houses on stilts as we floated through the villages. After 8 hours of sitting on a boat, we were all exhausted and were grateful to watch the sunset over the lake as we cruised on back to Nyaung Shwe.