INLE LAKE. (??) Please tell me more..
 

I am moving along with a possible Burma trip to include a 14-night Pandaw cruise next March. Although I have been once before to Burma I did not visit Inle Lake. This area seems to be a favorite here, but I would like to learn more about what makes this different than other rural areas in SE Asia that are centered around a lake. I am a little concerned that tourism has infiltrated to such a degree that I will be ferried around in a motor boat in waters clogged with tourist boats a la Thai floating market areas. I've been to TonleSap outside Siem Reap and seen the villagers living in stilt houses. While I have no doubt that the area is beautiful, is it different enough to warrant 4 days out of a 3-4 week visit to SE Asia that will already include the PAndaw stops. Please tell me some pros and cons to help me decide...

If I leave Inle off this trip, we will have time for a few days in Hanoi, or even Shanghai, which my travel companions (in their 70s but in decent physical shape) may insist on visiting.

Thanks, yet again, to everyone who has been so helpful up til now.

First of all, you are right - Inle Lake is absolutely beautiful. You can see our photos at:

http://craigandjeane.smugmug.com/

We saw very few tourists while there except at Indein Market and the Jumping Cat Monastery, where we encountered a few. We were pretty specific about where we wanted to go but in retrospect, I don't think it really mattered. On many of our stops, even on the regular tourist circuit we were the only Westerners. While traveling by boat on the lake, there were long periods where we would see absolutely no one, except an occasional fisherman. It is nothing like the floating market in Thailand or Tonle Sap near Siem Reap. On our day trip to Taunggyi and Kakku, we did not see one other tourist. We spent an entire morning at Samka on its market day and also did not see one other tourist. What we did get the chance to do was to observe the local people go about their daily lives and to interact with them when it was appropriate. The two day trips (Taunggyi/Kakku and Samka) were definitely off the "normal" tourist track but all we had to do was ask to go there and Santa Maria set it up as part of our tour.

If you are considering extra days in Hanoi or Shanghai versus 4 days at Inle Lake, I suggest you and your travel companions decide what's more important - extra time in the city or a much more rural experience.

One more thing, Eks, Inle Lake is a different part of the country, known as the Shan state - different tribes, a relatively successful agrarian economy and a cooler mountain climate. I can't speak for how Inle Lake compares to the Pandaw cruise and the stops along the way because I haven't been, but my gut tells me that it could be an entirely unique experience for you and your travel companions.

eks - all of Myanmar felt “special” to me. Because of its isolation, I thought I was seeing what the rest of SEA might have been like several decades ago. In my memory Inle Lake felt even more special, or set apart, if that makes sense, but while my notes say that the lake was beautiful and reminded me of Scotland, they also say “lot of tourist boats” - this was Jan. ’05. The floating market was overrun with tourists, but the floating villages were much prettier than those in Vietnam.

I still haven’t edited most of my photos from this trip, but if you don’t mind them unedited my Myanmar pictures are here: kwilhelm.smugmug.com/Travel/287618, password “myanmar”. Inle Lake pix are numbers 96 to 170. I seem to be missing a complete card's worth, which is why there are no Mandalay pix....

Eks,

If the amount of time in Myanmar is an issue I suggest you reduce the number of days on the Pandaw and do visit Inle lake. As Craig and Thursdaysd have said Inle is very different and beautiful. Even the food is different from the rest of the country and I do recall very nice tofu dishes there.

Your hotel will arrange a boat with a captain to take you on an adventure around the lake and this usually start with the morning market or perhaps the floating market depending on the day of the week. After that there are a couple of tourist trap/shopping destinations that they will stop but you can easily tell them to bypass it. The "traps" were the silk weaving(mostly Thai looms and silk yarns being weaved for the tourists) and then the silver making village - just skip them both. The must visit places IMO are the Indein stupas and the Buddhist temples, cruise through the floating village, stop at a floating restaurant(there will be other tourists here), cruise through the floating vegetable farm, more temples(I didn't like the jumping cat temple) and observe the local fishermen with their unique paddling style.

Wow, I found the missing photos - I had uploaded only one file off a two file CD! So the Inle Lake pix are now 96 to 236. Clearly I need to delete a lot of these!

Thursday the photos are excellent--there is one of two boys on the side of the lake..well, there are many, many wonderful shots!

Ok--I get the idea that I have to work Inle into the trip. I doubt if I will ever be back in Burma. If my friends want to skip it, I can go alone before they arrive. Their feeling may be that they will only make one Asian trip (this may change once they behold the whole new world that awaits them!) and that is why their ideas are all over the map (Shanghai, Hanoi, etc) I will speak with them later today and certainly return with more questions! I've already told them that they should consider adding 2 days in Bangkok to decompress from the plane ride before going on to Yangon.

Thanks, eks. Maybe now I'll get around to editing them!

Can you explain to your friends that "Asia" isn't monolithic? That north, south, east and west Asia are all different? That the difference between Myanmar and China, or India and Cambodia, is vast? Would they do only one trip to Europe, which is a lot smaller?

YES!!! They are willing to forget about visiting Vietnam and will go to Inle Lake. They are now open to extending their trip to 4 weeks instead of 3!!!!

(I will try to work in a Shanghai stop on the way home).

Ok--Inle hotels? Princess vs. Lake View Resort?

What would I do without all of you??

Can't help with the hotels - I stayed at a guesthouse called the Golden Star, much more down-market.

Both Princess and Lake View Resort get good reviews. We chose to stay at the Lake View primarily because it didn't require an extra boat ride coming from and going to the airport. Neither hotel is of 5-star caliber but they are comfortable just the same. The Princess is more traditional Burmese in character and faces west, if sunsets are important to you. Both have good food that is fairly expensive by Myanmar standards. Both are close to villages that you can easily visit on foot and both have good access to the lake for boat trips.

Hope this helps.

Reviews of both these properties are very good. I will investigate prices. The travel agent who I am using to book Pandaw (because he will accept Amex while Pandaw will not)

http://www.jensenworldtravel.com/scr...te/default.asp

seems to have an arrangement with the Lake View Resort.

Anyone else have comments? Femi??

I just read through most of this informative thread. It made me understand that I might be better off just using the US TA for the Pandaw cruise and letting a local agency handle the Inle portion of the trip. (I hope that they will be content to handle only Rangoon and Inle for us, since I am booking Pandaw with Jensen)

I am bringing it up because it answers many of my own, and others' questions:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...in-burma-1.cfm

I just stayed at the Princess in Feb. and it was lovely, though not 5 star, and my room faced the lake and had an outdoor shower which was great, but it was quite chilly there in the a.m. that time of year. The food was good and the spa was fairly luxurious.

LOL! I thought lurkers were invisible!!!

I think I ended up staying at the Lake View Resort simply because it suited my personal taste, moreso than Princess. Looking at the pics on Tripadvisor, I would make the same choice were I going today.

Beware of the set menu though, way too much food, and pretty much the same throughout the country. No need to have meals included unless you will be somewhere off the beaten track.

Thanks, MM and Femi! Femi:

Now you can go back to lurking (!!) But don't think I can't see you!

LOL!

Back with more questions about Inle Lake.

How many days are ideal for Inle? I was planning on 3 nights, but have learned that we will have to spend the night following the cruise in Mandalay because the ship docks about 2pm and there are no later flights to Heho.

So 1 night in Mandalay has been added and we will have only 2 nights at Inle Lake. Is this a tragedy, or can we get a good glimpse with 2 nights, and probably one full day and a good part of the second day of arrival?

In Mandalay, this hotel looks nice:

http://www.emeraldlandinn.com/

It appears to be out of easy walking distance to the center, but this is just for overnight.

Any comments on Mandalay hotels?



Many thanks!

Eks - hopefully you are staying at the Inle Lake View Resort which should give you more time. If you go directly to Inle Lake from Heho airport, you should get there by late morning. I am not sure how much you will accomplish that afternoon but certainly you could arrange for a boat to take you around. The lake is at it's best in the early morning - the colors are outstanding and the weather is cooler because the sun is lower in the sky. Two nights is better than none but three nights would be far better as Inle Lake should be savored. It is quite different from the other areas you will be visiting. Note that you will have to leave early on your last day to catch your flight.

Have you considered doing Inle Lake during your 6 free days at the beginning of your trip and doing Yangon with your travel companions at the end?

Craig: I had initially planned on that, but I have to adhere to their time frame..I will give it more thought. They cannot leave NY before a certain date (bridge lesson, if you can believe that!!) while I can leave any time; doing Yangon at the end would mean cutting from Shanghai I think.

So I should book the Lake View Resort and not the Princess, correct (Princess is further away..?)

If I have not done so, I want to thank you so much for all of the help you have provided to me and to everyone here. I will be printing out your report, believe me!

We spent a couple of nights in Mandalay at a hotel call The Rupar Mandalar Resort. Nice pool there but about a 5 - 10 minutes taxi ride away from the centre of town or the Manadalay palace.

IMO the longer you can spend around Inle or Bagan the better. We were not impress with Mandalay.

FYI: http://www.ruparmandalarresort.com/

I think that whatever little time you may get in Inle Lake would be worthwhile. As Craig says 3 nights would be better than two, but two is better than none. I spent four nights and still wasn't ready to leave. You will enjoy your stay regardless of how long you are there. If you can swing it, I would definitely spend more time in Inle Lake and take away time from Yangon or my least favorite city Mandalay.

Yes, the Princess is farther away, so book the Lake View.

Thanks, everyone! Again!

Hanuman: I had looked at this hotel, (Emeraldl Land Inn, linked below) but cannot ignore advice from my man on the scene in SE Asia. I will ask travel agent to get me quotes from Rupar Mandalay, too. It seems as if a taxi is needed from both hotels to the palace and center, so it makes no difference--might as well stay at the nicest place..

It looks like Mandalay is unavoidable, because the Pandaw docks around 2pm and there are no later flights to Heho. If you can think of any alternatives to get to Heho the same night, that would be great...overland? I would rather skip Mandalay but see no way to do this...


http://www.emeraldlandinn.com/

Eks,

I posted a link for a map of Chote Chitr restaurant - have you seen it?

Roads in Myanmar are some of the worst in the world. Apart from chartering a plane I think you'll have to hunker down for the night in Mandalay.

I'm not sure if the Rupar Mandalar is consider the nicest hotel in Mandalay and personally I would only give it 4 stars the most but it's(was 2 years ago) new and the GM was Thai.

If you're only staying there so that you can catch a plane the next morning then perhaps some other hotel closer to the river or airport might be better. Please consult your TA as I have no idea what the other hotels are like.

Forget the drive - I did it from Inle to Mandalay and it took most of a long day, arriving after dark. I didn't think Mandalay was that bad - did a trip by boat to Mingun, and visited a couple of temples in town. My notes say "beautiful wood carving" in Shwe in Bin Kyaung. Ate quite well at the Golden Duck, and spent an evening at a marionette show.

Yes, I have just now seen the map. Good work. The new password is "l..ky p..l" Delete all cookies after reading this.

We will be fine in Mandalay for one night--I think we can dig up something interesting to do..

I suggested both of those hotels to Sonny at Gracious Myanmar and will see what he comes up with....

Thursday: Thank you for those recommendations. I would bet that I will be salivating for local food after being on the ship for so long. I know that the food is not so great in Burma, but surely there are tasty things to be found somewhere...??

Inle lake is pretty much only a cruise in the area to see the leg rowling fishmen, floating farms and a local town.
Message in the hotels used to cost US1 for an hour.
I felt guilty and usually tipped them more.
There were also long neck tribe in the area.
They might be related to the long neck tribe in Mae Hong Son, Thailand at one time.
The country is still not much exposed to tourism.
Unlike China, there are much fewer tourist traps in Burma.
One of the places would be the marionette stores in Mandalay.
Offer them 40% of the asking price.
For the little stores in Bogyoke Market, lowball to 60% is about right.
Burmese precious stones are the best in the world.
Tourist usually get the junks.
In some of long bus rides in Shan State, the travellers would pass by some small hotels in the mountain built by the british.
They had good western meals.
Shanghai is too crowded, Hanoi is boring.
Spending a couple more days in Burma might not be a bad idea.

We ate at one of the restaurant along the river one evening and the food was only so so.

eks - food in Myanmar was highly variable, both in type and quality. I was in the ninth month of my RTW trip when I got to Myanmar, and getting tired, so no TR and a rather sketchy journal, but it looks like a fair amount of Indian-style and Chinese-style food. But also steak and fries and red wine (Yangon), pizza (Inle Lake), v. good duck (Mandalay) - and duck restaurants also seemed to specialize in prawn tempura. A couple of puzzling references to “hot cashews”, and one to “v. v. tough beef”, followed by good veggies, liver and kidney (Mandalay).

The most interesting meals were probably a couple of “all-you-can-eat” lunches in Bagan. These involved an array of small dishes that kept getting refilled. But they were at very basic, local, operations. I also have a note about a place called Sunset Garden in Bagan as being very nice and very expensive - at least as compared to lunch!

Eks,

Latest intel on dining in Myanmar - http://www.airmandalay.com/pdf/GF0405_06.pdf

Duck restaurants that also often feature prawn tempura! Hmmmm. This is starting to sound interesting. I don't think I have ever been to a duck restaurant! Thanks, Thursday. You "know" me by now--I will do my best to investigate thoroughly. I don't care if the place is a street stall or a little fancy, as long as the food is good.

Hanuman: This is a start and we thank you. But we will require more intel regarding Yangon eating. Much more!

Travel agent has gotten back to me with the news that Rupar Mandalar is "over 300$US" and while it is a very nice place, they have "no service" and the hotel is meant more for "local business entertainment." !!


So we are going to go with Emerald Land Inn for our one night in Mandalay.

This place also looks lovely, if anyone is contemplating a stay in Mandalay; both hotels have pools.

http://www.hotelredcanal.com/hotel.htm

I would take advices from a typical TA with a grain of salt Eks. When I contacted some of the local agents in Myanmar they all had their own favourite reccomedations and they all criticise what was not on their "list". The Rupar was family run with good service and was no where near in that price range. I just check Tripadvisor.com and the only thing they have on the Rupar is from the forum: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...-Mandalay.html

For dining advice see Kathie's post http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...p-to-burma.cfm

"I don't think I have ever been to a duck restaurant" - didn't you do that in Beijing? (Not that the Burmese duck resembled Beijing duck.) The duck restaurants seemed to be pretty popular with the locals. I spent New Year's Eve at the home of my driver (he was my driver because a woman I had met in Vietnam had virtually adopted him, and she was also in Yangon with me) and we were commissioned to pick up duck from a duck restaurant for the meal. The place was so busy we would have had to wait, so we took chicken (and the prawn tempura) instead.

Oh, Thursday, I am such a dolt! Can you imagine that I forgot the Beijing duck restaurants?
I guess I was thinking more in the context of SE Asia--and now I even remember a place that featured duck in Ubud. So just forget my silly comment above, please.

Hanuman: Thank you for that advisory. That is what good agents do--protect their handlers.
I had read the TA report and it sounded like a nice hotel. But the Emerald Land will be less costly and for one night it is not all that important.

Now that I have your attention: How soon do you think I should begin thinking about booking Bangkok-Yangon-Bangkok flights for next February/March? (I believe I will have to overnight in Bangkok after Inle Lake----routing will be: Heho-Yangon-Bangkok-Shanghai, unless I find a flight from Yangon to Shanghai which is unlikely). Travel agent does not seem to have the Heho-Yangon flight times yet....

Since you're connecting from BKK to PVG I highly suggest that you fly Thai only on the BKK - RGN - BKK sector and perhaps for the BKK - PVG sector as well. Flying Thai will allow you to check your luggage through to PVG from RGN. Book it as soon as you want but ask your TA not to issue the tickets until it's neccessary in case you want to cancel or change the dates.

eks - (lol on the duck!) - I booked my BKK-Yangon-BKK tickets in Bangkok three weeks ahead of the flight in Dec '04. Based on the number of people queueing for visas in the embassy Myanmar was quite popular at the time. I didn't have any trouble getting a seat, but you may not want to risk it.

Again another good tip from agent Hanuman. The problem is that I will have to overnight in Bangkok, though, because it does not look as if I can get from Heho to Yangon to Bangkok and to Shanghai in one day. If Air Asia comes in much cheaper for BKK-RGN-BKK, should I still consider booking Thai for that sector? Is Air Asia reliable?

Thai Flight to Shanghai leaves at 11am; since we will probably arrive in BKK the evening before, from Heno-Yangon, I think an BKK airport hotel is the place to stay..unless there are any nice hotels near, but not at, the airport..with pool, of course! ???? Any interesting restaurants out by the airport?

ps. Hanuman: I am quite certain that I read a trip report about your jaunt to Burma. And even saw photos. I understand that you have deleted these for security concerns. But could you post the link once more? I will delete asap after reading. Or perhaps it does not matter much, since those disguises you wear (re: pic in your profile) are awfully convincing.