Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
——-Eleanor Roosevelt
Out again on a wooden canoe towards one of the villages along Inle Lake. Just past noon after a lunch of pasta & pizza, we passed some Inle fishermen rowing their flat-bottomed boat standing by the stern with one leg wrapped around an oar. There’s more of them out in the open lake doing this tribal fishing technique but this group looked like they’re done fishing, their cone-shaped basket nets having served their purpose.
I tried to suspend my thoughts on our way to Indein Village, not exactly knowing what to expect. Obviously this sidetrip to the southwestern bank of Inle is quite popular, seeing how many tourists there were in the jetty, ready for the half hour hike to Indein’s archeological site. The site is actually a cluster of 16th-18th century stupas and pagodas, many in utter disrepair if not largely ruined. Very atmospheric to find crumbling stupas and weather-beaten temples competing with Nature for space. The “jungle” threatens to take over this neglected archaeological site, as vegetation and banyan trees grow around many of the stupas, if not OUT of them. Many of the htis (top of stupas) are gone, and one can only imagine how this mass of hundred stupas must have looked then.
Indein in Burmese translates to “shallow lake”. Shallow enough that the boatmen never ever reminded us to don our life vests. Instead, the vests were used as cushions for our tired backs for the 45-minute canoe ride. In a way, the “neglect” may have “saved” these ancient monuments. Compared with some of the heavy-handed “restoration” done on some Bagan temples, the complex of pagodas and stupas here in Indein charm you in the same breath as those found in Siem Reap. Immediately, Lara Croft came to mind, though a friend of mine thought it’s more like Avatar.
Fisherfolks lead a very simple village life, perhaps completely oblivious to the value of the archaelogical finds here. Apart from the ruins, it was refreshing to see village folks doing their everyday business. Laundry and baths by the canals, where just across some enterprising village women sell fabrics, fruits and cracklings wok-fried in what looked like pebbles. The sprouting of al fresco beer gardens by the canals completely spoil the view, but what can I say? There’s also a vibrant market here but on the day we visited, the “5-day market” was elsewhere. As it was, the market moves from village to village. We caught the market elsewhere and I can only assume the same wares and producé are laid out for sale by the vendors.
It was a good walk from and back to the jetty. The Indein ruins are worth the visit, plus this glimpse of village life by the lake. Frozen in time? I’m telling ‘ya……. It’s beginning to thaw. So pack your bags and go pronto!
lifeisacelebration 