Everything about Boat Ride in Inlay lake

The first thing that comes to the mind about Inle lake is the boat ride. The main  attraction that attracts tourists from all over the world. What is it to take a boat ride and what to expect from it.

Well, first of all the boat ride costs around 15000 kyats for a regular tour which excludes Indien village. You might book the boat ride from your hotel or approach a boat owner directly. The boat has 5 seats which are not that comfortable. You also get life jacket and an umbrella.

The boat starts from the point where the water is dirty and the Lake is quite narrow. But as you go along suddenly the lake opens up wide and huge. It's really huge and vast. Around 10 kms wide and 20 kms long, the Lake is amidst the valley of evergreen hills. The sight is worth watching. The boat cruises at about 35 to 40 kmph and the cool inle winds caress through your hair and fondles with it. After a little while you can see the Indien fisherman with their unique style fishing at the edge of their boats. You would definitely want to capture it. As you move along, you will notice huge floating gardens and vegetables growing in the middle of water. Tomatoes grow in plenty in this lake and you can pick up one or two from the plants and enjoy eating it. The first stop generally is at the local market whose location keeps changing everyday. It's a busy and noisy market where locals buy and sell their everyday items. You do have a few tourists shops as well. So if you are looking for a souvenir, you can buy at cheap rates.
There are a lot of stilt houses in the Lake and you can watch the local community life as you move from one village to another. This is what inle lake is all about. The boat rider will take you further to different villages and stop for you to shop. It's all consumer traps and if you are not interested in shopping just move on. There a lot of hype for the girls that wear rings on their neck. They live in the village called Yama. Your boat will stop at a weaving center in this village and all you will see is a couple of those women sitting and weaving. That's it. A few more consumer traps stops are there. The last stop is at the jumping cats monastery. This is a nice monastery and depicts the life of Buddha through a series of paintings. It's really quite inside the monastery and you can take your time and relax. While returning back take in the magnanimous view of the wide and vast lake and the green hills afar.

To be honest it's a good experience taking a boat and watching the local life. But I strongly feel it's a bit overrated. It's not unique anymore to find plantations amidst the lake. Plus the consumerism traps kills all the excitement. You can enjoy the same or better experience on Dal Lake, India where the lake is much higher and mountains even higher.
But at the same time you can't avoid it altogether as you would want to take the boat ride just for the sake of doing it.
Alternatively, you can take a bicycle and explore the city and the nearby villages.

Reaching Yangon Airport in the cheapest way

The Yangon Airport is situated 10 miles away from the downtown. A cab or a taxi takes more than an hour to reach the airport due to heavy congestion on the roads. In general, a taxi would take around 8000 to 9000 kyats to take you to the airport, sometimes even more. Though it is not the most expensive way to travel but there are a few more cheaper options to reach the airport.
The best and a very cheap option is to take the local bus services called the Yangon Bus Service (YBS).
There are over 200 local YBS buses plying on the Yangon roads. So if you are in downtown or near Shwedagon Pagoda take the bus no. 36 and travel all the way to Kabaya Pagoda bus stop and from there take bus no. 6 to 'Se Mai' bus stop (meaning 10th mile). Once you are there at the Se mai stop it's a 20 minute walk to the airport. If you don't like walking you can take a pickup which will drop you to the airport for 200 kyats.  This way to reach the airport will cost you 400 kyats. (one bus travel costs 200 kyats) or 600 kyats of you take the pickup. Anyways it is much cheaper than the taxi. Plus you enjoy the experience of walking all the way to the airport which is a rare thing to do.
The cheapest and the slowest option to reach the airport is to take the circular train. The circular train runs through the Yangon city and its nearby suburbs. You can board the train from any nearby train stop and reach the Okkalarpa station. From there it's a 25 minute walk or you still have an option to take a cab or a pickup from there. This will cost you just 200 kyats. But remember it takes a 1.5 hours to reach Okkalarpa station from the central train station.
I took the bus to reach the airport. It's a nice way to see Yangon's culture and people. You will probably be the only non Burmese on the bus. But it's a good experience meeting and exchanging smiles to the local passengers. Sometimes the bus gets to crowded, so avoid the rush hours.

Trip to the Southernmost part of Andaman Mainland

Around 40 kms. away from the capital city of the Andaman Islands, Port Blair, is a silent beach Munda Pahad. There lies a beautiful trek up the hill called Munda Pahad. The hike is 1.5 kms long and takes around 20 minutes to complete. It goes right through the dense evergreen forests full of pine and badam trees. Filled with lush green plants and home to a thousands of butterflies, this forests whispers the sound of hustling trees dancing to the tune of the winds. After the trek you are rewarded with the breathtaking view of the Andaman Sea and tiny islets that sits on it. The swift breeze on the top of the hill is more than refreshing. There’s clean blue waters, the dark green islands and some rare beautiful birds flaunting their wings that awaits your eyes. Spend some time sitting and get awe-struck with the majestic view.

Inle Lake Entrance Fee

There is an entrance fee which is to be paid by all the foreign tourists entering into Inle Lake Zone. The fee is 12000 Myanmar Kyats as on August, 2017. You may have seen different fee in other blogs or articles, but it is 12000 Kyats.

It is mandatory to pay the fee and it is valid for 5 days from the date of payment. However, it is likely that they will ask you to pay again if your stay is more than 5 days. If you want to pay the fee in US Dollar then it is 10$.
You will get a small receipt on payment of the fee and remember to keep that receipt with you all the time. Keep in mind the fee mentioned here is per person and includes kids above 5 years old.
The money received from such fee is used for conservation and of inle lake and development of community of Shan state of Myanmar.