A MELTING POT
OF CULTURES

Inle Lake is surrounded by mountains, and is home to numerous villages that live off floating gardens and fishing. In the floating gardens, they grow tomatoes and many types of vegetables. It’s impressive to see them work on the boats loaded with mud, as they build the fertile platforms on which they subsequently plant their crops.

As for fishing, the fishermen of Inle Lake are famous worldwide for the difficult position in which they fish, keeping their balance on one of the fragile vertices of their canoes. One of the small towns that impressed me most was In Dein. You need to get there early to enjoy the floating gardens and the ceremonies held in the temples of its hills. It’s an incredible experience to sit with the women who’ve walked for hours to the market, and communicate with them using sign language… This is the only place in the world where I’ve found that they didn’t know what a photo was, and much less a mobile phone! I’ll never forget their expressions of surprise and admiration for something so common to us nowadays.

Contemplating the evening skies over one of its spectacular stupas, the sun going down… magical!

Bagan is another world; an arid plain dotted with 2,230 temples and stupas, with the mountains on one side, and the Ayeyarwady River on the other. A sensory pleasure, a multitude of sensations that come to mind if I close my eyes… A mystical experience I’ve never had again; contemplating the evening skies over one of its spectacular stupas, the sun going down, the mist enveloping the tall palm trees and temples, and the chant of the monks reciting their mantras in the background… magical! The Mergui Islands comprise an archipelago off the south coast of Myanmar, in the Andaman Sea, and this is the perfect place to end such a special trip… one that you’ll never forget.