Indein (Intein) Village

Inle Lake, Myanmar (Burma)

We were greeted by ancient, ruined stupas right away when we got out of our boat after winding through a long cavernous canal to get here. As we walked a little further we came to the long covered walkway surrounded by more ruined stupas leading up to the stairway into the Shwe Inn Tain Buddha Pagoda. Once you get to the stairs you're required to remove your shoes. New stupas are being built within the old. It's not clear to me how much longer the ruined stupas will be here.

We got there very early so the vendors were just beginning to set up their stores and we were the only tourists there. As we were leaving, we stopped and made a few purchases on the way out and saw the first tour group arrive. This was around 9 AM. As we were riding out through the same canal, we passed boat after boat carrying between 2 to 4 tourists each. I lost count. We felt very grateful to have gotten here to early because it would have been a very different experience otherwise.