Inle Lake Tourist Trap Tips by albaaust Top 5 Page for this destination

Padaung Women- a dilemma

Well I put this in because I am really uneasy about actually even promoting the wearing of rings around the neck. I'm Ok about the Grandmother wearing them as it is part of her cultural tradition but to me it is a bit of a tragedy that the younger girls are wearing them. I'm caught -I know that the women are now the main breadwinners and I suppose it is one way for them to earn money but what are the costs?

I have not done enough research on it and I know that there are plenty of young Burmese with University degrees who are unemployed. What is the answer?

FECs

Unfortunately, there is no getting around paying fees to see various places and admitting that you are a tourist.

At Inle the fee is US$3. Our taxi paid for us on the way in to our hotel. No-one checked it afterwards. I guess they expected that there was no way that you could get away from paying it!

Taking photos

This isn't really a trap its just that I made this mistake and wish I had realised earlier what I should have done.

As you travel along the lake you will see some wonderful photo opportunities-often very fleeting opportunities. If you have an action setting on your camera put it on this as you travel along the lake. I didn't and from the photo you can see what a beautiful image I missed out on! The other thing I would do is make sure that you have organised with your boatman that if you see a photo opporunity you will signal him to stop. Sounds commonsense doesn't it. Fist time we went out we did not plan ahead and when there are three of you in the boat and you are in the front very hard to let everyone know in that fleeting second you want to stop.