Fat Belly Traveler

Inley Lake is in central Burma. Travel is by boat through the floating gardens and to houses on stilts to see silk making, blacksmiths and the temple with the jumping cats.


Quicktime version
Flash version


The nation of Burma, now called the Union of Myanmar is seldom in the news. And when it is, the story is a continuation on news of the lack of political freedom since the junta took control of the country decades ago.

What is almost never told, about this nation roughly the size and population of France, is of the natural beauty and variety of cultures here.

Inley Lake is an example of how the lack of industrial development has done much to avoid pollution and keep the environment in a somewhat natural state. We visit one of the few places on earth where silk is still spun and woven by hand, where life moves at a slower pace and where knives are still forged by the sweat of the Shan blacksmiths.