Inle Lake

A freshwater lake at approximately 880 metres elevation in the Shan Hills of central Myanmar, Inle Lake is home to the Intha people, who are known for their distinctive one-legged rowing technique — balancing on one leg at the stern while rowing with the other wrapped around the oar — and for their floating garden agriculture. Villages, pagodas, and monasteries built on stilts extend over the water surface, and the lake is particularly photogenic at dawn when mist rises off the water and catches the light through the hills. The Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda, containing five small Buddha images covered in thick accumulations of gold leaf, is the most important pilgrimage site on the lake.