Introduction to Geography Homepage
Geography 100
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Inle Lake in Central Myanmar (Burma) is astoundingly beautiful. It offers lush floating gardens, rugged highland surroundings, over 1000 bright Buddhist stupas, and busy floating markets. The Intha (pronounced In-sa) are water people. From net fishing to gardening on floating patches of soil and vegetation, Inle Lake is their mainstay. The Intha are famous for their unique style of leg paddling. I have seen leg oaring (sitting position) in Vietnam, but nothing compares to the balance and grace of the Intha fishermen. They propel their flat, long, wooden canoes by standing on one leg near the stern and wrapping the other leg around the paddle. This strange technique allows the paddler to see fish feeding at the surface and to avoid floating islands (kyun myaw). Being a decent canoeist, I thought I could manage a canoe by leg paddling. Needless to say I just flopped into the water as I completed the stroke and the boat took off from under me. The locals got a good laugh - so all was well.