Place: Inle Lake

One of the main tourist attractions in Myanmar. A huge lake that you get around in via boat. There’s patches of plants floating on top of the lake and paths carved through them like water highways. All the houses are on top of the water on stilts.

Here you find the traditional fishermen holding the oar with their feet to steer the boat as they use their hands to spear the fish. Also people harvest lotus from the lake and use it for all sorts of things, including pulling out the sinews from inside the stems to make string!

People live on the lake because the area is surrounded by mountains. It’s hard to grow food in those regions, so it’s easier to just build floating gardens and grow things on the lake instead.

Food: Tea Leaf Salad

Probably the best known Burmese dish outside of Myanmar. I’ve yet to taste one quite like the ones you’d actually get here though, and of course for nowhere near the same price. The fermented tea leaves give it an intense flavor, while the cabbage and tomatoes mellow it out. Fried mung beans garnished on top give every bite a crunchy texture. Surprisingly easy to make actually. Acquiring the tea leaves is the hardest part in North America.