From Mandaly I took an overnight bus to Inle Lake. This meant being dropped off at a junction road at about 5 in the morning and then taking a half hour taxi ride to where all the guesthouses are. Inle Lake is maybe the most interesting place in all of Myanmar, a place where people have created villages and lives that function in concert with the water, which comes and goes with the seasons. I am sure there are other places in the world where societies operate like this, but I have not seen any of them.