Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. Grandmother Daw Than Kyi arrives by canoe from her house for a visit with her daughter’s family.

Maung Thauk Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. A woman sets out by boat from her restaurant built on stilts on the waters of the lake.

Maung Thauk Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. A boatman makes the east to west passage across the lake from Maung Thauk to Khaung Daing Village.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. A young village resident feels right at home in this small, traditional canoe-type boat. She wears traditional thanaka cosmetic paste.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. The son of Daw Than Kyi, deaf mute Ho Kaw, provides a silent tour of the village’s lesser traveled lanes with typical homes in the background.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. Patriarch of the household, son-in-law of Daw Than Kyi, Myint Soe paddles into home for the afternoon.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. Ho Kaw takes pause from rowing around in the village where he has lived for his entire life.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. A villager offers a welcoming smile from the porch of his home on the lake.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. Children play on the lake in all manner of floating objects.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. Father Myint Soe holds his granddaughter in his arms beside his daughter Htet Htet, and his mother-in-law Daw Than Kyi. The family are of the Indá people/tribe and have lived in the village for at least five generations.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. Husband Myint Soe, wife Khan Nyein Shwe, and their granddaughter sit on the steps of their front porch at their home on the lake that Myint Soe built himself.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. Mother and granddaughter.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. A young friend of the family practices her one legged rowing skills out in front of the Soe house.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. A fisherman practices traditional fishing methods.

Yeykar Village, Inle Lake, Myanmar. A typical village house.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. Yeykar Village resident and boatman Ba Zin, brother-in-llaw to the Soe family, traverses the lake.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. A traditional fisherman out on lake early one morning.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. Traditional fisherman.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. View through the fisherman’s net.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. It’s customary for fisherman to put on little acts for passing boats of tourists in exchange for a couple thousand kyats each (roughly $2.60 USD combined)

Inle Lake, Myanmar. Boys play in the street of a small village on the shores of the lake whose main export is pottery.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. Mother and child tend a small store selling snacks and drinks on the outskirts of a small village on the shores of the lake.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. Young men compete during a weekend volleyball tournament at a festival held on the grounds of a temple in Khaun Dhang, on the shores of the lake. Volleyball is a wildly popular sport in Myanmar.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. Mother and son work in a sugarcane field underneath a hot sun on the shores of the lake. Large quantities of sugarcane are produced across Myanmar.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. Hard at work in the sugarcane fields.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. In the sugarcane fields.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. Man on a break from work in the sugarcane fields.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. A priceless look from a woman in the sugarcane fields. March 2019.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. The openness of the people in this country is palpable. March 2019.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. A woman carries a substantial amount of sugarcane from the fields and out onto the road, where she continues walking and disappears into the distance. March 2019.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. A young boy on one of the many canals of the lake. March 2019.

Nyaungshwe, Myanmar. A scooter taxi driver takes rest in the shade by the riverfront downtown during the heat of the day in the northernmost city on Inle Lake. March 2019.

Nyaungshwe, Myanmar. A woman prepares food at a street vending stall by the riverfront, downtown. March 2019.

Nyaungshwe, Myanmar. A young monk on his way back from the center of town with his friends(?)/fellow monks stops what he’s doing to meet the gaze of my camera and I am grateful. March 2019.

Nyaungshwe, Myanmar. A vulnerability of sorts appears to emanate from this young man’s eyes as his fellow monks stand by beside him. March 2019.

Nyaungshwe, Myanmar. March 2019.

Nyaungshwe, Myanmar. The young monks make their way to the monastery presumably, carrying goods from town. March 2019.

Nyaungshwe, Myanmar. A young boy waves goodbye as our boat pulls away from the small village just beyond him in the distance, as his mother and father load firewood onto their boat from a truck behind them. March 2019.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. A common scene at all times of day on the lake, as a fisherman casts and retrieves his nets. March 2019.

Inle Lake, Myanmar. The sun sets beyond mountains to the west of the lake as light fades on a typical stilt house on the water. March 2019.

Nyaungshwe, Myanmar. At day’s end, several boatmen of the lake stand in front of the docks where they put in and take out from daily. From Yeykar Village, Ba Zin stands second from left and his brother-in-law Kyaw Soe, the son of [grandmother] Daw Than Kyi and the owner of a fleet of four boats, stands in the center. I take Kyaw Soe and Ba Zin out for drinks and dinner to say thank you for hosting me in Yeykar Village for four days and when we finish, Kyaw Soe insists on paying to show his gratitude to me. This is the kind of people I encounter everywhere in Myanmar. March 2019.