The main attraction at Inle Lake is of course the lake itself, but there are some other sites in nearby villages that are worth the visit. The best way to visit those sites is renting a bicycle and cycle around the different sites.
Starting from Nyaungshwe, we visited at the Shwe Yan Pyay monastery, which is a short bike ride away from Nyaungshwe. It has a very cool building with small Buddha paintings and names of people underneath with their nationality. These are the names of people that have donated to the monastery.
After spending some time at Shwe Yan Pyay, we headed back to Nyaungshwe and stopped at the local market to look around. They sell almost anything in the market, and it is a good place to get some souvenirs. Then we headed down south of Nyaungshwe to the famous Maing Thouk Wooden Bridge at Inle Lake. It is not really a bridge, but rather a sort of dock over the water that is used by the locals to embark the small boats. We were there during the rush hour when school finished and got to see all the locals picking up their kids from school and going home on the boats. This was definitely an interesting insight into the local life by the lake!
We finished off our day at the Red Mountain Estate Vineyards & Winery, which is located on a hill overlooking Inle Lake. It was recommended as a great place to catch the sunset. You can do a wine tasting there and try the different red and white wines they produce on the wine fields around the winery. We went for a glass of white wine each to watch the sunset. The view was absolutely spectacular!
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