Inle Lake, Myanmar

My last card for today comes from Myanmar (or Burma). It wasn't mailed directly from there but it's still a nice addition to my collection, and it's a very nice card too.



Inle Lake is a freshwater lake located in the Shan Hills in Myanmar. It is the second largest lake in Myanmar with an estimated surface area of 116 km2, and one of the highest at an altitude of 880 m. During the dry season, the average water depth is 2.1 m, with the deepest point being 3.7 m, but during the rainy season this can increase by 1.5 m.

Although not a large lake, there is a number of endemic species. Over twenty species of snails and nine species of fish are found nowhere else in the world.

The people of Inle Lake (called Intha), some 70,000 of them, live in four cities bordering the lake, in numerous small villages along the lake's shores, and on the lake itself. The entire lake area is in Nyaung Shwe township.

On this postcard you can see Intha fishermen standing a the stern on a slender boat, rowing with one leg "leg rower" on Inle Lake.



This card was mailed from South Korea. The sender, James, did actually visit Myanmar recently and got postcards from there, but apparently it's very difficult to send mail from Myanmar.

The stamp on the left is a definitive stamp issued in 2003, depicting the South Korean flag. The second stamps is a definitive from a set of 2 issued in 2006, depicting birds. These here are Whistling Swans.