Kalaw and Inle Lake
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| Local Fisherman, Inle Lake |
Yes, we were out of Mandalay on our way to Kalaw. Kalaw has an altitude of 1320m so is a lot cooler than other areas of Myanmar. So much so that we actually pulled out our jumpers (which may or may not have smelt funky after being packed away for so long). Kalaw is only 50km from Inle Lake so it is common for travellers to stop in at the town before going to the lake. Inle lake is one of the largest tourist attractions in Myanmar made especially famous by the lake people building their homes and tomato farms on the water and fisherman steering boats by paddling with their legs. It is set in between mountains and is a picturesque place. Luke and I were planning on doing a hike from Kalaw to Inle Lake but unfortunately the weather wasn’t on our side and we didn't particularly want to hike for 3 days in solid rain.
Kalaw
To get to Kalaw we took a mini bus from Mandalay. I honestly cant remember the name of the company we used because our hotel organised it for us. This has been common throughout Myanmar, everywhere we have stayed has been super helpful and has organised majority of our transport. The bus cost 9 AUD pp and took about 8 hours. As you get closer to Kalaw the road gets very windy, thankfully Luke and I being seasoned travellers we didn't get nauseous at all..
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| Happy to be out of the mini van and in cool weather |
We stayed at Hotel Thetaw II, 22 AUD pn, which was the nicest place, really clean, was surrounded by trees and it was the first warm shower we had in over a month and a half! It was a little bit out of town but was in walking distance to everything. We ended up having a few days just chilling out in Kalaw and of all things we went to a few really nice cafes and restaurants. This was a huge surprise to us that there was western food as throughout the rest of Myanmar we have been eating local cuisine. Which is delicious but after a while you start craving some familiar food. We gorged ourselves on pizza, greek salad, and sourdough bread! The rest of the time we read, did some hikes and not a lot of anything else, it was perfect timing to have some down time.
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| Hiking around Kalaw |
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| Monkey boy |
We didn't do the hike from Kalaw to Inle Lake so instead we caught the local train. This cost us a total of 1.10 AUD pp for first class. It was the most scenic train ride I have been on, granted I haven’t been on many others apart from inner city trains, but this truely was beautiful! If you are feeling lazy and don't want to hike around 20km a day then I would highly recommend the train. They typically run a couple of hours late (like ours did) but if you have plenty of snacks there are worse places to be. Especially because the train station in Kalaw seems to be a real attraction. I have never seen so many selfies be taken on train tracks!
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| Luke enjoying the view (of looking at me taking a photo) |
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| The infamous train tracks |
Inle Lake
After a couple of hours enjoying the train journey we got to the train station in Schwanyaung. This is 20 minutes out from the main town you stay in at Inle lake, Nyaung Shwe, so you have to catch a taxi into town. As soon as we arrived at the train station taxi drivers got onto the train and started hassling us to go with them. Make sure to give yourselves a few minutes to collect your things (and your thoughts!) before agreeing to a price. We managed to find some other people who were heading into Nyaung shwe so we could split the taxi cost, 2 AUD pp.
On your ride into Nyaung Shwe you will have to pay a government tourist tax 17.50 AUD pp. Unfortunately, this is common at all of the tourist attractions throughout Myanmar. It gives you three days to tour around the lake region.
We stayed at Sweet Inn which had the loveliest owners, yummy breakfast but weirdly huge and outdated rooms. The cost was 16 AUD a night in a nice location on one of the canals. However, be prepared to be woken up at around 4am from motorboats speeding along the canal. And when I say motorboats I mean canoe looking things with outboard motors which are really generators with a propeller. Think of the loudest whipper snipper you have heard and times it by 10.
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Canal out the front of our accomodation
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| Boat tour on Inle Lake |
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We organised through Sweet Inn to take a boat tour around the lake. This is 15 AUD per boat and you can fit up to 5 people. Luke and I had the boat to ourselves which was nice as we could go a the speed we wanted. The boat takes you to a number of different tourist sites. It normally leaves at 8am but we wanted to see the sunrise. We were told that leaving at 6am would give us plenty of time. Well by the time we left our room the sun was up. Which didn't really matter as the sky was dark grey. On our voyage across the lake it rained and poured. Luke and I instantly regretted getting up ridiculously early. The boat tour took us to;
- Lotus, cotton and silk workshop
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| View from Lotus, cotton and silk workshop |
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| Homes |
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| Common advertising on peoples homes, plus the local post office to the left |
Our favourite part was just being on the lake watching the locals live their normal life. It reminds me a bit of Venice, in the fact that all transport is on the water apart from these random little walkways you can take- that’s where the similarity ends. On our way back to the hotel we watched some of the fisherman with their amazing skills of balancing on one leg, steering with their other leg whilst organising their fishing nets with their hands. It put our stand up paddling board skills to shame.
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| Local Fisherman |
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| Tomato farm |
The following day we rented bikes for the day, 1.50 AUD pp, and rode around the town taking in the beautiful scenery. We then got distracted and found ourselves at a winery! Unfortunately the wine tasting cost 5 AUD but it was in a lovely location overlooking the lake.
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| Pagodas taken over by Mother Nature |
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| Riding past rice terraces |
That night we caught a bus back to Yangon where we were flying out the following day. This was the most interesting bus trip we have taken so far. Instead of paying 22 US per person for a bus trip with JJ’s we paid 14 AUD pp to take a ride with a local company. I kid you not because they didn't fill the bus with people they filled it with everything else known to man. We ended up being half bus, half truck. We took flowers, cabbages and who knows what else with us. The journey took us fifteen hours instead of the advertised eleven because we kept on stopping and picking up different items. Thankfully we didn't miss our plane, although at one point we were sure we would!
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| Our next door neighbours on the bus |
Next stop Bangkok and from there, who knows!
Love,
Claire and Luke (Luke was reading his book whilst I woke this so he counts as a co-author too right?)
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| Luke and his new best friend |
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