Trekking to Inle Lake

The night bus was fine, managed to get a bit of sleep despite the loud slapstick Burmese comedies being played on the two TVs. Surprisingly I was the only non-Burmese on the bus but luckily one of the drivers/assistants spoke enough English to wake me up when we reached Kalaw at 330am in the morning at which point I was deposited on the side of the road with my bags. Cool, where now? It was actually cold out, luckily I'd worn a light cardigan. A local trekking guide was hanging about and asked me which hotel I wanted to go to, which ended up being about 3min walk away so he walked me there which was super lovely. Clearly he would have been hoping I'd book a trek with him but I just couldn't make those sort of decisions at 330am.

We woke up a hotel worker who took me to a room where I promptly passed out. I woke up at 8, hearing the sounds of breakfast (I didn't get dinner the night before) so I stumbled down to the dining room with the intention of going back to bed afterwards but then the owner lady came up wanting to know if I'd like to start a trek that morning because she already had other people going.
"When do they leave?"
"About 830/9"
"So in less than an hour?! Could I shower at least??"

I kinda thought.. Nup stuff it I need to sleep, but then I met Simon (NZ) and Saioa (Spanish but living in Brissy) at breakfast and they were going that morning.. So fearing being stuck with less cool people/no one the next day, I ran up to pack for the trek and shower.

My trekking group consisted of Simon and Saioa and two Canadian BFFs Paige and Tori (and they were all super awesome). Our guide was Marlin.. That wasn't actually his name but it's what his name sounded like to us so we went with it and he didn't mind. He also had a young "guide in training" with him, who undertook the entire 3 day trek in flip flops.

The first day was definitely the hardest. About 25km and a lot of uphill in the sun before lunch. Breakfast wasn't that substantial so I was well and truly out of energy before lunch. We ate in a monastery, our cook had motorbiked there in the morning and prepared the food for us.



After lunch the walk was a lot more scenic. We walked through fields along a ridge with a great view.


We stayed in a bamboo thatch hut in a village that night and ate by candlelight.


Day 2 we started out walking. Came across a local wedding which we then gate crashed.


The wedding favours were sample sized shampoo sachets. They really wanted us to go eat with them so we did.



Tea, lollies, dried beans and cigarettes.

By that point, Saioa wasn't feeling good and had developed a pretty decent fever, so we got a local to take her to the monastery where we'd be eating lunch on the back of his motorbike. Found the best snacks in a store along the way. Definitely a highlight.






The monastery where we had lunch day 2:



The second half of the day's trekking was really scenic as well:



Unfortunately Tori had by then also started to be really sick and ended up leaving the worst kind of Hansel and Gretel trail to the monastery where we stayed that night.






Tori and Saioa had a bit of a rough time but managed to do the last leg of the trek, which thankfully was only about 15km and a fairly easy path.

In the morning we stopped in at a small school to distribute some notebooks and pencils. The kids were doing their morning meditation when we got there but we definitely disrupted them afterwards, giving high 5s and taking photos of them to show them. They were all so bemused to see their face on the camera screen.












There was a bit of a love triangle happening between Marlin and the chef and me. I found out that Marlin had been telling the other local guides we came across on the way that we were a couple. He also liked to sing "lonely, I am so lonely" before he went to bed in the other room to us. I made him tell the chef (who didn't speak any English) that I loved him (because he made the tastiest fried potatoes, duh) and then he would shyly smile at me the rest of the trip. What can I say? I'm a heartbreaker.

The last leg of the trip was a 1.5h boat ride to the town of Nyaungshawe (or something like that, I could look it up right now but I'm lazy) where we all decided to stay as a group after saying goodbye to Marlin. You do a LOT of talking during 3 days of trekking together, it's almost like a very intense "getting to know you" session. Was such a great bunch.

Yesterday Tori and Paige met up with Tori's mum and spent the day with her, while the rest of us had a lazy day involving massages and a trip to a local winery(!) for wine tasting. Afterwards we all met up for dinner and said goodbye for now as Simon, Saioa and myself were to be catching the morning bus to Bagan but we'll see them later in Yangon.

Well the bus didn't happen. I spent from 1230am until dawn violently throwing my guts up. Followed by Saioa and Simon from about 430am. We're all just lying in our room currently feeling like death. Trying to work out if we're up for taking the night bus or whether to stay here another night to recover. Blargh.