After a tough bus ride up the mountain, with several of the passengers getting road sick, we finally arrived Kalaw. Kalaw is a very small town where we only stayed for one night. The next morning we started a 3 day trekking with Corinna, Lara, an American guy we met on the bus, David, and another German couple at our hotel, Justus and Lina. We started walking out of the city towards the jungle, with Johnnie Walker as our guide.
Team Johnnie Walker
We walked in some beautiful mountain landscapes, past by green tea plantations and saw the local people working in the fields. At the end of the first day's trekking we got to a monastery in a tiny village where we would be spending the night. While Johnnie was preparing dinner for us we got to spend some time with the very shy local kids. David also got to play some "bamboo ball foot-volley" with the teenagers.
We experienced a new type of shower at the monastery. It was like a concrete reserve of water where we used a bucket to pour water over ourselves. The water was freezing cold! Girls had to use specified toilets and showers, while men could choose between all. Johnnie Walker cooked us some good food and we had dinner with candlelight and the company of a giant spider on the wall. We played cards until the praying time was finished so we could go into the main hall of the monastery where we would be sleeping.
We got a great meal, and afterwards we shared a bottle of Myanmar Rum (less than 2 dollars!) while playing cards. During the walk the guys had found a place that would be nice for sunrise, but unfortunately it was too cloudy so we decided to keep sleeping.
The third day would be the day we arrived to Inle Lake, our final destination. We made an early stop passing by an old, wooden monastery. When we saw the lake from the mountains we had to pay 11 dollars to enter the Inle Lake area, and the last few hours of the trekking our guide was really in a hurry to get down the mountain. The track was tricky and not so easy to walk. We had lunch in a village close to the lake before we took a boat with no seats or roof to cross the lake to Nyaung Shwe. In the middle of the trip our boat broke down and we had to wait until someone came to fix it. The heat was extreme, but they gave us some umbrellas to make some shade.
We even started to paddle with our flip-flops
When we finally arrived Nyaung Shwe it started to rain. Johnnie Walker brought us to a very cute guesthouse where our big backpacks were waiting for us. We decided to stay there for some days to relax and wash some clothes.
Nyaung Shwe is a small town where the electricity is off every day for some time, but at least we had a power generator at our guesthouse, so we could use the fan in our room. We didn't do too much there, just reading, writing postcards, playing cards and going out to eat.
One evening we had dinner David ordered a mango lassi, and a few hours later he started to feel sick. That night he couldn't sleep due to his visits to the toilet. The next day he had fever and started shaking, so the nice guesthouse owner brought us to a doctor. He prescribed antibiotics and said we had to cancel our bus to Mandalay that evening.
The next day David was feeling a bit better and started to eat again, but the only thing the guesthouse could offer us was the Shan noodle soup that wasn't good for David's stomach quite yet, so they said Tachi could use the kitchen if she wanted. She boiled some vegetables and they had new steamed rice for David's lunch. Tachi was tired of having Shan noodle soup and decided to go out for lunch. In the evening David was feeling stronger and we could take the bus to Mandalay. We arrived there at 3:40am and, as always, there were many taxi drivers waiting for the people to get off. We decided to walk but it took us a while to find the hotel as Tachi had the wrong address :(
After 1 hour of walking and sweating like hell, we checked in and got some sleep. We woke up for lunch and walked to a restaurant just one block from our place. In the afternoon we went for a walk to find the night market with Corinna, Lara and David 2. The market was nothing more than some stands with fake western clothes. We were looking for somewhere clean to eat and found a restaurant that seemed nice. It was on the second floor and there was a creepy elevator to get up. When we found the restaurant we were welcomed by 4 or 5 waiters, but the place was too fancy and expensive for what we were looking for. They even offered us a private dinner room. We apologized and left the place.
We decided to go to the same place where we had lunch before. The place was crowded with people drinking beer and watching television. It seems like in Myanmar is not normal having a TV at home, so it's very common that at some times the restaurants with TV get crowded.
The next morning Guillermo, an Argentinian we had met in Koh Tao, joined us for breakfast and we headed to the AirAsia shuttle bus to go to the airport. The airport was pretty basic, with no air-con, and the check-in was practically manual.
Myanmar was a very interesting place, people are so nice and welcoming, especially in little villages. Here are some interesting facts we saw and learned during our stay:
* It's very difficult to find a good wi-fi connection. In some places you could only access the wi-fi between 7 to 10am. In our guesthouse in Nyaung Shwe they shared their mobile data for the guests, and only for 1h.
* The men wear longyi, a wraparound skirt.
* Men and women use a yellow paste called Thanaka. It is made by grinding the bark, wood or roots of a thanaka tree with a small amount of water. Apart from cosmetic beauty, it also gives a cooling sensation and protects the skin from sunburn.
* When you want the waiter's attention, you have to make a kissing sound, almost like calling a cat. :P
* You might see many people with red teeth. Everywhere you find street stalls selling betel nut and green leaves. The betel nut, spices and a pinch of tobacco are folded into the leaves and popped into the mouth and chewed.
* People who chew the betel nut spit out all the time. So it's common to find red stains on the ground.
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