Day 22 - Bagan to Nyaung Shwe

---

Our flight with Bagan Airlines left at 8 in the morning and we were told check-in opened at 6.30am. Our hotel was only 15 minutes from the airport so we were able to have breakfast before we left - eaten quickly but breakfast none the less. Bagan airport was interesting. It is not very big and most of the check-in counters are just little booths next to each other. When our taxi pulled up an airport porter took our bags from us and placed them with a whole heap of others off to the side. There was no checking of identification, we were just given boarding passes and tickets for our bags. We were told it was free seating with no seat allocation. The porter took the other side of the bag tickets and tagged our bags for us. At check-in a coloured sticker was attached to our clothes. Every flight had a different coloured sticker. Not only Air Bagan did this but so did the other airlines. The room for departures was opened and everyone from all different flights sat in there until their flight was called. It was hard to understand the messages but everyone just went when all other people with the same coloured sticker moved. We found it easiest to watch the tour guides. Our flight was only 45 minutes so it seemed like we had only taken off and we were then straight away landing at Heho airport, the closest airport to Nyaung Shwe our next destination. We had previously organised a taxi pick-up through our hotel in Bagan. I am glad we did as the price we heard quoted at Heho airport was very expensive, even for a drive of an hour. We were off the plane and out of the airport and into our taxi within 10 minutes, even with having to register with immigration. The drive was very scenic and easily within the hour we were paying the $5 entry for the Inlay Lake area ad being offloaded by the taxi at our hotel. We were quite early so our room wasn’t ready but the very kind hotel staff gave us the use of another room until ours was prepared.

Instead of sitting in the room for a few hours we decided to wander off into town, have a bit of a look around and find something for lunch. We found a great little restaurant that served curry and the market where there was an abundance of fruit. By the time we had eaten and wandered back to the hotel our room was ready. Nyaung Shwe is only a small town, with the expected dusty streets and friendly people. Luck was on our side as wandered into a place for dinner and found they also organised boat trips to Inle Lake and treks around the area. The prices we were quoted were cheaper than through the hotel so we made arrangements to come back the next day to organise our trip out to Inle Lake. Cold showers were had by all tonight as it appeared we were too late and the hot water had already run out.

---