Kalaw - Inle Lake (schnichla)

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After a long and bumpy busride we finally arrived in Kalaw, a place in higher area in Shanstate famous for treks through hilltribe areas to Inlelake. The air was fresh (!!!) and luckily there was the intesting market where all the locals from the hilltribes offer their products that takes place only every five days. Finally we booked into a tour with two nice couples and a frensh women for two days to hike to Inle Lake. The first evening we met our travelmates and had nice drinks and travel talks.

The next morning we started our hike with a taxi ride and after walking through colourful ares, also almost everywhere deforested. We passed hilltribes, got into smalltalk, had some tea and continued walking to the overnight stay in a monastery. A small shop provided us beer for the evening, our cook was amazing, creating the best food I had in Burma since we arrived.

In the morning we woke up by the monk chants of little orphan monks, very nice alarm clock! We continued our walk until we reached the lake with all the farmers working in green ricefields, standing in little channels of the lake, boats for rowing and with engines of all sizes everywhere. I really enjoyed the scenery after only being in dry dusty area before. The lake is full of life, one leg rowers, lifely markets around the lake, a lot of tourist shops and workshops with silverware, jewellery, boat makers, cirar rollers, weaving factories and many more. Of course the lake is surounded by stupas and monasterys but I'm no more fascinated because if seen way too many before. On the boat ride to the northern shore of the lake we saw a lot of birds and fisherman and floating gardens!!

The next two nights we spend in a nice guesthouse, we went to massage two times, had really great pizza and pasta in the Golden kite and we were invited to a wedding. We wrote our own song as a present and played and sang it - the wedding couple seemed to like it, for us it was an amazing event, we all bought especially for this invitation longis, a traditional kind of skirt for women and men. One day we took a boattour arround the lake to visit local factories and monasterys, and also just to enjoy driving on the lake. This was really a place, where I could say it has a laid back atmosphere.

In the evening we took the bus back to Yangoon from where we want to head south!!!! I hope it continues like this!!

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Comments

[Anne]

cool pics!
Was nice meeting you there! How R u now? We're back in Amsterdam, normal life started again! Wedding in Naungshwe sounds very far away, and it is in fact... ;-) Have a good trip, x Anne