Kalaw to Inle Lake hike

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The only reason people go to Kalaw is to do a 2 or 3 day hike all the way to Inle lake and although I am not a big fan of hikes people had recommended it so I decided to do it.

In order to get to Kalaw we had to take a bus from Mandalay. I first asked the hotel for bus tickets and they said it was a 9 hour ride so we picked a night bus. Later on Zarina told us that the van takes only 5 hours and after inquiring at the hotel it turned out the lady at the front desk knew nothing and in fact the bus was a 5 hour ride, meaning that instead of arriving really early in the morning we would get to Kalaw at 2am. So annoying!

I slept the whole way and once we got to Kalaw at 2am we got out of the bus and it was freezing! Kam and I started walking towards the hotel we booked for the night only to arrive and be told we had no reservation! I was fuming! I had talked to the guy, agreed on a price, and he knew we would be there for only 6 hours and now we had no place to sleep. I kept on insisting and finally the guy handed us a key for a triple room.

Our friend Joke had arrived the day before to Kalaw and she had set up the hike with one of the hiking companies in town. At 9am we were at the meeting point and joined Joke, Zarina, Jayden and the other 6 strangers in our group.

Myanmar had been such an expensive country that the 39,000 kyats charged for the hike (all inclusive) for three days felt as if we were saving money… A lot of money!

We started the walk with our guide Pyu (pronounced like the sound you make when something is stinky!) and somehow I had the impression that we would be transported to somewhere high up and then start the hike but no, we just started walking from the meeting point.

The first part of the walk was just going through the streets of Kalaw and eventually we made it to a path. We walked through bushes and muddy paths, passing through a nice looking field once.

Our first stop!

For lunch time we stopped at a restaurant where we had to wait for about an hour for lunch but luckily it was worth it as the food was really good!

The very hungry twelve!

We continued our way, this time we had a view of the hills for a little bit and then we walked on the railway tracks for about an hour and a half until we got to a village for a snack. To be honest this walk had nothing exciting until we reached the small town and we were able to see the locals in their element.

Joke walking on the tracks!

Boy with thanaka

Just keep walking, just keep walking!

After our quick snack we kept walking for another hour until we reached our “sleeping place” (not a guest house or a home stay.) The house we stayed at was very simple, we had bucket showers, squatty toilet in a shed, and the 12 of us slept in the same room.

The buffalo of the house!

The shower!

I went to peak inside the kitchen, which by the way was made of the same material as baskets, to see if they needed help but of course they refuse any help. I was impressed that the whole kitchen doesn’t catch on fire with all the smoke and fire from cooking.

We had a great time at night playing cards and having some pretty good food.

That night I was happy to see that I had a tiny bit of data coverage and was able to text my mom. As my sister in law was a week away from her due date I made sure to ask my mom how she was doing. At 9pm she said she was doing ok and she had just gone to the doctor and said baby wasn’t ready and due date was still a week away.

I went to sleep early and woke up at 6am to find my whatsapp with these messages from my mom:

12:53am “Almost! We are on our way to the hospital!”

2:03am [Picture of my brother and his wife in the hospital]

4:43am THE BABY IS HERE!

5:02am Pictures of the baby!

I was amazed at how fast this went down. I was happy for my sister in law that labor was quick and somehow easy, no C-section, no complications.

My mom's announcement that she had a grand child.

If you are not from El Salvador you probably won’t get this but when you have a baby the hospital room is like a circus! It is customary for all your friends and family to come to the hospital and meet the baby (and this is El Salvador, meaning THE ENTIRETY of your family and your whole social network lives in a 30 minute driving ratio from you.)

Four generations!

My brother and the baby

I had enough coverage to have a slow facetime connection but couldn’t pass the opportunity to meet my niece and get a selfie :)

Most of my facetime consisted of me listening to what was happening in the room and people forgetting I was actually facetiming. I think that was a preview of what life would be like from now on!

After a nice breakfast of what looked like crepes we started to walk again.

Our homestay's pig!

Let's start the day!

Day number two was better than day one and probably my favorite all around. Some of the scenery was very beautiful with mountains around us, chili fields left and right, and local people living their every day life.

This woman was taking a public shower in the freezing cold morning!

Beautiful!

I'm just a little behind the group! haha

Joke and the view!

The chili fields:

Chili fields forever!!!!

Sorting the chili!

I loved close up pictures of people and this was just perfect for that. I really enjoyed the walk although my feet were killing me! Somehow my shoes don’t fit me anymore, I think it’s the heat and my feet have expanded or something. Walking 20km a day with shoes that are not comfortable was not fun at all so I ended up walking more than half of the day in my flip flops due to all the blisters on my feet :(

Mmm... do you see a pattern here? I think I love babies! haha

Momma hard at work!

Awwww... so cute!

How cute is this baby?

Shea showing off his mad skills!

My heart just melted!!!

Ines talking with a local!

Kids waiting for their parents to finish their work at the chili fields!

The lunch stop.... Joke at work!

... Everyday life in Kalaw...

Corn cutting!

Hay collecting!

Amazed at these women's strength!

The last stop for the day... getting clean like the locals!

That night we spent it at another local sleeping place in the middle of a village and we got fed waaaay too much!

The nights playing around and having conversations with the whole group was a highlight for me.

The last day of the hike was like the first one, very very uneventful and quite boring. By then I had had enough of Pyu, who in my opinion was very immature and childish. I hated the fact that he would do things like tickle people and would not take a no for an answer (this is ringing a bell, again!) I really got mad one night when he started tickling me and I asked him not to do it and guess what? He did it again!!!! I then put my B*** face on and said “I asked you not to touch me, please stop tickling me!” Really… What is wrong with people?

While walking on the last day we stopped by a school where all the children were outside singing or probably reciting the national anthem. It reminded me of my last year of high school when I went to a different school and every monday they made us stand on the field and sing the national anthem along with the school song!

The whole group kept on walking but I stayed back, I noticed that the teacher had a stick and I was just curious how this whole thing was going to go down so I stayed.

After the children finished the song they had to go over to the teacher and show him their nails and he would hit them with the stick to go into the classroom. Wait… What? He hit them with the stick? Yeap! I couldn’t believe it! It wasn’t like a big hit but still! The day before Pyu had said that no one hits buffalos because they don’t like it but there I was in front of a school teacher who was hitting children with a stick… Because kids like it? It made no sense to me! Is Myanmar still stuck in the 1970s? Yeap! I felt so sad for the kids who had no voice, who are hit with a stick because overall nobody cares if they are ok or not with it, because they are not a buffalo who would get aggressive and fight back.

After 5 hours of going down hill and crushing my toes we finally got to Inle Lake! I was so happy!!!!!!!!

We made it!!!!!!!!

Looking back at the past 3 days I think the hike was just alright, it was short from spectacular but I must say that for the $30 we paid, all inclusive for 3 days, it was actually ok. I wished the 3 days had been more like the 2nd day full of locals and walking through villages and being able to see how life is in Myanmar. If I were to do it again (which I probably won’t) I would only do the 1 night hike. I was glad though about the awesome group we had, we all got along very well and laughed so much!

Now off to explore Inle Lake!!!

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!