Andrea Hearts Traveling

So here I am back in Kuala Lumpur!

KL has been my home base for the last 3 months since roundtrip Air Asia flights are cheaper from here.

I can’t believe it’s already been 6 months; I have been having so much fun that I highly doubt that I’ll be on the road for only a year! So many places to see and so many experiences to have!

In the last 3 months I have been to Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar! I can hardly believe that I have visited 51 countries around the world! (It has taken me 32 years though!)

I had been wanting to go to the Golden Rock but it sounded complicated and it was a little out of the way coming from Inle. While I was in Hpa-An my friend Mel said she stayed in one of the hotels on the top and saw sunset and sunrise. Claire also wanted to go so I asked her if she would be willing to share an expensive room with me at the top and she agreed. The hotels were about $100 per room per night which is WWAAAAAYYYY too expensive for anybody on a backpacker budget.

After a 14 1/2 hour bus ride I finally arrived in Hpa-an (pronounced Pa-an) I get seriously car sick so I am blessed with my body Shutting down on busses so I slept like a baby for 14 hours!

I stayed at Soe Brothers and it seemed like all the tourists stayed there so it was really easy to meet people and book their tours.

After 5 hours of walking down the hill we finally arrived in Inle lake and enjoyed a nice lunch and said goodbye to Pyu, who put us on a boat to Nyang Shwe, the main touristy town in Inle lake.

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!

Kuala Lumpur round 6!

Visit to the Golden Rock!

Beautiful Hpa An

Inle

Kalaw to Inle Lake hike

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