Beautiful Bagan, and the Journey to Inle Lake

Wow! What a long week it has been. From the 1,400+ temples of Bagan, to the 14+ hours (60 km) of trekking from Kalaw to Inle Lake, it has surely been a memorable (and difficult) week...

Bus to Bagan...

I took an overnight bus from Yangon to Bagan - which was "VIP" and put Megabus and Greyhound buses to shame. For $16 USD, this bus gave me a reclining seat, a really warm blanket, free water, a toothbrush, toothpaste and washcloth during a pit stop, and a canned iced coffee with a box of pastries for breakfast. You would never find this luxury on an overnight Megabus in the States!!! I was and am still completely amazed by the services in Myanmar.

Side note: I have also gotten the currency wrong. Everything I've mentioned so far has actually been CHEAPER than what I thought, because I initially said $1 USD is 1,000 Kyats. No, $1 USD is actually 1,350 Kyats (pronounced "chat").

So there you have it. Myanmar is officially the cheapest country I have ever been to so far. Cheaper than Vietnam!

Bagan

This place is amazing. There are over 1,400 temples scattered throughout Bagan - it really should be a UNESCO world heritage site, but is denied that title due to one building that was built within the area that obstructs the natural/historical views. What a shame!

I arrived at 6:30AM at my hostel, Ostello Bello - definitely the most expensive place I've stayed in so far (about $15 USD a night). But worth it - they host different trips every day. I battled with whether to go to sleep and do a tour a different day. But a scooter/motorbike tour around the temples was about to start at 9AM... the problem was, I never learned how to ride a scooter and it would be my first time ever being at the front of the wheel.

I just said - screw it - at the bike shop and a local taught me how to ride a scooter. I only went a short distance (about 30 feet to be exact) - was I really ready to do a several-MILE-long tour around the main roads, the back streets, the dirt roads? AND keep up with a big group? The tour was about to start in 10 minutes...

We were a group of about 20 people from the hostel. It was only two other girls and I who were driving a scooter for the first time. The guide signaled throughout the crowd of motorbikers and scooters, "everyone ready??" BEEP BEEP. Beep beep. Everyone honked their horn as a signal that they were ready. I felt like I was the only one left who hadn't beeped mine. Am I really doing this right now? My first time riding a vespa barely 30 feet and now I'm doing a 5-hour vespa tour on the main roads, narrow dirt paths, with traffic, etc?

Then one by one, people started to drive off - I was at the back of the pack. I snapped my helmet on, turned the bike on, beeped, held my breath and thought - here goes nothing. And suddenly, I was off with the crowd.

Pic of me with the yellow powder on my cheeks and nose,
placed on me by a local. It is made from tree bark

This was an amazing experience, I will always remember now that I can ride one of these and that I learned how to do this, here in Bagan, Myanmar, scootering my way around 11th century temples and open terrain. I did not fall once (at least not on my first day). It is so freeing to be in control of this bike and feel the wind on your face! I couldn't stop smiling. Not only that, but as we arrived to the temples, we would hike up to the tops of some, and were rewarded with some spectacular views of the landscape.

Girl selling her pencil drawings

Along the way, we stopped at many temples, including a monastery of monks-in-training, and caught them right at their prayer before lunch. It was a pretty spectacular sight. What was sad though was that every single one of these young boys is an orphan. We also passed by some women weaving and smoking some Burmese cigars (our hostel actually gave Burmese cigars out for free - but no thanks).

The gong rang, heard across the entire area, signaling it was time to make their way into the dining hall

The day ended with an awesome group of people, all scootering our way to a secluded temple to hike up and watch the sunset, which was even more spectacular. All of these 20-somethings, foreigners this country, eager to experience all that it has to offer. It was amazing to see how we all had each others backs - "no backpacker left behind", so to speak - we kept a head count, took a group picture, and sat mostly in silence as we watched the sun go to sleep. No one else showed up to this temple but us.

To reach the top of any temple, one has to walk up the narrowest staircase, with walls and ceilings so narrow it rivals Vietnam's Cuchi tunnels.

Pic of the extremely narrow and tiny entrance to go through to reach the top

When night fell, we still looked after each other - someone's bike ran out of battery and people stayed behind to help - a girl fell, people made sure she was OK. It was very dark, and the leaders of the pack made every effort to go slowly so that no one would get lost on the way home. Backpacking often feels this way, where you've only known people for 24 hours or less, yet somehow, in knowing that you are all aliens in a certain place, far away from home, you stick with each other like you are siblings. My statement from 5 years ago also still stands, that days spent with other travelers feels like you've known them for weeks. And I will remember this day for a long time.

The following 2 days were more days of exploring - I saw the sunset, I woke up at 4am and scootered my way to a new temple to watch dawn turn into sunrise, I scootered alone, got lost, stumbled into villages, scootered with 5 girl friends, fell down (tons of bruises and scrapes), I even got plant poison in my toe from walking barefoot all over the temple grounds (which is mandatory to do but the plant poison is still bothering my toe). I went to a clinic and saw a doctor about it, fearful that I had a hookworm in my foot - but he insisted it was some kind of plant poison (that made my toe move and change shape...). He also used the word "shit" nonchalantly instead of the more expected, scientific "stool" or "feces". I couldn't stop laughing.

It has been a 3-day journey through truly magical landscapes, there is no other place in the world like this. Ended my stay in Bagan with the 4am sunrise and scootering solo through the backroads, and then packed my bags for another overnight bus to Kalaw.

Kalaw

This is a place meant to be the starting point for trekking. I only stayed one night here to regroup and get my bearings before waking up to begin a 3-day-2-night trek to Inle Lake. One notable place in Kalaw was a VERY local market with minimal stands for tourists -  some impressive displays of their daily items for purchase...

tons of dried fish for sale

The 3-day-2-night Trek 

Day 1: 22 km/13.6 miles

This was quite a journey. Ana, my new friend from Brazil who I met in Bagan, joined me in Kalaw for a trek to make our way to Inle Lake and meet with other girls from our previous hostel. We met our guide for the net 3 days - Sanjae, 20 years old from Nepal. He was sooo great! He knew so much, loved speaking english, and was excited to start University in the Fall.

Day 1 included a lot of uphill walking and breathtaking views of rice paddy fields and small villages hundreds of feet below us. It rained, although the atmosphere the mist and spritz of rain created was memorable in its own way, paired with the constant passing of buffalo and farmers out in the fields. Our cheeks were cold and dewy from the mist, and all we could hear in this high hilltops were light raindrops on our crinkling plastic ponchos, and the cowbells around the buffalos' necks ringing with every fresh bite they took out of the endlessly green grass. Farmers would see us, sometimes waving or saying a friendly "mingalaba" (hello).

amazing view

At one point we stopped at a local school to use the restroom - that's when Sanjae noticed a net and a ball and then told us all about this popular sport in Myanmar, the "cella" (like "cello") and the ball is made out of woven bamboo - it is just like volleyball except you have to use your feet, chest or head like soccer. He loved this game so much! He taught us how to play and then after a few minutes, our playing attracted a small crowd of locals eager to play next. I have to say, I actually prefer this game over volleyball! Just before making it to our homestay, we also passed by monks playing soccer on a hilltop. It was pretty picturesque with the mountains in the far background fading into the low clouds and mist.

At night we stayed with a homestay family of the Pa-oh people. The women wear these extraordinarily bright scarves around their heads, with usually a stark black dress or other. I wanted to photograph them all. But the biggest highlight of our homestay was the food that they cooked us for dinner. This was by far the best meal I have had in all of Myanmar so far, and is for sure a huge highlight of my entire trip.

Pictured is only half of what we were given as more came later: Eggplant salad, tea leaf salad, a green fruit type salad, fresh cucumber salad, ginger and chili soups, and some other curry vegetarian dish. Also what came later was fish curry, watercress, tofu curry with bean sprout, mustard curry.

The chef herself! Wearing the traditional Pa-oh head scarf

The night ended with a glorious 10 hour sleep under the warmest, softest blankets. Usually in cases like these I would use my silk sleep sack liner but everything seemed fine here. I had been hearing a rumbling noise in my lungs everytime I breathed in deeply - I was worried that I had pneumonia because it really felt like I had water in my lungs. But it turns out, I inhaled a lot of dust while I was in Bagan and have mostly recovered from that. I am still also recovering from the plant poison I walked on! These have been bizarre occurrences, but to be expected in the more rural areas of a developing country.

our no-frills bed, surprisingly comfortable and very warm

Day 2: 20km/12.4 miles

We woke up on day 2 with an equally amazing breakfast of chapatis and fresh mango. Day 2 became a bit more adventurous, a bit hotter and drier. Sanjae showed us every single natural fruit and nut growing in the wild throughout our journey, and we were able to try special plants, wild berries and even fig growing from some trees!

wild fig !!

There were also many, many nerve-racking bamboo bridges to cross today - and if we fell in the water, that meant getting eaten alive by leeches probably. Some bridges were so wobbly and WITHOUT HAND RAILS that I walked over them at a glacial pace, fearful of slipping into either leech-infested waters or muddy dirt filled with buffalo dung.

Stopped to say hi to a few Paoh women along the way - Sanjae translated the whole time. The standard of beauty is interesting here, none of them want their photos taken - not because they don't like the foreigners, but because they think they are too ugly. They proceeded to tell all of us how beautiful we all are with our light skin and white teeth. They, given that they work out in the field their entire lives, grow the darker skin and poor teeth health much faster.

Passing by...

After walking 20km on day 2, we stopped for a long break where we ran into other backpackers who did the 3 day trek but with another company. It was a nice moment to chat with other travelers about their trek, and listen to some laid-back tunes on the guitar... Some people were able to shower here. We asked Sanjae if there were showers at the monastery and he said yes. I could not wait!!!!

We mustered up the courage to walk another 40 minutes to our last resting place of the trek, a monastery. Little monks everywhere. We did not get to interact with them all that much because it was late and we were all so tired. Another person joined our group today as well, Chan Yong, 28  from Korea. I rushed to the showers to finally get rid of the mud, sweat, sunscreen and bug spray all over my body - but to my disappointment, the large barrel of water was filled with freezing, brown water. So I opted for one final night of feeling gross about my personal hygiene.

The monastery we stayed at

We all fell asleep right after dinner which was another fantastic meal - because we knew we would be woken up by the sounds of the Full Moon celebration which starts at 4AM...

Day 3: 16km/10 miles

This was something that Sanjae said happens every full moon and new moon, where the monks wake up at 4am and offer food to the buddha as well as food offerings on the steps of every building to offer (and not neglect) the demons. The loud sound of the generator began (which brings electricity to the buildings) and loud prayer music played. This went on for about an hour and a half, and I did not sleep at all. I had every intention of getting out of bed to take photographs, but I could not move from all of the walking. This made for a very tired, sweaty, dirty final day...

me under an amazing 200+ year old tree

Today felt more like walking through a jungle - more cacti, huge bugs, jetting rocks coming out of the grassy hills. We were all quieter today, eager to feel that sense of accomplishment (and shower). We could see our destination, miles away at a microscopic size...

This is how thick the forest was, obstructing our path. We walked through trails like this for 2 hours

Making it into the village near Inle Lake, we were welcomed to palm trees, houses on stilts, and amazing crops framed by tall mountains in the far landscape (including the ones we came from!). It felt so much like Indonesia, mixed with a little bit of Fiji - like suddenly we had made it to the tropics of Myanmar.

Before we knew it, we had arrived to our lunch spot which was where Sanjae would leave us and where our boat would pick us up. Before taking the hour-long boat ride through Inle Lake to our final destination, we had our well-deserved lunch, cheered for ourselves and what we had just accomplished, and I cracked open a cold one - an ice cold Dagon beer.

3 days of no showering - Me, Sanjae, Ana, and ChanYong

Where I am Now

Inle Lake! This place is so beautiful, and there is so much to do here. I have already stayed one night, had the most glorious shower of my life and gave away a full bag of laundry after our trek - and plan to stay here for a handful of days. Something that I've reflected a lot on on this trip so far is the age difference between me and the average traveler - about 22 years old. It's made me feel sort of like an odd duckling in certain social situations, and that 28+ are few and far between (though we still do exist). I've sat in on conversations that 22 year olds are discovering about themselves during these types of journeys - things that I myself realized and went through those 5 years ago in my first trip. All of their revelations, their discoveries and excitement - it made me aware of how amazing that time in their life is, and how much I wish I could have that again and be there again - but that I already had that time. I had some interesting conversations about being a backpacker with early-20 somethings to a 40 year old backpacker, which gave me confirmation on all of the deep reflective things I was feeling about where I am in my life and what I have been through.

Looking forward to an exciting several days in Inle Lake...

:)