We were all up early at the monastery which had noises for morning prayer and were having breakfast around 6.30 of fruit and a type of pancake. After that we all packed up but were the last group to leave.
The weather was much better without any rain and some sun as well. We went through some more villages and again stopped for a tea break and toilet stop and were the last group there. After that we all stopped later at a big tree for climbing so a few people like Max, Hannah and the French guy went up the tree. There were still muddy places but we made it to the lunch stop around 12.30 and the French group were already starting dinner but we didn't have to wait too long and again it was good food, one of the positives of Myanmar. I remember there being a tomato salad and some curry with rice, meanwhile the weather had decided that it was going to rain and poured it down while we were eating. After that it thankfully stopped in time for our boat ride and someone suggested Hannah, Cindy and I do the circus act on shoulders but it was still wet and maybe slippery so I said no its too dangerous.The small French trekking group of 3 people turned up then and were pretty drenched as they had walked further to somewhere else and then got a motorbike to the restaurant. We all got on 2 boats apart from Cindy who left us there to go back home. The boat was nice, but very loud and there were loads of other boats all over the lake. The sun was out and it was a nice thing to do so I put some music on which was better than listening to the boat engine and just enjoyed it since we were all sitting one after the other so it was hard to talk anyway. We crossed the lake and moored up on a wooden pier and walked a bit into town to a hotel where some peoples bags were. Max and Hannah didn't have rooms so Marcus suggested their hostel and we all walked to our hostels to do our thing and arranged to meet up later for dinner. My hostel (Manu Thaw) wwas really a hotel where I was in probably the only dorm room available whcih was very crowded with luggage all over the floor. I got my things sorted and changed my shoes throwing my old trekking shoes out as they had had their day, then I borrowed a bike at the hotel (one of the perks of the place, they also had water to fill up your bottles). Took the bike south to a cave I saw on the map which was ok but nothing special and it got a bit scary as it was dark and my phone battery was running low and it was just me there, but the battery lasted and I got out ok so headed round to Marcus's hostel to see who was there and the others were all busy but I saw Marcus who said he had asked around and there was a pickup truck going to the lantern festival in Thonggui that night but he decided since we had arranged to do dinner that we should stick to that. I headed off again and looked up Iris's hostel called Song of travel which was a nice place run by backpackers, then I went round a few other places like temples before heading back to meet the others for dinner. We went out and looked at the BBQ place Marcus had seen but it didn't look great especially for vegetarians so we found another place which looked ok and fairly cheap and got a big table which was good as Hannah and Max turned up with an extra Brazilian guy and a German girl called Laura. The food was ok but they only had bottled beer and when the bill was a bit more than we expected. After we were looking for somewhere to drink but Hannah and the Brazilian left and later Lotte and Iris went back as well so it was just Marcus, Max, Laura and me and we got some cheap drinks from a shop and I tried to find a hill I'd seen earlier but couldn't find it in the dark so we sat by the canal and played Never have I ever for a bit. It got late and Max and Laura looked like they might like each other and we all went our separate ways to bed. We got up after 6 and only had breakfast around 7am Cindy had a bit more energy and it didn't look like it would rain as much. At some point Marcus told us how someone had a hernia problem for months before going to the doctor for something else and finding that they needed an operation, made me think that I should probably get checked up. We eventually packed up and left around 8am and Max was probably the only one with dry shoes as nothing had really dried overnight. We came to a small temple and there were some large bamboo canes and Cindy said does anyone want to climb, so I thought why not and shimmied 5 or so metres up. then Hannah and Max went up and I went back down, while Max just kept going and got really high (photo below).
We were still walking at a similar pace as yesterday but as we'd left late this time we were the last group to make it to the tea break stop where we were joined by 2 dutch girls: Iris and Lotte who were doing the 2 day trek and had got here this morning by motorbike. We carried on walking and the weather was ok with only a bit of rain but as it was the rainy season the path was still muddy in places. I looked down at one point and saw this strange snake/worm thing moving in an unusual was, Cindy had shown us a really small snake the other day but this didn't look like that especially not the way it moved. Then I saw another had attached itself to my shoe so it was probably a leach. I shook it off and carried on walking. When we stopped a bit later I felt a small pain in my shoe so I thought it was probably a stone but when I took my shoe off it turned out to be a leech , so I waited while Cindy got done salt out to get it off. Max had had a leech on day one and had pulled it off and been bleeding for while but salt did the trick and I didn't bleed. We next stopped for lunch and the other groups there had already eaten and were lying around. Again the food was good especially the avocados. We weren't in a hurry to move on as usual so some of us lay down for a bit. The next bit was a bit hilly and maybe not quite as muddy. We came to a water area which had been promised for us to swim in but the water was all brown so only Hannah, Max and Cindy went in after first walking around a man with his buffalo who was already in there swimming. The rest of us stood around looking at the dirty water and then sat around. I took off my left shoe and discovered a leech hanging on my sock but not on me so I took the sock off and try to get it off but it wouldn't move. I left the sock and took off my other shoe and found 2 leeches one squashed and dead the other I flicked off. I got the other leech off my sock and moved to drier ground as the leeches really love me (something Cindy said - must be my blood). Meanwhile the local climbed on his buffalo and did a somersault before leaving the pool. We stayed a bit then went off trekking again and I was really trying to avoid any leeches. We got to a nice viewpoint and the French girl had a bigger leech on her. After that she said every stone or small pain and you wonder if its another leech. It was really very muddy and slippery in places and we also had to cross a stream but at least it was only water when I got a bit wet. It was getting late and we had been moving fairly slowly all day and we had another hour to go and there was some concern that it might get dark before we got there as it was partly uphill as well but we managed to make it as it was getting dark and we found the French people already at the monastery playing football. A shower later with at least a wall for male and female showers and we were all ready for lunch which was again good especially the soup which we had 2nds and 3rds of. We stayed sitting around the table, Cindy did some logic or joke type problems and after that Iris did some magic tricks with cards. Again we all went to bed early but it was too early for me so I tried reading my kindle but then they turned off the lights and I didn't want to run my head torch battery down so I went to bed as well. Woke up fairly early and it was raining that morning, I went to get some money out but the only bank in town was shut so I went back to the hostel, showered and had breakfast. I tried to finish reading my book and finally managed so I could leave it at the hotel. Marcus and Nina came down for breakfast so I joined them at their table and the girl serving breakfast gave us all breakfast so I shared out the extra one I had got. After I managed to get cash out I needed for the Inle lake fee (12,500) finished packing with final decisions on what to take and joined the others at the hotel reception.
We went to the Jungle king trekking office with all of our bags, Cindy joined us and we had our tour group of Marcus, Nina, Hannah, her friend Max from Radofzell , two people from France, me and Cindy as our guide. It took a while before we left but less than the other groups, and off we went in the rain. I was talking to Hannah as we left town behind and she had a lot of information on the country having lived there for 10 months which was interesting. The path started to get muddy and Max and Hannah decided to take their shoes off although the lack of grip helped Hannah slip and fall, so she soon had her shoes back on, Max meanwhile kept his shoes off the whole day. We continued walking along muddy and dry paths until lunch by which time it had stopped raining and where we were met with a decent meal of noodles and soup. Some of us played chinlon after and it was then that the other 2 tour groups of mostly French people turned up, one group was just 3 people and had paid more possibly for a slightly different trek. We carried on walking and went through lots of fields with different crops, Hannah also collected an avocado from a tree which she hoped would ripen during the trek but never did. We had some more light rain and certainly more muddy paths before stopping for tea and a toilet break. Again the other groups joined us at the tea stop before we left, we stopped each time for quite a long time and our walking was also slow with lots of stops for Cindy to describe plants and such so I took off my pack and sat on it like I learnt for the Torres del paine walk. Because of the slow place we only got to the village after sunset but there was no real sunset anyway as the hills were in the way. Some of us had showers which was from a large well like basin with a small buckets to pour water over yourself, and there was no wall so you couldn't properly undress but it was ok, not too cold, the toilet was pretty basic as well. We settled down for dinner which was good and the afterwards Hannah tried to do a magic trick with a cup and string but couldn't remember so Cindy who Hannah may have originally taught went over it many times before Hannah and maybe some others knew how to do it. As Cindy was tired she went off to bed and we played president with a limited Russian/German deck of cards that meant not all could play. The beds were ok and we had a plan of 6am up and 6.30 breakfast so we had an early night. I did my pressups for the challenge and Marcus videod and did a joke count (which you can probably hear on the Facebook post soon). Nina did a few pressups as well and at some point Marcus and Nina had a bet that she had to do 22 times 22 pressups (484) in one 24 hour day with the winner getting dinner and drinks paid for. We played president card game afterwards (also known as the last place person in the game) before we all went to bed in one room on mattresses on the floor. Woke up and checked out the breakfast on offer for 2,000 kyats but it didn't look good so I went to pay for the room and the woman tried to charge me for the breakfast I'd not eaten. She also told me about a trek for 39,000 which seemed ok couldn't remember the company name maybe tangle king. Walked past a church which was closed and found the market which was good as I'd heard from Sam that there is a market here only once a week. Got some watermelon for breakfast then went to Sams trekking place which was well recommended but was 45,000 for the 3 day trek plus Inle lake entrance fee. Went to check some other trek places and I met the German pair whose bus had only just arrived so they were not sure they could still do the trek that day.
They had been to Eagle trek and eversmile and wanted to see another so we went to Jungle king where a Sikh man told us about their tour which seemed ok and the price of 39,000 and it turned out to be the place the lady in the hotel had suggested and the same price. The German pair who are called Marcus and Nina decided to book for the next day and check into the same hotel as me and I went back to the hotel to use the internet to see what people had said about the tour group. Turned out to be mostly positive so I tried to book with the woman in the hotel so that maybe my bags would get moved to the trekking office but she told me to book at the office so I did that while Marcus and Nina were at the hotel. Marcus had got some tips from the trekking guy for what to do in Kalaw so we started with the market which was supposed to shut at 12 and tried out some food there and looked around. Marcus and Nina both bought some wood for tannakha (they put it on their skin to stay young) from a weird guy. After we headed towards the cave which was supposedly a highlight but we didn't really know where it was. I googled the word for cave and we managed to get an approximate direction to head in. It started raining so we took brief shelter in a bakery type shop where the guy gave us a piece to try which he thought was good. Marcus bought another thing for 100 but paid with a 200 and the guy just kept the extra 100 and said it was for the other thing we tried which is not how samples work but we weren't going to argue for such a small amount. what was good about Marcus and Nina as they even spoke to each other in English even though German was their native language. The rain let up so we carried on walking and passed a sign pointing us in the right direction for the cave but back the way we had come for the bamboo pagoda. We passed a security checkpoint which didn't seem to be doing anything and carried on and were soon following a fellow tourist. After a while it seemed we were going the wrong way but Nina wanted to continue so we did and the tourist in front walked faster away from us so we couldn't ask her. We did manage to find someone on a motorbike who told us we need to head back so we did and made it to the cave which was pretty big and stuffed full of all kinds of Buddhas and had quite a bit of wet floor. Several pictures later we left the cave and pagoda and headed back to the bamboo pagoda and met the tourist from earlier who turned out to be Russian, had not wanted to hear our conversation earlier and was now planning to walk to Inle lake on her own in one day and with that off she went again. We found the bamboo pagoda which was behind another pagoda, neither of them really worth seeing and when we went back down there were 2 kids playing Chinlon and Marcus and I fancied playing so we went and joined them for a 2 vs 2 game which turned out to be a lot harder than it looks. After we headed back to the hotel and met a girl there called Hannah who was from Konstanz in South Germany and she was volunteering in a monastery school but had a few days holiday due to the moon festival and she wanted to do a trek with a guide she knew already and was meeting tonight. I got bored so went up a hill to see another pagoda then came back and joined Marcus in drinking beer. Hannah's guide friend Cindy turned up and Hannah lifted her on her shoulders (she is prety tiny) then I lifted Hannah on my shoulders and then she was going to lift Cindy again and I was going to lift Hannah with Cindy still on top but Cindy didn't want to do it and there were people watching. Hannah and Cindy left after recommending a restaurant which did noodles and also served beer. When we got there after a shopkeeper helped us find it they turned out not to serve beer do we asked and it was ok to buy them from a shop and drink there. Carrying on with the drinking after we went back into town and found a really dark place that only served spirit mixers but had some people playing music and getting drunk. We stayed there until late and headed back and I met Dan from Mandalay in the street. Was awake fairly early around 7am and as the Austrian was packing in the room I decided to have breakfast. By the time I had got there they had already run out of some things but they did bring out more. Sat talking to Sam from Israel who I'd planned to drink with yesterday but he had come back late from dinner and hadn't known about the balcony. I tried to book a room at Kalaw but couldn't fine much so I treated myself to some more rest afterwards before packing up my bags not just to move but also so I could join a trek straight off the overnight as the area was busy probably due to the festival nearby and prices were to high so I thought about just taking the overnight bus there and going straight on a trek. Used the toilet and this time I used up the last of the toilet paper, then forgot to replace it until about 10 minutes later - guess its not so easy to be a great backpacker.
Left the hostel around 11 and decided to see the waterfall and hot spring and as I didn't have too long I rented a bike. The paths on the map were not as smooth as expected and there were streams for irrigating the fields to cross. I Got slightly lost but found my way to the cemetery which was on the basic map I had been given. There were lots of Chinese graves there as the area is closer to China. Next came a rubbish tip and then it was gravel and mud paths to the waterfall which was empty when I arrived so I took some pictures and had a well deserved swim to cool down as it was pretty hot. Left the waterfall and people were on their way there but I went back to the cemetery to go a different path to the hot springs. The concrete path soon became a mud path but it was ok to cycle until there wasva river crossing the road damn! I mean dam, there was a dam there but not a normal looking one and so I needed to wade across the river which was not that hard apart from when I took a selfie of me with the bike in the river. Then I cycled along and passed some people swimming but I kept going and found a place in the stream/river deep enough to get in but not to swim. I went back and there were more people there who turned out to be German. One showed me that there was a small rock pool which was the hot spring. I got in and it was warm but too shallow. Turns out they had crossed the river further down which was harder. We all headed back and saw a pagoda before going different ways and I went to the hostel to book a bus ticket but they couldn't book me one so I went to another place who booked me on the 4.30 bus and told me to turn up at 4 at the bus station which was a bit of a walk. I took the bike to see the last thing a standing up Buddha and then got some food before returning and picking up my bags and walking to the RC bus station. Got there before 4 but was more of a rush than I had wanted for the day and I still hadn't finished my book so I read some more and at 4.30 the bus didn't turn up and at 5pm the bus still wasn't here and a German pair from the hot springs turned up as they had booked the 5.30 bus and were told it was running late. They were also planning to go trekking when they arrived at Kalaw but went for coffee across the road as they had an hour before their bus was due to come. My bus turned up and there were about 7 of us getting on but they had no luggage storage so we had to carry our bags onto the bus and my big suitcase was a problem especially as they had fold down seats so the aisle was not wide enough. I left my suitcase near the entrance as I didn't understand what they were doing and someone picked it up and put it on a seat behind me with the other bags. The coach was pretty full and not too comfortable so I didn't sleep too much over the night and I was woken up about 4.30am as we had arrived in Kalaw and it was raining. I got out as did another couple and a motorbike guy offered them a hotel for 6,000 for the night which is cheap so I went along and got a room for 8,000 for myself and went to sleep until close to 9am. Woke up around 6am not surprising and I used the toilet and again there was no toilet paper, just not got the right kind of backpackers here. I packed and was ready to go so had breakfast, paid for the trek and met my fellow trekkers which were 2 couples one from London and the others from Dresden in Germany. We started a bit late which is normal and we were soon sweating going uphill in the sun But we did keep to a reasonable pace until our first stop where we had tea and some snacks. The fields were nice to look at and it was good talking to the couples as our guides English was not so good, the Germans had both finished studying psychology and the English lived in Finsbury park. The guide later told us his name translated as handsome man which made it more entertaining and he aslo had a trick where he made bubbles from a plant like when you use fairy liquid. The next stop for tea was a liitle hut on stilts just off the path and there were a lot of beer cans and bottles left from previous tourists trekking past. We continued to the main village for lunch which was a nice range of dishes with more tea and we had made good pace there arriving early. Handsome man took us round the village where we found that the children mostly are in school until about 11 and then they work as school in town is expensiv0 so very few children get to go there.
The way back was a different route mostly but we did join up with the main path and finished with a tuk tuk the last bit into town. The guys didn't want to seem to meet up for dinner so I got some on my own and saw 4 local people on the one motorbike which was the most I'd seen, I later told someone who said they'd seen 5 but then in Spain where my parents go there are people who deliver fridges and such on a motorbike. Stayed at the hostel and had a few beers and there were a few people about from Germany, Austria and Holland. This time I had a roommate who took ages getting ready for bed and again packing the next morning. Sam had said he'd meet up for drinks but didn't show. Woke up around 2am in incredible pain in my lower left back, tried to find the most comfortable position to sleep in which involved putting aside my pillow and I slept fitfully through the night and woke early with a visit to the toilet where someone had finished the toilet roll and not replaced it even though there were rolls just next to the toilet door. Struggled to do basic things especially lifting my leg to put on trousers so after breakfast I went back upstairs for some more sleep.
I spent most of the day slowly recovering before heading out for food after 3pm only to find the places stop serving food between 3 and 5 but I did find somewhere eventually which only had a choice of curries and given how bony or fatty the meat can be I chose the fish which was good although I didn't use all of the plates I was given especially not anything which looked like chillis. Didn't feel to bad walking so I went to see the Shan palace and arrived in time for the woman who lives/works there to give her last talk of the day, so I got a bit of history of this region and Myanmar in general. Headed back into town and grabbed some more food before watching the North London derby live and was joined at my table by lots of guides from the trekking company just in front of the hostel. They were mostly supporting Arsenal as well but it finished 1-1 and they didn't seem upset like fans back home would be. Back at the hostel it was pretty quiet again and I tried to get more rest so that hopefully I could do a tour the next day as they did have people signed up for the 1 day hard trek which may not be thr best option if my back id still dodgy. |
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