Inle-3: Hike, Second Day

Continued from my previous post on The Hike from Kalaw to Inle Lake.

The next day I woke up considerably less enamored. It completely had to do with the fact that I was staying in a building which had no heat, in a place where it got really cold at night. Like. Really. Cold.

For starters, the previous day, when we arrived, we had to take a shower in the same place the monks did. Sounds like a cool experience, doesn’t it? It is, if you are an extremely literal person. It is an open air place with a well and a bucket. Authentic? You betcha. Cold? Oh my god yes. Not only were the winds cold, the water was colder. I was shivering as I completed my shower. It reminded me of the NCC Camp I had back at college, where we showered in winter outside next to a well (Any KGP Junta here?). Next we went to sleep in a big room without any heat, and open windows. So by the time dawn rolled around, we were all well frozen. Not my favorite experience. At times I like these I crave the luxuries that I have gotten used to – running hot water from a tap, indoor heating, indoor plumbing! Oh yes, we had to get out and walk in the forest for 10 minutes to get to the bathrooms. If you ever need to get up at 3AM and go take a leak, it will rob you of your sleep. I said goodbye to the bathrooms and found a tree nearby the monastery to irrigate. On that note, the night sky was beautiful. There was no light anywhere, so almost every single star was starkly visible.

Once we started off walking though, I was quickly re-enamored. As we climbed the road to get to the top off the hill, we were greeted with vistas of clouds gently rolling off neighboring hills, revealing their grassy top in all their splendor.

 

After a couple hours we stopped at a tea stall where I discovered Instant-Tea. I’ve heard of Instant Coffee, but instant tea, never, and it tastes pretty much like normal black tea (The tea dust tea, not tea leaf). It also came in a cool pack with condensed milk, which seems to be prevalent in S.E.Asia. Never understood why…

After another couple hours, we arrive at Inle Lake…

 

It is the second most touristy place in Myanmar, after Bagan. You can read about our stay at Inle Lake in my next blog…