3-day Trek; Kalaw to Inle Lake

In Kalaw we looked around for a guide on the afternoon when we arrived from Bagan and already on the following day we started our 3-day trekking tour. Convincing our guide to take a path away from the main tourist route, we were luckily to enjoy 3 wonderful days seeing tradional local life undisturbed by other tourist groups. The first night we slept in a homestay and the other one in a monastery, far away from a road and public transport.
The trip was affected by a typhoon in the sea near Bangladesh. Instead of enjoying the sun we had had during the rest of the journey, it was always cloudy and on the 2nd and 3rd day we had some heavy rain showers which converted the paths in a muddy trail which was difficult to walk.


DAY 1:
Leaving Kalaw our small group, Xavi, Amara, Nuría, we and our guide Ky (only our cook is missing on the photo, he always walked faster to prepare the food), headed to the south, passing a dam, rice fields and up a mountain to a small village where we had lunch.


On the way we could see many people working (sorting tea leaves and garlic), a school full of children and on a train station we just arrived on time to see the vendors selling vegetables, fruits and flowers when the train stopped there.


In the afternoon we continued along fields and small rivers to a village (2nd photo) where we slept in a house.



DAY 2:
Just on this day they had a wedding ceremony in the village where we stayed overnight and in the morning before leaving we could have a look. Afterwards we went up a mountain through fields full of flowers, once it rained a bit, then came the fog and went on again. When we could see something we had a nice view along the valley.


Not only flowers, many vegetables they plant, for example also chili and then they dry them in the villages, on the ground and sometimes also on the roof of their houses.


People carrying things to the villages and working we could meet everywhere, sometimes also kids riding on a buffalo.


With the rain the road got so muddy, all sticked on our shoes and we needed a lot of time to come forward (cleaning was nearly helpless, with the next step the shoe was already again full of mud). Luckily we were when we finally arrived to the monastery where we slept. The village we stayed in had a lot of traditional houses.



DAY 3:
2 kids carrying a baby and a horse cart loaded with hay were only 2 of many things we could see along the way which lead us through fields of cauliflower and along some mountains.


Finally we could see Inle Lake in the fog, our destination. When we arrived at the village on the lake, a boat was already waiting in a channel to carry us to Nyaungshwe ont he other side of the lake, the main place for tourists to stay.


Apart of many insects we could see butterflies and also snakes, this one here was alive, another one we saw on the road was unfortunately killed.