Myanmar Part 3 - Kalaw

Ok - so this installment is pretty short. But not to worry - the next (and last) Myanmar post will be long and have the best pix. I hope to finish it in the next few days. So much else to blog about too! I just don't have enough time. Aye Carumba!

Kalaw – Tuesday October 24 to Wednesday October 25

We have an early morning flight to Heho, which is an airport town close to Kalaw and Inle Lake. We were told that we had to see Inle Lake, but from the book it sounded quite touristy (it was) and so we decided we were going to go to Kalaw (a smaller town) first, and then hike from there to Inle Lake (2 ½ days). It was for sure the right choice. When I woke up Tuesday morning I felt terrible and almost feverish. And this is when I started to worry about Malaria. In another bright move by Margaret and me, we didn’t bring any mosquito repellent, which is one of the first things our trusty ol’ Lonely Planet says to bring. Because guess how easy it is to get mosquito repellent in Myanmar? Um, yeah. We actually found some in Yangon, but it was a cream and it smelled good, which makes me think it doesn’t work well. Anyway – the LP notes that malaria (and dengue fever) is around in the areas we are in – so having been bit by a few mosquitos I am completely freaked out when I get a tad bit of a fever. Although in reality I don’t think where we were there is much of a chance of getting malaria, but still – it is kind of freaky. So anyway – back to the flight from Bagan to Heho – a short ½ hour direct flight on another propeller plane. And it was as smooth as could be. And when we walk outside it is so refreshing because it is COOL! As Heho is up in the mountains a bit, the weather is amazing. It felt so good – for the first time since I arrived in Bangkok I felt comfortable outside. And that seemed to cure my fever too. In the airport we met a couple from St Louis and they are able to tell me that the Tigers won game 2 and they “think” St. Louis won game 1. So I am still positive.

The drive from the Heho Airport to Kalaw (pronounced“Kah-low”) was only about an hour through the mountains – and the scenery was incredible. When we got into town, we decided to stop at the Golden Lilly Guesthouse to see how it was. The LP said it was a bit rough, but one of the only places in Kalaw that has internet. And it was more than a little rough, so we continued on. The place we decided to stay at was called the Eastern Paradise, and although it was far from a paradise, it was about all you could ask for for $10 a night (running and hot water – no need for AC as it is cool, especially at night). The lady who runs our hotel speaks almost no English and she is very timid, but she right away asks us if we are looking for a guide. All the guesthouses have deals with tour guide companies. We had read in the book that we should look around, but she made a phone call and told us to wait 5 minutes. A guide came to talk to us about what we wanted to do and told us we needed 2 ½ days to make it to Inle Lake. We were hoping for two days to give us more time in Inle Lake, but as it turned out it was far better to spend more time on the hike. Anyway, as we are discussing this he mentions that he is busy and won’t be our guide, but another person from his company will take us. And that person, Nuang-Nuang (pronounced “No-No”) showed up almost at that instant. So we finalize the details with him and set 8:30am tomorrow as the meeting time to begin our trek.

So we walk around Kalaw, which is a really small town – but very charming and certainly has character.

The market is small (on just one main street) but amazing – we got the best blankets ever there (right Nilla and Stacy!).

We look at cameras because, as I mentioned before, we are already on my second (and last) battery for my digital camera, with no way to charge them. We stop at a little store and the lady has a 35mm camera – and it looks decent – but then she wants $60 for it and we are like no way. So we move on and don’t see any cameras and are thinking we will have to go back. So then we stop at a sort of general store and notice that there is one camera. The owner tells us it is 5,000 kyats – so under $5. And this worries me because it looks like a dinosaur and is so cheap. But we decide on that one, instead of the $60 one. So the man loads the film and we have a backup camera (after we left the general store we of course immediately found 3 stores that sold all sorts of cameras – but we decided to stick with our $5 one – another bad idea). Then we get some things to give to the village kids on our trek (pencils, notebooks and in the best decision EVER, Margaret gets a bunch of stickers). We also buy two little flashlights for the trek, which again are very cheap. So cheap that the owner has to open up 6 of them before he can get two that work! And this makes me even more worried about our backup camera. While all this is going on, there is a woman that comes in and out of the store – and talks to Margaret. She has only 1 arm and 1 leg, and is a beggar. She tells Margaret that she got run over by a train when she was little. But she is really strange and dances for awhile and then cracks her fake foot to show Margaret it is fake. Just a completely surreal scene.

Now it is tea time. And they take their tea seriously in Myanmar. There are far more teahouses than bars, and it is the social gathering place. So we stop at a local teahouse and get tea, bread and Samosas – fried pastries with veggies inside. And it was soooooo good – both the bread and the samosas. And we were definitely the highlight for the locals!

Then it is time to rent some bicycles. We ask the lady who runs our guesthouse where we can rent bicycles, and she gets two girls who work for her to show us. We walk about 2 blocks and run into another traveler, a guy named Matt from Florida. So we stop and talk for 5 minutes or so (while the two girls sit down and wait for us to finish) and make tentative plans to meet up that night at a bar we saw called Hi Snack & Drink – which is supposed to have good live music. So we finally get to the bike rental place and they have a bunch of pretty old looking bikes. The first one they give Margaret is un-ride-able – so she switches to a “better” model. My bike is “The Pheasant” and it was something. I had to situate my knees just right so they didn’t hit the handlebars. My seat was broken and kept tilting backwards. When I tried to stand up on the pedals to get more speed going up hills, I bent the pedals a bit. So hills were especially tricky. Needless to say we got smiles (and honks) from everybody that passed us. Too funny.

We went to Thirigayhar Restaurant for dinner – more props to LP. It was a cottage on the main street and had a wide variety of food. The soups were unbelievable. Unfortunately on the way to dinner my “fever” came back and I wasn’t feeling well. It was all I could do to get through dinner. Poor Margaret – great food, great atmosphere and I’m all like, are you done yet? Needless to say we didn’t head out to try and catch live music, as I headed right to bed. And I was really feeling rough – and worried about feeling like crap on a 2 ½ day hike (not to mention malaria). As we went to bed we heard the sounds of a festival going on – drums and singing. It sounded so fun. We actually went out onto the main balcony of our hotel to listen – but that was as far as I could make it. We found out that it was a Muslim festival for the end of Ramadan (I think???). Anyway – was bummed that we were missing it, but I had to beat the bird flu!