El had organised us a three day two night trek through the Myanmar countryside, from Nyaungshwe to Kalaw. This would cover about 40km, and pass through farmland predominantly. We considered it to be a good way to see the 'real' people of Myanmar and how they lived, and were looking forward to stretching our legs.

On Thursday 14th, we checked out and were picked up by a tuk-tuk driver at 8am . Unfortunately, Ken was starting to become unwell. We chugged along to the west side of Inle Lake, getting very cold in the wind. We caught up with another tuk-tuk, and realised that it was not going to be just the four of us and one guide, but instead would be eight of us with three guides. We were joined by a French couple, a Swiss chap and a Danish woman who all turned out to be very nice.

We reached our starting point and set off on the trek at a leisurely pace, along flat ground. We quickly reached a sugar mill, where processing was happening. We watched the boiling and stoking process, and were given some free brown sugar lumps for our trouble. Yum. We passed by fields of sunflowers and fields of wheat, before we started ascending about 300 metres. At a rest stop, we came across a chap carrying huge baskets of rice crackers, such as those we had eaten with our bean tofu. Various people picked up his baskets, which were estimated to weigh about 10 kilos. It would be no easy task carrying such large baskets up into the villages to sell, we were sure of that. We saw some women walking with some buffalo, and they tried to converse with the guides. The guides told us that the women were speaking the Pa’O language, not Burmese, and so they could not understand each other.  

As we climbed the hill, we came across our first pine trees (introduced to Myanmar by the British), followed by villagers harvesting the wheat from the red earth . The guides told us that this was due to a high iron content in the soil. It made the landscape very striking to look at and exceedingly pretty. Later, we came across bamboo and cherry trees (introduced by the Japanese) in flower. The mixture of pine, bamboo and cherry trees gave a distinct Asian-Himalayan feel, and of course added to the prettiness.

Excitingly for Jack, we saw some red fronted bulbuls, hanging out near the cherry blossoms. We saw mustard seeds being grown in the fields, and villagers making baskets out of bamboo. They were also carrying huge pieces of bamboo around, and we realised that most things in the area were made of bamboo – it being the primary and most accessible material. We saw stupas on the mountains, shining in the distance, and friendly children waved to us constantly. Our guides gave us some apples to eat – not like the apples we know, but small, red, sour and very nice all the same. The guides also explained the way that the people expressed love interest, with a woman giving the object of her affection a heart shaped leaf . If the leaf was returned, it was a good sign!

Lunch was a lengthy stop and was simple but did the trick. Dinner was a veritable feast at our accommodation. This consisted of an upstairs room, with bamboo walls, thin mattresses on the floor, and a couple of blankets. We wore everything we had taken with us and were still very, very cold through the night. We’d walked about 15km in the day and were happy to try to get some kip, before the next day’s trek.

On Friday 15th, we had a misty, cold morning start. Breakfast was good, and we set off to find fields of chillis, and later, drying harvested chillis emanating a glorious smell. We saw locals harvesting the wheat, banana trees, papayas growing and mango plants. We saw some more red fronted bulbuls and a kind of buzzard flying close overhead. A guide gave us a very sour gooseberry to eat. We saw a man riding a buffalo (we sang "guy on a buffalo…") and women carrying water in cans, from springs back to their villages . We saw plenty of buffalo carts and buffalo being washed. At lunch, the guides explained that the rice had a red tinge because of the red soil and high iron content. Lunch was passable, and dinner was again comprehensive and delicious. Unfortunately, dinner was outside and it was again very cold. During the day, Ken continued to be sick, and Helle from Denmark, and Morgan from Switzerland, also became unwell. Collectively, we weren’t doing too well. The accommodation was an upstairs room with blocks for walls; a vast improvement on the bamboo structure of the previous night. We were above the kitchen, so had heat rising from the fire. Despite all of that, we were still cold in the night, and the floor was very uncomfortable to sleep on. We’d walked about 16km in the day. It was lucky it wasn’t more strenuous because of the amount of sickness in the group.

On Saturday 16th, we had another great breakfast and left the village, to find another village shortly. Here, many children came out of their houses, said hello in Burmese (“mingalabar”) to us, and gave us flowers . We adorned ourselves and continued. We saw more fields of crops, including tomatoes rotting on the vines as apparently there had been a tomato surplus that year and it wasn’t worth the villagers’ efforts to pick the crop.   We saw more mustard being grown, plenty of wheat, carrots, cabbages, and jack fruit growing from a tree. We saw locals mining sand, for use as a building material, and we saw a sad and sunburnt looking albino buffalo. On the approach to Kalaw, we did a little bit of road walking, which was unpleasant after so long in the wonderful countryside. After leaving the road, we did the final climb up a hill over to Kalaw town, and came into an area of many pine trees. The guides told us that Kalaw is also known as Pine Hill. It was very pretty.  

On entering the town, we saw some very plush looking hotels on the outskirts. We continued in through the town, and ended up at the train station. This station we had passed through, on the epic 31 hour train journey to Nyaungshwe. We saw just how small the gauge was for the track, which went a long way to explaining why the trains were quite so bumpy in Myanmar. We had lunch at the market in Kalaw, which was a rapid noodle affair. Coming into a town after being engrossed in the countryside for a couple of days was a bit of a shock to the system. The people and crowded market were interesting, but also slightly difficult to handle. By this time, Helle had recovered from her sickness, but Ken and Morgan remained unwell . We’d walked about 9km that day, and those who were sick were definitely happy it was at an end.

We walked to our final destination in Kalaw to pick up our big bags. We were given a refreshing glass of juice by the hotel, and carried on walking to our hotel for the night, Nature Land. We wished everyone a fond farewell, especially the guides who had been excellent. They were the happiest people we have ever met, and clearly very much enjoyed their job and each other’s company. The information was a little lacking, and they lacked a clear leader to disseminate the information. We would, however, definitely recommend trekking with Sunny Day Tours as a great and cheap trekking option from Lake Inle area. As for the trek itself, it was the easiest trekking we’ve ever done. The landscape was beautiful, and there were a couple of hills. The most difficult thing was the discomfort of cold and fairly sleepless nights.

On arriving at Nature Land, we checked into our very nice bungalows. They were wood shacks with lovely double beds – the first double beds in Myanmar – hot showers, and amenities we never use, like a TV. Some luxurious quiet time was just what we needed after a great trek.

Unfortunately, Ken was still unwell. We had finally managed to get some drugs for him from Kalaw town, and needed to give these an opportunity to work . We settled in and got comfortable, repacked our bags and showered. Showers were awesome but there wasn’t quite enough hot water for all of our lengthy showering needs. We watched a film, and later went out for dinner with Jack and El to a swanky western joint nearby. Bed was calling early, and we piled on as much warm stuff and blankets as we could find. The night was freezing cold again, so we shivered away and didn’t sleep very well, despite the comfort of the surroundings.

The following day, Sunday 17th, we had a late afternoon flight from Heho airport to Mandalay. We had a relaxed and leisurely morning, with a great breakfast from the hotel. We packed up and checked out, hanging out in the hotel’s beautiful gardens, whilst Jack and El went for a scenic bike ride to a cave ‘dripping’ with golden Buddhas. They also witnessed a cat fighting a snake en route. We missed out on this, but Ken’s recovery time was important. After being on the move for so long, Ken needed as much downtime as he could get.

Our taxi arrived at 2pm and we were off to our next destination – back to Mandalay!