Planning The Trek

The trek (aka hike) from Kalaw to Inle Lake is about 40 miles and is one of the more popular tourist activities in Myanmar. This is the only region in Myanmar where overnight trekking without prior permits and approval from the government is needed, so it’s easy for your average traveler to do it without too much planning. We learned there are over 80 tour companies operating the trek out of Kalaw, a small mountain town of about 20,000 people, so we were spoiled for options when planning our trek!

Visitors can choose to complete the hike in either 3 days and 2 nights or 2 days and 1 night. We opted to do it in 3 days to see as much of the beautiful countryside as possible. We booked our trek with A1 Trekking based on positive reviews from other blogs and on TripAdvisor. They don’ t have a website, so we set it up with them via e-mail about a week ahead of time. When John asked if we needed to do anything to confirm our spot on the tour, they responded that we just needed to promise we’d be at our hotel at the agreed upon date to meet them. Easy peasy!

We paid a whopping $15 per person per day plus a $4 fee to have our luggage transferred to our hotel in Inle Lake so we wouldn’t have to trek with it. This price included the guide, all meals, and our homestay accommodations for two nights. Score!

Day 1

We began the trek by meeting our guide, Tun Tun, at our guest house before heading into town to pick up Jiří and Aneta, an awesome couple from Czech Republic who we’d spend the next three days trekking with. They are about our age and planning a wedding for later this year so we had lots to talk about right off the bat.

As the trek began, we had some incredible views of Kalaw and neighboring towns. We stopped for lunch on the top of a hill and had sweeping views of the valleys below. It was beautiful!

As the day went on, the terrain changed to jungle areas (which were VERY muddy) and then finally we walked on the railroad tracks for a few hours before reaching our homestay.

Our homestay was in a two-story bamboo house with a local family of farmers. We slept on the second floor where the family sleeps. The first floor is used to house livestock and store farming equipment and crops. The kitchen area (a fire and a place to prepare food) is in a building adjacent to the house.

The village doesn’t have running water or electricity. We showered from a bucket, which was cold but refreshing after a long day of hiking. It wasn’t the most private shower ever – the bucket is in a bamboo enclosure with a tarp door that is about chest-high, so anyone walking nearby could see our attempts at bucket showering. The toilet was in an outhouse and just had a squatting potty which is hard to get used to (and not fun at night)!

The villagers have been adding some solar panels with revenue from the tourists coming through so they did have a battery that powered a light in our room and allowed us to charge phones and cameras if we’d like.

We liked living the same way the locals do for a night, but it made us appreciate our access to running water and electricity even more.

Day 2

The second day led us through more rural villages and tons of farms. We hiked through fields of chili, tea, corn, cabbage, and so many other crops. We got a glimpse into the farming process; we saw farmers planting, harvesting, and preparing their crops, including drying out giant tarps filled with chili peppers. We loved watching them work and seeing them ride by on their carts pulled by cows or water buffalo, always quick to offer a wave, a smile, and a friendly “Mingalaba!”

Our homestay on the second night was pretty similar to the first. The house was made of concrete bricks, so it was a little less breezy inside than the first bamboo house night. Our host family on the second night also had a few young children and teenagers, so there was a lot of activity and excitement going on and Burmese pop music playing from smart phones at nearly all times. We loved it!

Our village on the second night was much bigger but still didn’t have electricity or running water. Thankfully, we were well versed at the shower bucket and outhouse system so we knew what to expect.

For whatever reason, though, the outhouse at house #2 was home to a family of HUGE spiders and we saw some terrifying creepy crawlies in there at night. After a trip to the bathroom, I came back and asked John, Jiří and Aneta if anyone had seen the ENORMOUS spider right in front of your face when going to the bathroom. They all said no but they had seen a giant spider behind them. I couldn’t believe they had missed this huge critter… until I realized we were talking about the same spider and I’d been using the potty backwards for days! Oops! Whatever works, right?

Day 3

The last day was the easiest and we loved strolling though the morning mist.

We entered the Inle Lake region after about 45 minutes of trekking, and from there it was about 4 hours of downhill hiking to the lake. It was great to have a much easier day after two long days of trekking!

We arrived near the lake and had a quick lunch before getting in a boat that took about an hour to get us across the lake to Nyaung Shwe, the town at the north end of the lake where most travelers stay. We were so happy to take a real shower and sleep in a cozy bed at our hostel. We spent 4 nights in Inle Lake and had a blast. Stay tuned for more about our visit!