Introduction
If you come from Mandalay, you pass the hilltown of Kalauw where you can do some great hiking tours.
Around this beautiful lake, you can find 200 towns, all relying on the water.
You can also do nice hiking trips in the hills surrounding the lake.
Accommodation
You can find a lot of budget places in the beautiful Nyangshwe town. Expect to pay around 2 to 5 US$ including breakfast.
We stayed at the
Great Star Hotel, a very nice family-run hotel. We payed 2 US$ pp including breakfast (11/98). You can also have great lunch and dinner and they can organise boattrips on the canal.
The
Bright Hotel (Phaungdaw Saik Rd.: walk down the road and make a right at the inevitable paya). They charge 6 US$ for a double with bath. The management was a bit laid back, but there's a fine verandah and decent rooms (7/99).
Remember Inn: 3$, bathroom, ventil, small breakfast. OK.
- Laundry in Remember Inn: 3 pieces: 100 K.
- bicycle renting (at the R.I.): 250 K a day (6/2000).
There is an electricity problem in Nuaungshwe, like they say "one day electricity come, one day electricity go !".
Restaurant
The home cooking of the Great Star hotel is recommended (+/- 1 US$).
The Hupin has quite good Chinese food (try the hot and sour fish) and cold beer (7/99).
The popular Four sisters has attractive decor, wonderful people, a pay-what-you-want policy, occasional live music and local Intha food. They do tone the spices down for the tourists (7/99).
The Big Drum is to be avoided (7/99).
Almost all tourist hotels or guesthouses offer meals.
At the mingala market you can find fresh food and vegetables.
There are also bakeries around the market area.
Pancake Kingdom (to change a little -): towards the canal, 2 pancakes + 1 soda = 325 K Very good.
- Restaurant: Hu Pin Restoring: 1 dish + beer = 600 K Not good.
- Restaurant: Shan Land (on canal's bank): 1 dish + 1 soda = 600 K Good.
- Becasue it's a tourist area (?), from Bagan the bottles of beers (Mandalay, Myanmar or Tiger) of ~0.6 L are 350 K (instead of 300 K in the rest of the country)
What to do ?
Visit to the colourful market in the town center.
When you arrive in town, don't forget to get a permit at the MTT, it'll cost 10 US$ for 5 days. Sometimes soldiers check your entry ticket.
Inle Lake is beautiful. It's a place with a great atmosphere. We planned to stay 3 days and finally stayed 6 days. This is really a place for your "chill out" time. LAKE TOUR: we rented a boat in our hotel for a whole day to visit the lake (6 US$ for boat + guide). We visited:
- The floating market of Ywana
- A silver factory &n
bsp;
- A longyi factory
- The famous Nga Hpe chaung paya or jumping cat monastery: beautiful old wooden monastery where the cat of the monks jumps in the air.
The famous fishermen on the lake.
A lot of other beautiful villages.
We also took a guide to take us to an Pa-o village and monastery, this is a 1/2 day walk up the mountain (take a lot of water). We were very welcome at the monastery and stayed with the monks and listened all afternoon at Chinese music. We payed 5 US$ for the trip.
You can rent a bike for 1 US$ per day and drive around the beautiful area. The trip to Nanthe is nice. On the way you pass a catholic nursery home where you are welcome for tea.
Other trekkings of several days are also possible.
Getting out
Our hotel owner arranged a ticket to Bagan for 3 US$ pp. We were stocked in a minibus for about 10 hours. The bus broke down, and afterwards part of the road was washed away by the rain. It's best to make reservations because sometimes these buses are full, and standing up for 10 hours can be deadly !!.
You can also arrange buses to Mandalay, Taunggyi, Paya.
UPDATE 2001 Transportation · Nightbus from Bago (14u30 - 6u30) , 2.500 Kt / pp. You can book the bus in Yangoon, but also in the coffeeshop in Bago. Make sure they drop you at the junction !
· Taxi Junction-Schwaunghee, 1.500 kt (they asked 2.000 kt). Or pickup for 100 Kt. Sleep
· Hotel Bright, 8$ for double. Recommended.
Food · Mr Cook.
· "The Four Sisters" are - as well for their food as for their accomodation - not that fantastic as mentionned in some travelbooks !
To see · With bike around the like (300 Kt/day, 200 Kt/half day).
· With chartered boat on the lake (***), 3500 Kt., from 8 to 15 h., beautiful, but incl. jumping cat monastry and some very expensive shops. Every day there is a market in (another) village around the like. That's the place to go first : You will see a lot of hilltribes there, where you can also buy some souvenirs (If they start with 20 dollar, you can get it for 2 dollar !)
· Entrance for the Inle Lake is 3 FEC/person. if you don't pay (for the government), that same government will put your boatman in jail
· And - uyou can do it on the same day - after the lake you have to do also a little trip with a canoe on the canals (***), also "pay-as-you-wish".
· Trekkings (soft,medium,hard).
· There is still one traditional puppetmaster (****) in the village. Daily show at 18h and 21h. Best place to buy puppets (4$ > 10$) in Birma !
Go to Bagan If you have further questions on Myanmar, please e-mail
Geert Van Vaeck
