Trekking from Kalaw to Inle Lake (60kms) Day 3

People i met here who contributed to, and improved my trip: Julia (Russia), John (Myanmar)

Due to heavy fog outside, John let us sleep in until 7.30am on Saturday, rather than having to wake us up at the original planned time of 6am. Within 15 minutes of wiping the sleep from our eyes, there was a steaming cup of tea, cake, toast, avacado pure and biscuits awaiting us on the table. Jokingly i told John that he could be my chef in England, if he ever fancied giving up his day job :) Having cleared our plates and packed our stuff, it was soon time to leave the village and catch up for lost time.

The terrain was easier than the previous day but a little harder than day 1, but it was easily the quickest that we had walked. Within 2 hours Inle Lake had come into view on the horizon and this gave the legs refreshed hope, as we sat under a large tree to take a 5 minute break.

Whilst doing so, a couple of hill tribe women came and chatted to John and picked up a huge dried cow pat from the ground and popped it into their bag, as if it was the most natural thing ever. I was trying my hardest not to snigger and understood it would be used for fertilizer no doubt, but it was just such a bizarre thing to witness!

It had been market day in the village of Indein that we were now heading to and several convoys of people were heading back having sold all of their produce of bought their weekly rations. The dusty road was been stirred up from the ox carts and it was clear that the area hadn't had any rain in some considerable time. Not only were the legs now starting to seize up a bit, but i'd also developed a pretty nasty cough, from the inhilation of so much dust.

My trainers had turned from white to orange and i'm still scrubbing my legs weeks after, not sure if its dust or a sun tan :)

Around 1pm we arrived into Indein and the market was in its final throws, with just a few stalls left open. To be honest i had no interest whatsoever in looking around anyway, i just wanted to sit down and rest a little, it had been a tiring walk! Noodle and egg soup was on the menu for lunch and i don't think i've ever seen a woman consume their food so quickly as Julia did that day - for that matter i've never even seen a man eat so fast! No sooner had it arrived then it had disappeared and at first i though she'd been brought an empty bowl. Poor John had only eaten about 2 spoonfuls of his and when Julia looked up and noticed, she turned slightly red faced and tried to explain that she had been very hungry.

I had to smile to see her chubby little cheeks all red and her chin dripping with soup! Classic.

Well, this was the end of what had been a magnificent trek and John told us that we would need to take a boat across Inle Lake to the town of Nyaungshwe, which is where all the accomodation is located. The trip would take a couple of hours and cover about 15 miles with some stops along the way, so once lunch had been finished by the 'slow eaters' of the group, we boarded a small motorised boat that would take us down a small tributary and onto Inle Lake.