Playing Foot Volleyball Against Locals Video
2011-12-22
The bus arrived in the sleepy town of Kalaw at 3AM, but as always in southeast Asia, there were people waiting for us as we got off the bus to sell us a hotel room. My Finnish friend, Olli, got food poisoning that night, the beginning of a major theme of our time in Myanmar. Kalaw is a charming town with a bustling market and lots of kids flying kites. The first day I hiked to a viewpoint and back and then the next day we all set out on a three day trek to Inle Lake. The scenery was nice, but not as beautiful as I was expecting based on people's descriptions beforehand. We stayed the first night in a small town and the second night at a monastery, awoken the next morning by the chants of the novice monks at 5:30. The nights were quite cold due to our altitude. The blankets made things warm enough, but as many things are in Asia, they were not quite long enough for us westerners and I had to choose between cramped legs and cold feet. The stars at night were amazing as long as I could bear the cold. I was lucky to have a great group of people to trek with, three Canadians, a Finn, and a Turk. We stuck together once we reached Inle as well and had a great time.