Leg 9: Inle Lake

We were nearing the end of our trip and actually had no idea where we were going the last few days in Myanmar. Inle Lake sounded charming, beautiful, and different than the other areas we had already been so we went for it! We were forewarned it was really busy in Inle with the Balloon Festival and it might be hard to find a place to stay. But, they said the monastery always takes people in if hotels are full.

It was a 9-10 hour bus ride from Bagan to Inle. It was a fairly nice bus with cushioned seats, sometimes music videos or movies, and several stops for the bathroom and food. Plus, it was a pretty drive and very scenic. I wish I had a gps to track our elevation gain as we climbed up and up and up the mountain, then back down. I was worried our bus would break down and we would be stranded. haha!

Volleyball net on the side of the road, taken from the bus.

 One of the rest stops. One of the cleaner toilets on our trip. Conor enjoying yet another Coke.

The guy behind me was totally encroaching my space. Just love someone's nasty feet between my seat!

At dusk we arrived in Inle and warded off all the guys begging to take us where we wanted on their bike. (I think our butts and hips were too wide to fit the seat anyhow!) The town wasn't that big and we figured we could walk to the monastery. The man at the bus station confirmed all hotels were full and we would need to stay there--and that they would take us in. We trekked to the monastery, only to be turned away. Several others on our bus were there and told the same thing. Hotels in town were upset with the monastery for taking people in (even though they were FULL!) and the monastery wouldn't take any more foreigners. We wandered around town in the dark and went to several hotels, back to the monastery again with no luck. One man called a bunch of hotels that he said are never full, and they were. He felt bad for us and said we could pay to stay in his niece's room, which is often used for bus drivers. Yeah! We had two twin beds and a toilet with a cracked seat, no shower head, but hey--it was a place to sleep! He said the next night he would have a room open. We went and found some dinner, then Conor came back and crashed. I wasn't tired, plus there was a puppet show I was dying to see. So, off to the puppet show I went!

Leaving the bus station and headed to monastery.

Conor, too tired to smile. He gets ornery when he's hungry!

I swear all those jars of spices were thrown into Conor's soup! It was spicy and good! My veggie & noodles were tasty, too!

The "niece's room"/bus driver room in Inle Lake.

The puppeteer! He was excellent and I loved the show! All photos below w/out flash, so not the best.