After sweating the afternoon off waiting for our driver to finally leave the Mandalay bus station, we finally experienced some air-conditioning in the bus. This bus will be going from Mandalay to Taunggyi in Shan State, I will be getting off at the junction town of Shwenyang. The ride to Shwengyaung was quite comfortable for a change. The bus was clean and it was specious, but most of all the airconditioning worked! The bus also did not have any breakdown this time compared to that hellish bus I rode from Yangon to Bagan.
And this time around, I actually have someone who can understand me perfectly. There were two travellers from Ireland and the United States and I had a great chat with them one the way to Shwenyaung. We estimate the trip to take around 10-11 hours, but most of the time is spent travelling at night so there isn’t really much time wasted travelling from one place to another. I actually got some sleep too.
Well, the two visitors got off at Kalaw while I continued on to Shwenyaung. If I had the time, I also would have travelled to Kalaw, but because of money constraints, I needed to ensure that I can get back to Yangon before the Thingyan festival starts. If not, I will not get transportation back to Yangon for a whole week! Not good if you are short on cash and time.
When I got off Shwenyaung, I immediately noticed the crisp mountain air. Shwenyaung is in the mountainous Shan State and the higher altitude gives it a more pleasant climate compared to Yangon or Mandalay. Actually Kalaw is even higher than Shwenyaung. I figured that if I were to minimize my expenses, I need to stay put since transportation costs have been the bulk of my expenses. And Inle Lake with its more pleasant climate would be the best place to hang around.
At the junction of the highway is the town of Shwenyaung it is basically just the main stop for people visiting Inle Lake. As expected there were a lot of very “helpful” folk trying to get me to Inle Lake. It was four in the morning and I didn’t have the strength to the leverage to bargain. So for three dollars I got I taxi to bring me to the town of Nyaungshwe.
When entering the Inle Lake area, tourists are supposed to pay a tourism fee however, since it was four in the morning there were no staff at the checkpoint so I got through without paying! Whew, at least I will have some money left for other stuff. My driver recommended a hotel for me – Bright Hotel. It was probably one of the hotels which pay them comissions for bringing in visitors anyway, I wanted a place to stay anyway, so it didn’t matter.
The driver actually woke someone up to open the gates for me. It is more like a town house with several units out for rent. They got me a double room facing the main road. The room looked very cozy and oweing to Nyaungshwe’s altitude, there was no need for airconditioning. Not that I would expect it to work, what with its frequent power failures. My biggest complaint about Bright Hotel was the toilet, there seemed to be a large number of small insects living in the area especially the drains. I would suppose that the water doesn’t really drain very well, this probably lures these insects here. I’m not sure if the other units had the same problem but I couldn’t be bothered anymore, I dropped to the bed and quickly fell asleep.
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