day 6: luxury coach to mandalay

After the six-hour local minibus ride, it cannot get any worse (I hope). And anything can be counted as luxury.

It's not Grassland, we didn't get massage chairs and each seat couldn't fit one-and-a-half me, but it has everything that you need.

Booked through Joy Hotel, 22,000 kyat got us two seats on the night bus from Inle Lake to Mandalay.

Seats are assigned, so book early to get front ones which are cushioned from the bumpy road. We booked two days ahead and got Seats 25 and 26, fourth row from the back.

The ticket indicated 6pm but we were early just to be safe. The wait at the cafe was comfortable and served the best chicken with dried chilli. Good sized chunks of chicken and cauliflower, green peppers and tomato.

The bus only got to Shwenyang Junction about 7pm.

Each passenger is given a bottle of mineral water, a small pillow and impressively a night pack with toothbrush, mini toothpaste and a wet wipe!

The 12-hour ride was smooth and I managed to sleep most of it, except for the two 20-minute stops for food and toilet.

And as Lonely Planet also warns, it is really a good idea to bring a good blanket. It was freezing and raining outside, yet at some stage the driver switched on the air condition as if we were in Singapore.

Cost (US$1 = 750 kyat):

• 9,000 kyat - lunch for two at Smiling Moon. I had meatball pasta which tasted very much like sweet and sour pork
• 6,000 kyat - pick up to Shwenyang junction
• 4,000 kyat - coffee and dinner at cafe while waiting for bus
• 11,000 kyat - a seat on the Inle-Mandalay coach

day 5: the jumping cat of inle

I believe it used to be a worthy crowd puller. Today, a lady performs it instead of a monk. And the cat might have grown too fat to jump that high.

Nonetheless, it's still my favorite stop amongst the seven to eight on the one-day Inle tour.

Cost (US$1 = 750 kyat):

• 12,000 kyat - one day tour of Inle Lake for two
• 8,000 kyat - lunch for two with pagoda view
• 5,000 kyat - scarf weaved by the women with long necks
• 2,900 kyat - dinner for two at roadside BBQ stall (cheapest meal so far)
• 12,000 kyat - Joy Hotel, nice balcony overlooking the busy canal while you have breakfast. Real hot water - which is essential at that temperature - comes and goes.

day 4: bouncy train

I don't normally fancy writing a chronological record of what happened. But nothing else will give this adventurous journey to Inle fair credit.

4.00pm
Arrived at Yangon Train Station to be enthusiastically greeted by two porters who later extorted 6,000 kyat (approx US$8) for carrying our 12 kg luggage.

5.00pm
Train departed punctually. That was the only good thing, besides the nice Dutch couple we met who were going to conquer Myanmar by bike. The rest of it is, let's just say adventurous.

We were ushered into a pretty clean and new coach before they realised that we belonged to the other 'Upper Class Sleeper', in worse condition with a couple of resident cockroaches. Given that we have paid the most expensive ticket, we couldn't figured out who would be in the newer cabins.

We then got bounced around the entire night like popcorn. Battling not falling off my upper bed, and the blinding light which we couldn't switch off, I managed to sneak in a few hours of light sleep.

6am the next morning
We got to Thazi Train Station punctually as expected only to realise the scenic train ride to Shwenyaung has left an hour ago. The timings has changed since research and now there is only one train per day. Thazi didn't seem like somewhere we wanted to spend a day at, so we decided to try the bus station which turned out to be a coffee shop and was 1000 kyat horse carriage ride away. (The trains from Yangon to Thazi now leave at 8am, 3pm and 5pm.)

7.30am
Bun brilliantly got us two seats on a local bus (from the driver who doesn't speak English) and bargained the ticket down from 20,000 kyat to 16,000 kyat. Bun also befriended a Chinese guy from Yunan working in Yangon who provided valuable info on where we should alight.

For five and a half hours, we drove through many villages and at each stop, more passengers hopped on filling gaps on the bus you would never think can fit a person. At one time, a man squeezed between Bun and the lady beside, when there were clearly only two seats.

While we were not worrying when the driver is going to put someone on our laps, we tried to enjoy the ride through the mountains.

1.00pm
We finally arrived at the junction just outside of Nyaungshwe. Bun and I were almost grey, from the layers of dust we have put on. But not grey (and local-looking) enough to escape the Inle Lake authorities who demanded US$3 fee for foreigners. From the number of people who thought I was Burmese, I think it was Bun who gave the game away.

1.40pm
After a 20-minute chilly pick-up ride, we arrived at Joy Hotel, strategically situated along the start of a busy canal. Finally.











Cost (US$1 = 750 kyat):

• US$32 - night train from Yangon to Thazi
• 6,000 kyat - porters' fee (cheaters!)
• 1,000 kyat - horse carriage ride
• 600 kyat - coffee and you tiao breakfast
• 8,000 kyat - local bus from Thazi to Nyaungshwe junction
• 1,500 kyat - pick up to Joy hotel in Nyaungshwe
• 5,600 kyat - late lunch at Shan Land Restaurant