3rd January 2015 Yangon to Inle Lake MYANMAR (BURMA)

So yesterday we said goodbye to Yangon and headed on to our next stop at Inle Lake.

The departure from Yangon and example of one of the old colonial houses in ruins

The Outskirts of Yangon - still a big divide between "the have and the have nots"


Most workers here earn around $1 dollar a day...yes that's right, about £250 a year!!!  If you are in the government, your earnings are considerable.  Sadly, the country is riddled with corruption and in a country that commutes largely on Scooters, we have seen Bentleys here.
Until 2010 and family saloon car cost around £20,000 due to taxation, now they are less at $7000 but that is too much for most.
Tax on land has increased to double the land cost so home ownership as well as car ownership are just about impossible.
A new Mercedes dealership has just opened in Mandalay.....!!!  This is a nation that has its work cut out to deal with corruption and generally, its the Chinese that are the beneficiaries.

As always in Myanmar, going anywhere sounded straight forward but turned out to be an adventure in itself!

We headed off to the Domestic terminal having fortunately read that it was a bit chaotic so were prepared for the worst.

We checked in without any identification to Air KBZ  (who?) from Yangon to Heho Airport (poor Paul, no air miles or VIP lounge on this one..) and duly had a sticker stuck to us to the staff could identify which flight the dumb tourists should be on as none of the announcements were incomprehensible.

It was a bit like being a war time evacuee.  Our luggage was weighed on a big old Avery parcel scale and off we went!  
We managed to get on the correct airport bus as there were 4 different flights going to Heho at the same time and from the 4 gates that all went to the same place, pulled up alongside the oldest smallest prop plane and clambered aboard. 

The slogan for Air KPZ was "Flying without expectation" but we were sure we felt that it was flying without any realistic chance of survival.

God ...we made it

We bumped down on the tarmac in Heho airport some 50 minutes later and it was an even smaller more basic airport with manual baggage handling and we were allowed just to stand on the tarmac beside the plane taking pictures while we waited for our bags. It was like landing at Biggin Hill…What fun !

Myanmar I presume

The route from the airport to the lake - this train line was build by the British in the 1920s and still in use.

It is not permitted to drive freely anywhere around Burma due to Military restrictions for foreigners and ongoing ethnic fighting but even of you could, the signs would not help.
We did see a western road cycle group - Tony Ives; next challenge perhaps?

A one hour trip by road through some fascinating if very poor villages followed to take us from Heho to the gateway to Inle Lake,  Nyang Shwe just before sunset.

We clambered aboard a long tail boat, just wide enough for one person ( which Janette loved of course…) so we sat in a row while they wrapped our luggage in tarpaulin off we went down a corridor through the weed-beds and out on to the massive Inle Lake just as the sun as setting. Stunning stuff. It was a bit damp as the spray shot up but umbrellas were the order of the day at the back of the boat and 30 minutes later we pulled in to our hotel which is villas on stilts built on the edge of the lake. The hotel our villas were just stunning, all teak wood and decking with wonderful views.

We finished off the day with drinks round the fire and then dinner on the deck. Just perfect !

Our hotel on the edge of Inle Lake - beautiful tranquility but around the corner, new roads going on for the new tourist as Burma grabs western currency.

As the night drew to a close...the most beautiful sunset over Inley lake and and a blue night sky arrives......and a million mozzies to go with it.