Hiking in Shan State

Water and vastness as far as the eye can see. Occasionally, a few cargo ships or small fishing boats, loaded with rice bags, vegetables, or other goods, cross our path. Children stand on the shore and wave to us, in the distance we can see a mountain range. Pure idyll, no cars in sight, no Wi-Fi, no sounds can be heard except for the hum of the ship's engine. Our ship slowly makes its way past sandbars and floating tree trunks, along the dirty Ayeyarwady River towards the north, destination Mandalay. We will reach the big city in 11 hours.

With this view and these impressions, I sit on the outside deck of our ship, which we boarded at 5 o'clock this morning in Bagan, and review the experiences of the past week. The days at Ngapali beach seem far away, we have seen and experienced so much new and exciting things in the past days. Due to our somewhat arduous bus ride from Yangon to Thandwe near Ngapali and our hours-long unsuccessful research to travel to our destinations in the northern Shan State by bus or boat (the fastest overland route via Sittwe is still not recommended for tourists, especially due to the current unrest at the border with Bangladesh), we have opted for the convenient and time-saving option of flying.

Our first destination was Inle Lake. On the first day, we explored the huge lake, nestled in a gentle green hill landscape, known for the one-legged fishermen of the Intha people and the floating gardens, by boat. You can rent a boat with a boat guide and cruise for hours on the breathtakingly beautiful lake. As far as the eye can see, there are blooming water plants, lotus flowers, temples, and wooden huts built on stilts. We ended the boat tour with fresh Inle fish and Myanmar beer on a lakeside terrace in the afternoon sun.

Three Austrians and one German on a hiking adventure, a constellation that you might occasionally encounter in the Austrian Alps (and usually that doesn't mean anything good for the German :-)), but certainly sounds somewhat absurd for a two-day hike in the middle of nowhere in Myanmar. Lukas from Lienz and Christopher from Linz, two friends we had already met at our hotel in Ngapali and who happened to have booked the same flight to Heho at Inle Lake. A friendship that only the traveling life can write. It would be unimaginable at home to simply ask a stranger at the bus stop where they are going, to see if we can join forces and travel together. Unfortunately, because interesting and exciting friendships can often develop from this. From the beginning, the four of us got along great, even though one or the other Austrian joke often targeted Markus :-), but I enjoyed it because on all my travels I have hardly met any Austrians, and if so, then they were usually in the minority compared to the Germans.

Midweek, the four of us set off together with a local guide for our two-day hike from Inle Lake to the northern town of Kalaw. And it was an adventure! Already after the first ascent, we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the lake and the surrounding lush green landscape. We hiked past lonely mountain villages, blooming flower meadows, and made our way through rice fields, streams, and muddy marsh-like paths. I have never seen so many different kinds of vegetables and spices growing on such a manageable area before, there are potatoes, eggplants, carrots, ginger, chilies, tamarind, turmeric, oranges, avocados, papaya, bananas, and mangoes. After a seven-hour march, we finally reached the mountain village, soaking wet from heavy rain and with a centimeter-thick layer of dirt on the soles of our shoes, where we spent the night. 80% of tourists choose the easier reverse route from Kalaw to Inle, which is why we had the pleasure of being the only hikers who arrived there. If you expect wellness and luxury after such a long hike, you are in the wrong place. There is no shower, only rainwater, no electricity, only candlelight, no kitchen, only a fire and a few pots, no tractors for farming the fields, only oxen - for our standards, conditions like from another century, but the people radiate satisfaction and pride in their home and their belongings. With these thoughts and a few beers later, we settled into our sleeping quarters - a kind of dormitory. Apart from my encounter with a rat in the outhouse, the night went fairly harmoniously and we started our second and final leg to Kalaw.

Surprised by the rain again, we finally reached the peaceful small town in the late afternoon, which was once built by the British and is used by many Burmese as a kind of climatic health resort due to the cool temperatures and high location. I have rarely appreciated a hot shower, a toilet, and a clean bed as much as on this evening :-).

The next day we set off for Bagan by night bus, the tourist highlight of Myanmar. More than 3000 pagodas, some from the 11th century, can be seen within a radius of about 10 kilometers. It was a delight to zoom through the small narrow field paths on an electric scooter and especially discover the undeveloped and little-known temples and climb the structure from which one can catch the best view of the thousands of pagodas. Even though many tourists visit Bagan, you can always find a pagoda standing somewhere completely lonely in the field, which nobody has discovered yet and from which you have a breathtaking view, especially at sunset. The perfect idyll would only have been missing a glass of red wine, which unfortunately you are not allowed to drink in the vicinity of the temples out of respect for Buddha.