Kalaw

Another day, another destination. So far every town or city we have visited in Burma has been so different to each other and our next destination Kalaw was the pick of the bunch. In total contrast to everything we thought Burma was, then pops up this small town high up in the mountains where the air is cool and clean, the sun shines with crisp blue skies, and pine trees grow in abundance giving it a feeling of an alpine ski resort in summer in Switzerland. We wanted to get the train there from Inle lake but the trains are so slow, taking 8 hours for a 80km ride as it has to negotiate old fashioned switchbacks to get to the height of Kalaw which is 1500 metres. Also the train leaves at very unsociable times so we opted for a taxi to the main highway and then jumped on a local chicken bus where the driver was well chuffed to bag a couple of whiteys which seem to give him great pride as he decided to try to impress us with his formula 1 driving skills up to the mountains, undertaking lorries on hairpin turns that were blind exits and generally giving Kathy and I  the feeling that our lives may be in danger. I was even more impressed with the fact that he had a motorbike roped onto the roof and we both expected the bike to come crashing through the windscreen as the immense G forces were asserted on it when taking these hairpins at white knuckle speeds and hard breaking to avoid juggernauts on the wrong side of the road coming the other way.

Typical Kalaw vista.

  Saying that he did get us to Kalaw in a new world record time of 2 hours and dumped us off on the main drag. The bike was still on the roof with all the sacks of rice for company. It looked like the old woman in front of us leaning out the window for most of the journey had been sick down the outside of the van which added to the kudos for the driver me thinks. Well, we paid him the mighty sum of £5.50 for his troubles which is a lot less than a ticket to Alton Towers for a day of white knuckle rides so overall a bargain! Another taxi than took us to the hotel as we could not be bothered to walk the 2km in the heat of the midday sun.
   The hotel was impressive as it was like 3 alpine ski lodges with all the rooms decked out like the inside of a sauna with wood panelling floor to ceiling. We did notice though there was a lot of blankets in the room, not sure why?
    We set off into town to book a guide for some trekking around the hills where a lot of the villagers still live a traditional way of life with their own dialects and customs. As night fell the temperature dropped rapidly and we soon found ourselves at the local market shivering so decided to splash out on some warm fleeces as our sandals and t shirt clothes stock was not going to cut it. That night it dropped to 7c with no heating in the room and all you could do is pile the blankets on the bed and keep warm with a nice bottle of stout. Not sure why they put fridges in the rooms though. One saving grace was a luxury that we missed dearly. A bathtub! With hot water! (a rare luxury in Asia). So we sat in the bath most nights to keep warm as there was zero things going on at night here. We did try the beer station a couple of nights but supping ice cold beer while sitting in a open fronted building wearing all our clothes at once somehow did not appeal.

Gold Buddha emporium in a cave.

  Next day we went hiking under our own steam for a few hours and it was awesome walking down lanes of pretty wildflowers everywhere, locals washing themselves outside their wooden shacks in wooden tubs, chickens and dogs running around in the road and kids constantly staring at us in bewilderment until we said hello in Burmese and next they would explode into smiles and chase us down the road shouting "hello,hello!" while waving furiously. We ended up at a monastery on top of a hill with fantastic views but had a scary climb up there as the covered walkway was infested with these big yellow and black stripped spiders which were everywhere.....there were hundreds of them with webs all over our heads. They looked nasty buggers and maybe they could have been poisonous so did not hang around in case they knew how to jump and inject us with their deadly venom and we would end up as another tourists statistic abroad. Inside the monastery was an ancient bamboo Buddha (surprise surprise!) which had all kinds of myths and legends attached to it to make it ultra holy, even more holy than the thousands of gold Buddhas we have already seen, with pilgrims buying pieces of gold leaf and applying them to the body of the Buddha as an offering to save their souls. An embarrassing moment then happened as a woman came up to us and put a flask of green tea at our feet and a large silver tray which contained quite a sizable feast and told us in no uncertain tones to eat. We did wonder why the whole place was busy with people all sitting on the floor eating from these big trays of food. It must of been some ritual of Buddhism I guess but because no one spoke English and we are not Buddhist we had no idea how to react. Refuse it and insult them? Eat it and then have to endure a 3 hour meditation session? Do we pay for it or is it free? Is it right that we accept strangers food and give nothing in return? We took the easy route as we were not hungry as had not long had breakfast so smiled, thanked them in Burmese, bowed a little and left the temple. I hope Buddha was not offended or it will be eternal damnation for us. This is typical of the day to day decisions you have to make with different faiths and cultures of different countries when travelling but it sure beats sitting in an office thinking what to have for lunch everyday back in England.

An English country garden with Chinese pots and umbrella?

  After we left there we ambled along some quiet lanes and came across a twee little cottage with an English country garden which was doing tea and cakes so we decided to stop for a reload. As Kalaw was once a British hill station back in colonial days you find a lot of colonial British architecture around which blends nicely with the alpine ski chalets dotted around the hills. Then we headed through an army checkpoint to a temple that was inside the side of a cliff with deep caves running into the limestone. All along these natural passages were thousands of gold Buddhas, toe to toe, they just went on deeper and deeper into the cave. It was insane to think that people had put all these artifacts in such numbers into these caves for their beliefs. Religion is a very powerful force indeed.
   Impressed with the sights so far we ambled back to the chalet for a rest as it becoming increasing hot during the day. Being so high up the air was cool and crisp but the sun was intense and burning was easy to do.

PG Tips being processed.

  Next day we found a guide who spoke good English and we liked his personality after quite a few blanks from other companies. As we did not want to walk the 30km they recommended so we altered the route to suit and got a taxi to the start point. From there we embarked on a tiring 14km trek across unbelievable scenery in the mountains along old dirt tracks, watching traditionally dressed villagers harvest their crops of coffee, pumpkin, oranges, ginger and sugar cane while our guide interacted with them so we could take photos. We walked through remote mountainside villages and stopped for lunch inside one of the villagers houses where the kids were doing their homework with their mother, tea was being dried on blankets outside in the sun and all the cooking was done on an open fire on a mud brick floor. Our guide knocked us up a feast of Shan noodle soup ( a local dish) and a platter of fruit. We then finished off the trek back to the road where the guide called us another taxi and we headed back into town. A great day out but we were exhausted as at 1700metres the air is a lot thinner making walking more strenuous than at sea level.

At the station the vegetables had bought all the 1st class tickets.

 The day after our legs were feeling it so decided against the proposed bicycle tour we had planned and headed to the train station to investigate the next leg of our journey to Nay Pyi Taw. There we met a nice Dutch girl waiting for the train and asked her about her plans. It turned out she was going to the next town which was an 7 hour journey then changing trains (although she had no idea if this was possible) and then getting another 14 hour sleeper to Bago then another 6-8 hour journey to see the golden rock down in the southeast of the country. We admired her commitment but secretly we thought she was mad to spend 2 days on a train to see a golden rock on a side of a cliff. Instead we went into town and bought a bus ticket from a nice English speaking travel agent but had to pay well over the odds as our destination was unusual and there was only one company that made the journey  there so had no choice.

Our guide was intrigued by Kathy's Eastenders update.

  Overall Kalaw was my favourite destination so far in Burma as it was the most surreal and totally different to anywhere else we had seen. It reminded me of Dalat in Vietnam. Kathy was not so keen as she did not like the cold nights but for me growing up in Wales with no heating it was like childhood revisited. I later googled a picture of the golden rock that the Dutch girl was going to see on the train so saved myself 2 days of train journeys and felt very pleased with myself for being so efficient.