And so the journey continued onto Kalaw. I got the night bus with a couple of other guys from the hostel. The ride was bumpy because if the roads, and Kalaw is a town at quite a high elevation, so there were a lot of hairpins through the mountains! I didn't see much with it being dark, but it was still pretty cool. Talking of cool, there was quite a shock to the system when getting off the bus at 4am! The temperature was probably 8 degrees at most - not entirely unexpected but still unwelcome nevertheless! We got a free taxi to the hostel and the owner gave us the opportunity to take the room early in the morning for 50% of the normal cost - to say we bit his hand off would be an understatement! I was also upgraded to a private room for free - result!

We had a good look around Kalaw in the afternoon - it's a small and charming town - I got the impression that there's a bit more wealth there in places, compared to the parts of the country I'd seen so far. The main attraction is a bunch of pagoda's with quite a large cave thrown into the mix! We retired pretty early that night with the trek upcoming the following morning!

Our trek was overbooked - there were 14 of us whilst the maximum allowed per group is 12. In the end, that benefitted us because we were split into two groups. The three of us latched onto cool three Norwegian lads, so in the end we had a very decent group. After a 45 minute ride, we started the trek.

The trek itself is fantastic, with the scenery and small Myanmese tribal villages. It is also the best time of the year to do the trek because wet season had just ended, which means everything is still green rather than turned to brown. We stopped for tea and then lunch at local houses. I can't remember what was eaten for lunch, but it was very generous! We went to the top of a cliff to catch the sunset - but we had to up the speed a little, which didn't go down too well with one particular member of the group! We made it to the top well in time to see the sunset, and it turned into a relaxing 30 minutes or so! After that, we made our way down into the village, where we were staying for the night. There was an option to stay in a monestary, but I decided against it because I didn't fancy waking up at 05:30, nor would it have pushed me any closer to acknowledging the existence of a god!

After an early night, we woke up to a very generous breakfast and continued the trek. The terrain and scenery was much the same as day one, apart from a pretty cool section walking through a wooded area. We arrived at a restaurant to conclude the trek. For me, the trek was a piece of piss because I hike a lot anyway, and a lot of the trek was downhill.

After lunch, we got on a boat on Inle Lake, to make the journey across the lake to the main town. One of the Norwegian lads all but fell into the water when trying to get onto the boat, which I naturally found hilarious! He somehow managed to save his phone though! The boat ride took an hour and again the scenery was pretty fantastic.

I've ended up staying four nights at this place - the original intention was for three but there was no bus to the next destination. I've done very little during the day in this place - combination of not riding a bike, deciding I needed to relax and seemingly continually getting pissed in the night!

On the second and third nights, a group of us went to the balloon festival in a town called Taunggyi - it's a week long festival which recognises the full moon and the end of wet season. It was utterly brilliant on both nights - absolutely packed with locals just drinking and generally having a good time. In the festival itself, hot air balloons are released - some just have lights whilst others have fireworks! The fireworks ones are spectacular, but they to have a propensity to fail and kill people. I've heard that four died this year but not sure if that's true! Luckily nothing landed on my head but there were a few close calls - all part of the fun I reckon! The final night in Inle was intended to be a quieter one - in reality it wasn't!

I wrote the majority of this blog entry during my final day in Inle, where I did very little again! I then took a very cheap (£3.50) and deserved traditional massage, before catching a bus later in the day to a town called Hpa An. At the time, I had no idea what was there - I just decided to tag along with a friend and drinking buddy I met in Bagan whenever it was (still a blur).

The night bus into Hpa An was a long and relatively unpleasant one. I managed to sleep a little bit but we arrived at our guesthouse pretty whacked and there was nowhere to get our heads down for a while. In the end, we just me another travelling buddy from Bagan and stole a breakfast. After that, we saw some of the natural sights (mainly caves) in the area surrounding Hpa An. Some of the caves and rock formations are pretty spectacular, it has to be said. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, with a good lunch, dinner and a few beers in between! Unbelievably, there actually was only a few beers because some of us were due up at 03:00 the following morning, to go hike up a mountain to see a sunrise.

I actually managed to roll straight out of bed and 8 of us got in the tuk tuk to the starting point of the hike. The hike is straight up hill with maybe two to three flat points in between! Let's be honest - it was hard. I'm told there is 3000/3500 steps - more than enough! Even though it was a challenge, we all pretty much nailed it! I've never sweat as much in my life though, and probably never will again. And then came the moment of truth (for me)...was it worth damaging myself to see a sunrise, rather than the usual drinking until sunrise! Given the altitude, it was definitely worth it! But would I do it again - would I ****!

We had a big breakfast after making it back to the hostel, before going out again to see some of the things missed during the previous day. Around mid-afternoon the exertions of earlier in the day (and likely the amount of drinking in the previous 10+) decided to catch up with me! To make matters worse, we ended up getting caught on scooters in the most cataclysmic rainstorm imaginable! We ditched them and hid behind a wall, but still getting battered, we decided to run back for more shelter. The run finished me off - no more details necessary! I'd already decided I was going to find a beach next, but that night it turned into a debate between beach or hospital!

Luckily I recovered well (think it was just extreme dehydration) and managed to make a bus back to Yangon (originally booked on a bus for 8am but had to take 11am instead). I was going to head straight for a beach but decided to spend and extra night in Yangon to recover further.

Back more or less on full form today! Been a pretty relaxing day with another travelling buddy I met up with again last night. Even managed to squeeze in a cheeky rum at an upmarket tea house!

Tomorrow is the beach for the next 6 nights… I have no intention of there being anything of interest to report (not that there has been so far!)

Thus, I'm out for now!