I reconsidered however, partly because a missing day would bug the hell out of me and partly because there's some actual information that I can add about Burma. For a change I thought I'd inform and on this occasion, I'll try and make it accurate. That means this will be boring and factual I'm afraid. Anyone not interesting should wait for Day 45 to appear.
The way to Inle Lake for tourists from Bagan is typically by bus or by plane. I don't know much about the bus but I met a couple that had done it and they said it took about seven hours and they arrived at 3am completely wiped out. If funds are tight, I guess this is the way to go. By air, there are at least four domestic carriers that I found, flying fairly sizeable turbo prop planes. The nearest airport to Inle Lake is Heho, about an hour in a taxi. The ticket cost me something like $100 and I booked online with Air Bagan but actually flew on an Asian Wings aircraft. So I guess they mix it up a bit between themselves depending on what is available at the time of flying. Flight time is about 35 mins and there are no allocated seats, so get on early if you have a preference. Both Bagan and Heho are small airports, so don't expect anything flash. They take your bags and you wait to be called through to the departure lounge - by a guy that is, no boards displaying info or anything like that. Same when it comes to boarding the plane. You wait for a guy to shout.
At the other end, baggage is dumped in a pile and you grab it and go to immigration for a passport scan. There are loads of taxis outside and you need to bargain hard to get a deal. Sharing is best. I got in with five others and my share came to 4000kyat, about four dollars. The driver will ask where your hotel is and drop you. The taxi was a rough and ready jostle in the back of an... open top Land Rover is the easiest comparison. You can pay more for something verging on comfortable if you wish.
All pretty straighforward.
The town you'll want to be in is Naung Shwe at the northern edge of the lake. Well you can go wherever you like I guess but this is where everyone was headed, me included. Loads of hostels and hotels to suit every budget. Plenty of bars, tour agents, river boat cruises etc. etc. again, you can pay what you want. Get a hostel and pick up a river boat guy on the street for not very much, or let your nice hotel take the strain and dip deeper into your pocket. My hotel was expensive and they got me a day on the lake for $20, the one hour massage was $15 and an airport transfer back to Heho in a decent car was another $20. If you're travelling in company, it gets cheaper of course. A 640ml bottle of beer cost me $1.5-2 depending on where I went. Dinner with rice was $5-6. You can get everything cheaper but I wasn't really counting too much. Food and drink in the hotel was about three times as much but it wasn't what I was after. If you really want European food, there's lots on offer. Italian seemed to be on every menu but I couldn't vouch for its quality.
I found Bagan, and Mandalay for that matter, much the same in terms of price and what was on offer.
I think that's about it! All very easy. Everything is on tap. You won't need to go searching for stuff, it will come to you.
An interesting update, rather like a young Judith Chalmers, factual but with a hint of spice for us less travelled viewers to imagine what a far away destination would be like before the days of the packaged holiday. Must say I thought the beer prices would be cheaper, but that's tourism for you. Nice water bungalow shot, although looks like it could be Tewkesbury after a couple of days of rain.
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