Hill villages of Kalaw

Whilst we could see the town of Kalaw below us, we didn't stop to visit it, but instead took a walk through a couple of hill villages.

Kalaw is a popular place to start a three day trek to Inle Lake, so what we did was just a quick glimpse, but it did suggest that if you have the time on an independent trip then it might be a nice walk to take.

As we only had the morning before we had to set off again, we were up early and took a little truck taxi most of the way to Myin Kha, the first village. As we walked we could see a number of their crops growing, including ginger and garlic.

As we arrived at the village we saw construction work going on for a new temple - apparently the old one wasn't good enough, so they knocked it down and are building a new one. They were in the process of making their own bricks at this time.

Myo got us invited in to the local school, where the children had their english lesson on the board, but none of them were brave enough to attempt a few words with us. They seemed to be in playtime, as some were outside and they were all engrossed in skipping and other games.

As we left, one of the children was raising the flag in the playground and the children were gathered together, carefully lining themselves up in neat rows. When they started singing a song, Myo remembered it from his own childhood, and joined in.

One of the children was distracted by us being nearby and kept turning around to look at us, only to be told off by one of his schoolmates. We left before we got anyone into trouble.

The walk to the next village was quite pleasant, but even though it was only mid morning, it had already got quite hot, so we were pleased when we got some shade.


The second village was Pain Nae Pin, and here Myo had arranged for us to go into one of the dwellings to have a few refreshments and be introduced to the local clothing.

Helen was given particularly interesting headgear, which we then found was what would  be worn for your wedding, so of course we teased her that Myo had found her a husband from the village.

A few brave souls should decided to walk back to the monastery, while the rest of us have in to the heat and took the truck back. We did take down and clean off all the tents though, so we felt we had earned the beers that we were enjoying when they finally arrived back hot and tired.