Mr & Missy in Myanmar - Day 2 - 20 Dec 2013

Our day 2 was extremely tiring.  We reached Kalaw around 5 am and alighted in front of New Shine Hotel, which is situated along the expressway.  Our tour agency "Golden Express" arranged 2 rooms for 5 of us to rest till 730 am.  As soon as we stepped out of the air-conditioned bus, we were shivering! It was so freaking cold, definitely lower than 10C. It is thus not surprising that Kalaw was one of the hilly retreats for British officials during the hot summer months [during the colonial era]. 

New Shine Hotel, where we rested for a few hours

Around 730 am, we walked to the nearby noodle shop to have breakfast - shan noodles, warm tofu noodles and tofu crackers.  Each noodle dish cost us just 500 Kyats (Note: 1 SGD was equivalent to around 750 Kyats). Yummy-licious warm dishes were just what we needed during the cold weather. 

The tour agency arranged a trekking guide to meet us at the New Shine Hotel around 8 am and he first brought us to the colorful Kalaw Market, which took place every 5 days.  We were pretty lucky huh?  Meanwhile, the staff from New Shine Hotel sent all our luggage to the Hill Top Villa, where we will be spending the night.

We even had our second round of breakfast at a tea shop in the market.  You gotta try naan dipped in milk curd.  It was seriously good. And I failed to capture a shot cuz we ate it too fast :D

After our tummy were satisfied, we walked around the market a bit more before heading to tuk tuk, which brought us to the starting point of our trekking route. It was about 15-20 min tuk tuk ride away from the Kalaw Market.

At 9:45 am, we officially begun our trek. 

They found the carrot field.

According to Mister, it was quite sweet :D

Over a century old monastery

That was the closest he dared to go, near the fierce-looking bull

Avocados! Loads of them!

Channeling their inner Harry Potters 

See those tiny houses on the right side of the photo?

That's our destination - Palaung Tribe's village of Pain-Hgne-Pin.  

So near yet still quite far...

Most of the villagers grow either oranges or tea.

We saw quite a lot of small plantations during our trek.

Finally we arrived at the village after 3 hours, at 12:45 pm! These rice crackers are popular snacks in Shan. When fried, they make for tasty, crispy snack during tea time (: 

Even a person who hates eating tomatoes on their own said they were yummy!

Palaung Tribal Woman

We rested at her family's house for a few minutes and they entertained us with tea and oranges! So hospitable yea? We just wanted to rest and pretend for awhile that we would not need to walk back down the hills! Our feet were so tired by then.

And the grandma asked if we would like to take photos in their tribal clothes and I was like 'of course'. But Mister needed a bit (okay, a lot) of convincing before he agreed.

Then around 1:30 pm, we dragged our tried feet down the hills and bid goodbye to the friendly locals.

We took a different route to go down and there was nothing much to see.  It was down, down, down.  We had to be careful though, as the gravel road was covered in small stones at several places.  It made us prone to slipping and falling down.

Seeing pine fruits reminded Mister of his childhood days spent in California.

We were so relieved to finally reached the base where our tuk tuk was waiting.  But it was 3 pm and our stomachs were growling. So we had lunch at this small restaurant, right beside the trekking trail.  They have a set menu of rice, watercress salad, spicy tomato curry, chicken+gourd soup for just 1500 Kyats (slightly less than 2 SGD) per pax.  Rice and soup are free flow too! Don't let the appearance of the shop fools you.  It was really one of the yummiest meals we had during our trip. I assure you, all of us had a second helping of rice. Some had third servings even! Grilled dried venison & fried dried tofu were also available as add-ons.

Unforgettable watercress salad

Around 3:30 pm, both our tummies and feet were relatively satisfied.  So our tuk-tuk brought us to a buddha image, made entirely of rattan! Afterwards, we headed to a neighborhood filled with colonial-era houses. They looked so cozy! My friends were even saying how these houses would make great retirement homes lol

We also visited the nearby Kalaw Train Station, which has been around since the British colonial era (Before WWII) and it is in service, till today.  The place has its own old charm and it is also in need of a bit of maintenance.

Then Tuk Tuk brought us to Hill Top Villa, where we would retire for the day. Trekking guide charged us 5,000 Kyats for each of us (25, 000 Kyats for 5 of us). I can't remember how much we paid for Tuk Tuk, it was definitely between 10,000 Kyats and 20,000 Kyats for bringing us around the whole day. So I thought it was pretty good deal.
- Kalaw Market to beginning of the trekking trail
- end of the trekking trail to Rattan Buddha
- Rattan Buddha to colonial-era houses
- colonial-era houses to Kalaw train station
- Kalaw train station to Hill Top Villa

By 5:15 pm, we had already checked-in and got our room keys. However, instead of going to our bungalows, we were distracted by a beautiful sight of the sun setting into the mountain range. While the above photo taken with iPhone 5 looked amazing, the actual view was much better.

My sister is joining us a bit later so there was an extra bed. We were pretty happy with the room! So spacious!

By the time we had showered and unpacked a bit, it was 7:30 pm. Our 3 friends wanted to eat dinner in town and they walked down the hill! As the name implied, Hill Top Villa was located on the hill and I was in no mood to walk anymore.  My poor feet and soles were protesting so I & Mister settled for dinner in the resort's restaurant.

Adios!

xoxo

Miss N

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Dec 2013 Trip Itinerary

http://musingsofmissn.blogspot.sg/2014/03/mr-missy-in-myanmar.html

Day 1
http://musingsofmissn.blogspot.sg/2014/04/mr-missy-in-myanmar-day-1-19-dec-2013.html