Trekking to Inle Lake is one of must-do activities in Myanmar. I actually didn’t know this before coming to Myanmar and only heard about it from a fellow traveller once I was in the country – and I’m really glad I decided to do this trek because it ended up being one of my best experiences in Asia! Here’s all about my 3-day trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake.

Why do people trek to Inle Lake?

If this is the first time you are hearing about this trek, let me just briefly explain. Inle Lake is one of the most popular and also most beautiful tourist destinations in Myanmar. Of course you can simply take a bus there if you like, but getting there on foot after three days of walking just makes arriving at the lake more special. Not to mention the landscapes on the way are stunning! It’s also a fun way to meet new people and learn more about this amazing country.

Basic Information About This Trek

Trekking to Inle Lake starts in Kalaw, a small town at 1300 metres above sea level. You can easily get here by bus from Mandalay, Bagan and other places.

 

This is an organised trek with an English-speaking guide (although I have heard of a few adventurous souls attempting to trek independently) and you can either choose a group tour or a private tour. Private tours will obviously be more expensive.

There are many companies offering to take you on this trek and you will find their offices in Kalaw. I’ve heard people mostly recommending Ever Smile and Jungle King but there are plenty of other options and quite frankly, most of them probably offer the same things. I did the trek with Jungle King and they are a good option (our guide wasn’t actually the best but from what I’ve heard it was an exception).

The price I paid for this three-day trek was 35,000 MMK – approximately $23. Considering this includes accommodation for two nights, meals for three days and a boat ride across Inle Lake, it’s pretty damn cheap. Note that prices may be higher during tourist season.

The total distance of the Kalaw to Inle Lake trek is about 57 kilometres. It’s typically done in three days but there is also a two-day option where you skip the first part and just join the trek for the last two days. The trek is relatively easy and most people should be able to finish it.

You don’t have to carry all of your stuff on the trek. Simply pack your necessities in a small backpack, while your big backpack or luggage will be sent by the trekking company to your chosen hotel at Inle Lake.

You will be sleeping in a homestay at one of the local villages and/or in a monastery. Nothing fancy of course, but that’s to be expected. You will experience hygiene in a true local style: squat toilets and cold bucket showers.

All meals are provided during the trek but it’s a good idea to pack some energy bars or other snacks in case you get hungry while trekking. 

You can usually buy water every few hours on the trek – your guide will always tell you how long your water supplies will have to last. There is nowhere to refill safe water. I’m not a fan of buying plastic bottles which is why I always carry my water bottle with filter. Thanks to the filter I was able to refill my bottle on the trek several times but still ended up buying bottled water on two occasions when my 0,6L bottle on its own wasn’t going to be enough.

Once you enter the Inle Lake area, you have to pay a fee of 13,500 kyats for five days (as of 2018). Make sure you have this cash with you on the trek.

The best part about trekking to Inle Lake? After you have walked all 57 kilometres to the lake, you will finish the trek with a boat ride across the lake. The finish point is Nyaungshwe, a town next to Inle Lake where all the hostels and hotels are based.

And this is what my experience of the 3-day trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake with Jungle King was like:

Day 1 (21 km)

At 8.30am on the first day we were all picked up at our Kalaw accommodation by a truck which took us to the Jungle King office. We left our big backpacks there to be taken to Inle Lake. Because it had been raining the previous two days, there were quite a lot of people starting the trek on this day and we had to be split into two trekking groups (each with their own guide, of course). We were a group of nine and everyone got on really well. 🙂

We started trekking from the Kalaw train station and were soon surrounded by amazing views, rice fields and pine forests. The path got pretty muddy in some places but it wasn’t a major obstacle.

After about three hours of walking we arrived at the Shar Pin village where we ate lunch prepared by the locals. We had some watermelon, vegetarian noodles with a fried egg and a small soup.

In the afternoon we continued trekking across the green hills and saw some of the most beautiful views ever! Our guide was also showing us how the locals grow fresh ginger, peanuts, chilli, etc. We also met a lot of buffalos along the way and almost had to run away from an upset buffalo mum once… 😀

At 4.30pm we already arrived at the Kyauk Su village, the place of our homestay for the night. We all slept on mattresses on the floor in one big room and there was a bucket shower outside (which was kinda open so we just washed ourselves in our underwear 😀 ).

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing cards before sitting down for our delicious dinner. It consisted of many different dishes, which we all shared – curries, salads, rice, lentil soup. After dinner we all sat together drinking tea and chatting and had some really good laughs. It was such a lovely evening with everyone’s phones switched off – something that feels quite rare these days.

Day 2 (22 km)

The second day began with another delicious meal: pumpkin curry with something like naan, and fresh fruits.

Then we kept walking along more fields – and also through corn fields – with a short stop in the Nantaing village and a lunch break in Yekaung To. Our lunch was similar to the first day: noodles, soup, fruits.

We actually got a bit annoyed with our guide after lunch because we were ready to go for about 1,5 hours and he was nowhere to be seen… until we found him playing with his phone somewhere.

In the afternoon we had to deal with a lot of mud even though the weather was nice and sunny. Towards the end of the day there were some really nice rice fields and we even climbed a little viewpoint to see them from above 🙂

At dusk we finally reached the monastery where we were going to sleep and had to wash ourselves pretty much in the dark – which obviously didn’t have to happen if we hadn’t wasted so much time at lunch. Oh well.

Our dinner was once again incredible. Rice, pumpkin curry, vegetables and salads (including our favourite tomato salad), soup, green tea and peanut sweets. By the way, someone in our group was vegan and they were able to eat almost everything on the trek so if you don’t eat meat or dairy, you will still be well fed. 😉

Spending the night at a monastery may sound idyllic but I didn’t get almost any sleep. It was so noisy! We slept in a big open room with the other trekking group but despite everyone going to bed early, the monastery was really loud. It felt like people were coming and going all night, the floor was always creaking and there were some stray dogs barking outside, who even got in at one point. Creepy.

Day 3 (14 km)

After eating some pancakes and fruit for breakfast we were ready to start our last and shortest day of the trek. First we had to walk up the hill from the monastery and soon came across a booth where we paid the Inle Lake entrance fee. From then on, it was pretty much just descending down to the lake all morning.

We ended the trek with our last lunch in a cute village by the lake, surrounded by beautiful rice fields. (Lunch was curry, rice, tea leaf salad and vegetables in case you were wondering. 😀 )

Our reward for all the walking was an hour-long boat ride across the lake to our final destination: Nyaungshwe. Chilling on a boat and taking in all the stunning views was the best ending to our journey! (Put on some sunscreen before you get on the boat – we all got sunburnt…)

We got super lucky with the weather during our trek. Even though it was September and hence rainy season it didn’t rain once. Funnily enough, it started pouring down about half an hour after we checked in to our hostel at Nyaungshwe.

I would absolutely recommend doing this trek to anyone visiting Myanmar! Despite some minor issues we all had a great experience hiking from Kalaw to Inle Lake.

And the best part was spending three days completely offline! You can get some service and even access the Internet if you have a local SIM card but I just deliberately left my phone in flight mode for the whole duration of the trek – and it felt great. 🙂

Have you done the trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake yourself? What was your experience like?

Don’t forget to also read these things you should know before visiting Myanmar if you are travelling to this unique Southeast Asian country!

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