Finally moving on.
Trip Start
Feb 15, 2006
1
11
17
Trip End
Mar 02, 2006
Mandalay, Myanmar
Friday, February 24, 2006
Our flight to Heho (the airport nearest to Inle Lake) was scheduled to leave in the late afternoon. So we spent the morning walking around Mandalay one last time. Some of the things I saw are attached as pictures, including a girl with the longest hair I've ever seen on a human being. Long hair seems to be very fashionable for girls in Myanmar these days.
01-Monks on their morning walk
It almost seems like there is a competition amongst them to see who can come up with the fullest, thickest mane. Truly amazing.After a one hour taxi ride to the Mandalay airport for 7,000 kyat in an airport minivan, we took the 30 minute flight to Heho. (By comparison, the trip would have taken 6 hours by car.) There were only 8 passengers on board this 50-seat propeller plane. It clearly didn't make economic sense for the airline to fly only 8 people for 32 dollars each, but, well, I guess that's one of the good things about dictatorships: Things they do don't have to make economic sense. On the other hand, they more than make up for the loss by overcharging us in other areas - such as on train rides.
We had heard that the taxi ride from the Heho airport to our destination, the town of Nyaungshwe on Inle Lake, would be expensive as it's about an hour's drive by taxi over horrible roads. I was prepared to negotiate with the taxi drivers and I thought that we would have the upper hand in negotiations because Peter and I and Daniela, a German girl we met at the airport, were the only passengers seeking a taxi ride into town - and there were at least a half a dozen taxis waiting for passengers. Normally it would only be necessary to go from one driver to another, bargaining until we got an acceptable price
02-Miss Hair
. But, well, the taxi drivers of the Heho airport had anticipated our negotiating tactic. Their response: To elect a representative and send him to bargain for the whole lot of them! They sent a gangster bastard who refused to allow us to speak directly to the drivers. He started by saying that "the usual price is 18,000 kyat but that he was going to give us a discount of only 15,000 kyat" - a good month's pay in Myanmar. We had little choice but to pay, but at least we were able to split the cost among three passengers. But I will advise anyone else using the Heho airport to be prepared to get fleeced by some uncompromising taxi mafia gangsters. As a note, on the way BACK to the airport it is easier to bypass them as there are busses that pass in front of the airport - but nobody will tell you about that option unless you specifically ask.So, we were dropped of by the taxi in Nyaungshwe and we went first to the Remember Inn, a hotel that was recommended by several people we had met and on several websites I had researched before the trip. I left Peter there with the bags while I went out and looked at a few more places in the neighborhood just for the sake of comparison. To my surprise, the Remember Inn did turn out to be the best value-for-money place of the half dozen or so hotels that I looked at. (It is rare that the first place I look is the best. This time, though, that was indeed the case.) There were a couple of marginally nicer places in the neighborhood - but at three times the price. We took one of the 8 dollar rooms and bargained the price down to 7 dollars.
We had an unexpectedly fabulous pizza and pasta dinner at the very popular Golden Kite Restaurant nearby. At dinner time it was packed with foreigners due to the fact that they had figured out how to make a great pizza here in the middle of Myanmar. In fact, I would say that the pizza was as good as I've had ANYWHERE - and it didn't take long for the word to spread.
