From Mandalay we went to Kalaw by night bus. Night busses are really popular in this country. Why, I don't know. But somehow the Burmese seem to prefer to leave someplace at 19.00 to arrive somewhere at, say 03.00, to doing the same in the afternoon.

A lot of times it is both more difficult and often even more expensive to take a bus at a decent hour, if you are lucky enough to find one at all. Now, going in a bus by night wouldn't be that bad if you had the slightest chance to catch some sleep. But you don't. 'Cause while you are sitting on the bus they are constantly playing Burmese movies on the telly AT FULL VOLUME. Not even earplus will save you.

But finally we arrived in Kalaw. Rattled, tired, shaken, smelly and in a general foul mood, but we got there. At 01:30. In the middle of a very, very, very cold night. Of course everyone had told us that it will get cold around Kalaw (which is on 1,200 meters) and the Inle Lake. But I was still surprised. It couldn't have been much warmer then five degrees Celsius. As we got out of the bus, we could see our breath in front of our faces. Fortunately I had taken the warnings regarding the tempertaures slightly more serious then Peter, who had just said "It's cold there? Whimps. I'm from Kanada!". So I arrived with my warm clothes on, while Peter was freezing and cussing loudly.

Eventually we managed to find a hotel that was both cheap and had free rooms. I crawled under the blankets without unpacking anything and slept like a stone.