After Bagan, coming to Inle Lake was quite a change. We were abruptly awoken at 4 am on our night bus to let us know we had arrived.  It was pitch black and not a person was around besides the passengers. A lone tuktuk was waiting to shuttle tourists to their hotels for the night. At this point I couldn’t even recall the name of our hotel let alone barter for a better price. So in a haze, we got into the back and jetted off to our hotel. At 4am, not much is open. When we got to the hotel, it was shut down for the night and the gate was locked closed. Things didn’t look good. The driver rang the door buzzer and after a little bit, a young man came out to let us in. He said the reception was closed for the night so we couldn’t check in until morning. Then, in a show of kindness that we’ve seen over and over in Myanmar, he offered us a place to sleep. He led us into a back room filled with luggage and backpacks and brought in loads of huge plush blankets. He told us where the bathroom was and mentioned he was sleeping here too, then we setup on the floor and crashed for another few hours.

Impromptu sleeping arrangements

We woke up to the sound of breakfast being served just outside the room. We had to hurry because we were meeting a tour guide in a few minutes and our hotel room still wasn’t ready. The staff saw the problem and brought us to a room the previous people just checked out of so we could wash and change for 5 minutes. Then just as fast as we woke up, we went out with our guide for a day on the lake.