Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Myanmar → Cycling to Inle Lake

Location: Western Shan State, Myanmar

Time Required: 2 – 4 hours (depending on the distance you ride)

Red Tape/Notes: Not recommended for people who aren’t comfortable on a bike – swerving or falling off can have pretty serious consequences.

What’s Nearby?: Kalaw, Shan Plateau, Green Hill Valley Elephant Camp, Inle Lake, Sagar, Taunggyi Balloon Festival

This ended up being much more of an adrenaline rush than we had expected. It was extremely pleasant and scenic once we got off the main road, but the section on the highway was quite the adventure. The roads aren’t terribly wide, the “shoulder” is dirt and frequently covered in large rocks, and there certainly isn’t a bike lane. To top it off, the section of highway just prior to our turn off onto the Inle Lake West Corridor Road is a fairly steep downhill, so you’re whipping along at high speeds, with buses and large vans whizzing by mere inches away (reference the top right photo, below…that’s me up in the front, about to be shoulder to shoulder with a bus), with the consequences of going off the pavement onto the rocky shoulder likely to be unpleasant (although not as unpleasant as being squashed by a cattle truck). But once you’re off the road, it’s a pleasant, flat ride past little communities with cute kids waving at you and the occasional diesel donkey filled with people passing by. All the pictures shown here are just screen shots from video Tom was shooting when he didn’t think death was imminent, so apologies for the low quality images. The video is pretty cute, though (and has remarkably cheery music).

Epic Travel → Asia & the South Pacific → Myanmar → Cycling to Inle Lake