On the way from Pyin Oo Lyin to Inle Lake, used several modes of transport, including shared taxi, train, tuk-tuk, walking, and a horse and cart.
![Horse and cart - Journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6326-1024x768.jpg)
First, a shared taxi to Mandalay – a downhill journey descending from the highlands. Maria captured this floral delivery person on his way to the flower market.
![Put the petal to the metal - journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6306-1024x768.jpg)
Driven to Mandalay Station, we spent the afternoon browsing in an air-conditioned mall before returning to catch our 5:00 PM train.
![Mandalay Station - journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6316-1024x768.jpg)
This is the Rangoon Express, but we plan to get off in a place called Thazi, stay overnight, and take the slow train to Inle Lake next morning. We stay at the Moonlight Guest House, enjoying an end-of-the-day beer under a brilliant orange full moon.
Setting off bright and early – we took the horse and cart to Thazi station – we head over the mountains. This involves a series of switchbacks, backing up one incline, going forward on another, backing up another, and so on. The first is at this delightfully named station.
![Onomatopoeia - journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6336-1024x768.jpg)
The usual sights appear.
![How Green Was My Valley - journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6340-1024x768.jpg)
And some unusual ones.
![Fuzzy-roofed building - journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6338-1024x768.jpg)
It’s avocado season here – there are piles of avocados everywhere. We bought three from this lady for about 20 cents each.
![I scream, you scream, we all scream for avocados - journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6342-1024x768.jpg)
On the other side of the mountains are fertile foothills.
![Well-tended fields - journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6348-1024x768.jpg)
They don’t clear the grass from the tracks here. When you see the engine on a curve, it looks like we’re chugging along a trackless green pathway.
![We make our way - journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6357-1024x768.jpg)
Sign on Burmese Railways trains:
![No smoking, no littering, no kissing - journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6355-1024x768.jpg)
At last the train arrives in Shwenyaung. From there, it’s another 11 kilometres in a tuk-tuk to Yaungshwe, the main town for visiting Inle Lake.
Sight or Insight of the Day
After checking in to the eminently comfortable Zawgi Inn , we found a restaurant with the cutest dog in Myanmar. (Or at least in Inle Lake.)
![You look like a dog person to me - journey to Inle Lake](https://randomrambles.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/IMG_6361-1024x768.jpg)
He belongs to the proprietor. It’s rare to see cared-for animals here. I just wanted to squeeze him like a roll of Charmin.