Introduction
Dragonair 252 A321 Economy Class Hong Kong to Yangon
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon
Yangon Airways 917 ATR 72-212 Yangon to Bagan Nyaung-U
Hotel Umbra Bagan
Teaching in Myanmar
Yangon Airways 910 ATR 72-212 Bagan Nyaung-U to Yangon
Myanmar Life Hotel Yangon
Dragonair 251 A321 Economy Class Yangon to Hong Kong
The Inya Lake Hotel is a medium-scale hotel that the school booked us into for our first two nights in Yangon. The hotel retails for ~HK$1,300, but I’m sure our school got cheaper rates than that.
We arrived the hotel at around 1AM, after a late night flight from home. We were all pretty tired and ready to sleep, so didn’t really care what the hotel was like – but I was still pretty surprised to see a “full-size” entryway with pillars.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Exterior
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Entryway
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Exterior
The lobby was kind of wood-ladened, which felt rustic without being shabby.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Lobby
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Lobby
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Lobby
The hotel sells little desserts in the lobby, which I found nice. I’m not sure if the seating area is meant to be a café or what, but it definitely was a cool little feature.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Lobby Desserts
Ayan and I were assigned room 456, right next to the (really modern) elevators. We got up to the cruise ship-y hallway, where our room was located in the “sunrise wing”.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Hallway
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Staircase (opposite elevator)
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Hallway
The hotel has a pretty big footprint, with five floors. Our floor had the most rooms at 56, though the hotel only has 139 rooms.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Floorplan
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon
Check-in: Saturday, November 14, 2015
Room Type: Deluxe Room
Room Number: 456
Stay duration: 2 nights
Check-out: Monday, November 16, 2015
Past the entryway was the room directly in front, and the bathroom to the right.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Entryway
The room wasn’t luxury by any means, but was well designed.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room
It featured two comfortable beds, a flatscreen TV, a desk and chair, and a chaise longue by the patio doors.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Bed
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Flatscreen TV
Outside the room was a blank patio. I’m not sure if it looked the best as blank as it was, though the view was amazing.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Patio
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Patio
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Patio
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Patio
At night, the view looked pretty mystical – a few lights in the distance gleaming.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room View
The second morning I went out and was surprised to see a lake within twenty meters of the hotel.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room View
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room View
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room View
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room View
To make it better, the weather cooperated. The sky was cloudless.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room View
By sunset the views got even better, as if I craned my neck I could see the sun setting in the distance. The colours were insane.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room View
The bathroom was more dorm-style, and featured white colours throughout. I don’t mind that, because it was clean, featured a sink, toilet and a shower/tub combo with insane water pressure.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Toilet
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Toilet Shower
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Toilet Tub
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Toilet
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Toilet Sink
The hotel featured Alyssara amenities, which were not bad but not amazing.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Toilet Alyssara Toiletries
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Toilet Alyssara Toiletries
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Deluxe Room Toilet Alyssara Toiletries
Overall, I found the room well designed, usable and perfect for our two night stay. However, I found the WiFi to be beyond Myanmar slow – I could perfectly load a page in both my other hotels, which wasn’t the case here – and one of the hotels retailed for US$40 and the other one was situated in the middle of nowhere.
The sunsets made up for it, if not more – I found the fifth floor balcony best for spotting, though our room (pictured above) wasn’t bad for spotting either.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Fifth Floor Sunset View
We had breakfast and dinner once at the hotel, so I’d like to review that. Both are served in the hotel’s restaurant.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant
The breakfast spread was really substantial in quantity, and also rather good in quality. It wasn’t the knockout best breakfast spread I’ve ever had, but was one of the better ones this year.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Breakfast Spread
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Breakfast Spread
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Breakfast Spread
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Breakfast Spread
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Breakfast Spread
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Breakfast Spread
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Breakfast Spread
I mean, I’d love to commend the quality, but the doughnuts themselves were such a huge letdown, it was enough to leave me disappointed. I was expecting soft pillowy goodness, but…
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Breakfast Spread Doughnuts
The same restaurant managed to execute on their dinner spread, which, while wasn’t the most extensive out of all, was thoroughly enjoyable. It featured meat options, vegetarian options, a few “high-end” options as well as homemade ice cream and other desserts.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Dinner Spread
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Dinner Spread
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Dinner Spread
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Dinner Spread
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Restaurant Dinner Spread
While there’s other facilities including the pool, most of them were barred off for the wedding taking place, which I was fine with.
Service at the hotel was excellent. Each and every person I found was willing to help. There was a language barrier thus it wasn’t the most proactive, though I found them to actually pay effort in their work, which is a plus.
Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that after sunset the birds are obnoxiously loud outside the window.
Inya Lake Hotel Yangon Birds
BOTTOM LINE ON THE INYA LAKE HOTEL
The Inya Lake hotel was described as an updated historic hotel in downtown Yangon. It felt close to everything, was very comfortable and wasn’t crying for an update.
While it’s definitely not running for the best hotel in Yangon, I’d return in a heartbeat.