The beautiful Hpa An

Hpa An, a small town, not too far away from Mawlaymyine has all the ingredients to become a prime boutique resort in the future. A small population, relaxed atmosphere, a river, scenic rice fields, picturesque temples, mountains to climb and caves to explore. While the town itself is rather unremarkable, the surroundings are beautiful, yet unspoiled. No ticket charges (a rarity in Myanmar!) and almost no other tourists. Guesthouses offer a cheap and convinient way to check Hpa An sights out in one day. Just for $5 they will take you on a day trip covering all the sights that will easily become a highlight of your Myanmar experience. Best five dollars ever spent.

In a way Hpa An reminded me of Pai, Hoi An and Yangshuo, minus the tourist infrastructure part. For now Hpa An is anything but touristy. Four hotels, two mediocre restaurants with menus in English, one even worse cafe and zero shops. This is how far Hpa An caters to foreign visitors. In this particular case, the lack of tourist services was a clear drawback. After seeing all the sights in one day, there was nothing left to do, no places to hang out and no people to meet. One day spent there and we were ready to move on. On the other hand Hpa An provided an authentic insight of the town life, but then again we got plenty of such experience in Myanmar.

If in the future Hpa An evolves into another Pai or Yangshuo, in a true hipster fashion I will be able to boast that I was there before it was cool.

The typical Hpa An on a typical morning

Nuns receiving alms.

Kyauk Kalap, a beautiful pagoda on the rock in the center of an artificial lake.

Thousands of Buddha statues in the base of the Zwegabin mountain.

The beautiful surroundings of Hpa An.

The entrance to the Saddar cave.

A stupa inside the Saddar cave.

Holes in the ground inside the cave are not marked in any way.

A sunlit Buddha image inside the cave.

Boatmen chilling outside the Saddar cave. The boat ride led to another cave and was easily the highlight of the whole experience.

Once out of the cave the boat ride led to scenic rice fields. Just beautiful.

A men finishing the job of painting hundreds of monk statues. This one was the last in the row.

Fusion festival like kitsch hut was spotted near one of the temples. That’s Buddhism for you.

Pilgrimage to Golden Rock

Golden Rock or Kyaktiyo is is one of the prime tourist sights in Myanmar. It is literally a golden rock (because of all the golden stickers countless pilgrims attach to the rock for good luck and what not) with a stupa on top of it positioned on top of another rock in a funky way. According to the legend a hair of Siddharta Gautama inside the stupa is what maintains the delicate balance. True or not, Golden Rock is a major pilgrimage destination, which draws thousands of pilgrims from all over the country. Now he rock itself was a huge let down and would not recommend anyone to visit it, unless if you are a hardcore Buddhist. The main problem with it was the rock looks tons better on pictures than in the real life. What promotional pictures do not show is the surroundings of the rock, which are quite built up with shops, hotels and all things commercial. After you make it through all this crust, the rock looks rather disappointing. However, the point of the pilgrimage is not the destination, but the journey, which was quite interesting indeed.

The idea to visit Golden Rock was born spontaneously. Sometime on the way out of Inle to Hpa An by night bus, we decided to do a small detour to Golden Rock. So upon arriving to Yangon just before the sunrise, a friendly local guided us to the bus to Kyaikto (whether it was for a small fee or totally gratis remained undetermined). Another four hours in the bus and we were finally in Kyaiktiyo, where they put us we on a taxi going to Kinpun, a village in the base of the mountain hosting the rock. In Kinpun we left our backpacks at a hotel and immediately proceeded to take a truck leading to the rock. Some words should be said about trucks, which for whatever reason are the only allowed form of transportation to Golden Rock itself. Trucks are of a regular kind with an open platform used more commonly for transporting cargo. In order to transport people there are benches that can fit around 50 people. The driver really made sure the truck was filled up to the max and squeezed more people against the loud protests of white passengers until the platform was completely full. The benches did not have back support, so having the platform filled up with people doubled as a safety precaution. The ride was intensely scary and half an hour spent in the truck was arguably the most exciting part of the journey. The notice about life insurance included in the ticket price started really making sense during the ride.

Anyhow, we spent an unremarkable hour at the rock and took a truck back to the hotel, where we immediately booked tickets to Hpa An. Half an hour later a guy on motorbike appeared to take us to the bus stop in Kyaiktiyo. We expressed our concerns about fitting three people and two backpacks on motorbike with no helmets, but after a short, but fierce discussion they assured us it was totally safe and the promised travel time magically halved. Well, they turned out to be right about the safety part, half an hour later (instead of the promised 15 minutes) we made it safely to the bus stop. The bus never showed up though (whether there was a bus in the first place remained another mystery), instead the motorbike driver put us on a pick-up shared taxi and gave instructions to the taxi driver what to with us. Three hours later we made it to Thaton, where friendly locals guided to another taxi and finally arrived to Hpa An just before the sunset.

The end result was 24 hours of travelling with almost no waiting between changing vehicles and minimum effort on our part. In a way it was the most difficult, but at the same time the easiest journey I have ever taken. As if, the whole journey was predetermined and we were just going with the flow. Even if the rock was unremarkable, the journey was one of the top highlights of adventures in Myanmar.

This is what Golden Rock looks like in promotional pictures.

A less flattering view over the rock. Going through a metal detector and leaving any bags outside is mandatory.

Completing the last part of the journey to Golden Rock in a sedan chair being carried by four people is one of the options. We chose traditional walking over this option.

Inside a Golden Rock truck. This one had back supports, though

Life insurance is included in the truck ticket price. A threat or an opportunity?

Lake Inle

Inle lake is undoubtedly the most popular tourist destination in Myanmar. It is still low-profile enough to be a pleasant somewhat sleepy destination, but given the current rate of development it is ought to become a full-on tourist resort very soon. Seeing this development got me thinking of the lake people, who have been doing hard work of fishing and farming for hundreds of years, until about 20 years ago, when the tourist boom kicked in. Suddenly rich white people began pouring in and paying silly money just to see what is granted for the local population. The perspective of selling products and services to tourists instead of farming the land seven days a week is too lucrative to pass, especially when the pay is much better. It must be strange times for the local population.
Anyhow the setting of the lake is feng shui like: water and mountains. Nyangshwe, a town next to the lake, is laid back and pleasant enough to warrant spending a couple of days there. Add floating green islands found on the lake and tribe villages around the lake and you got a winner combination. The ugly side of this mix is rapid commercialisation of the area. We took a boat ride that was supposed to introduce us to the highlights of the lake, but in reality it was hopping from one shop to another. The best part about the trip was an early morning ride to the lake, being chased by gulls and watching posing fishermen, but it went quickly downhill after that. It is not all doom and gloom though. If you avoid the boat ride or negotiate a better deal skipping the shops, it is bound to be an amazing experience.

Boats waiting for customers in the wee hours of the chilly morning in Nyangshwe.

Boats waiting for customers in the wee hours of a chill morning in Nyangshwe.

Boats are the major form of transportation around Inle.

And tourism quickly becomes the main form of making income. Fortunately there are no big white ships full of packaged tour groups yet.

A typical village on the lake. Everything is built on the water, channels act like roads and boats replace cars.

Cool as a cucumber fisherman in the tranquil morning light.

The lake is home to numerous floating islands, pieces of vegetation growing on the water that create an illusion of a hard land.

Not everybody can afford a diesel motor, so manual rowing (whether using hand or foot technique) is still a norm.

Fishermen were more than happy to pose for an iconic Inle Lake shot.

Unlike in the previous shot, foot rowing is an actual rowing technique used in practice and only for showing off

One of the most memorable things about Inle was gulls chasing boats either in hope to get some food or just for sheer fun.

I took this picture without second thoughts and only later realised that the woman was most likely taking a bath. Taking pictures of people showering / taking a bath is considered very rude in Myanmar. Oops.

One of the surprising things about Nyangshwe was this pagoda just outside the town. Whether it was the beautiful evening light or the tranquil state of mind, it was easily the most awesome pagoda I have encountered in Myanmar.

The floating market of Nyang Win. Everybody naturally arrives by boat.

A popular day trip is to cycle to Mine Thauk village, take a boat across the lake to Khaung Dine and continue by bicycle back to Nyangshwe.

A popular day trip is to cycle to Mine Thauk village, take a boat across the lake to Khaung Daing and continue by bicycle back to Nyangshwe.

Children playing volleyball in Khaung Daing

There is a winery, Red Mountain Estate, in the Inle area. We went around 11 in the morning and it was full of smiling and laughing white people. Winery, a socially acceptable way for middle-aged white people to get drunk anytime during the day.

A long-neck woman from Kanyin state demonstrating her weaving skills in one of the shops. The state is closed to visitors, so this was one of the rare chances to see a long neck woman.

A silversmith at work (most likely for entertainment purposes)

A woman working a silk loom. I have had mixed feelings about all these demonstrations. On one hand, they are pure tourist entertainment. On the other hand these demonstrations actually provide a good overview of how things are produced.

Kalaw to Inle in three days

Kalaw is a former British hill station in the Shan state of Myanmar. It is at an elevation of 1350m and 50km from the Inle lake, which makes it a popular hiking route. Initially we planned to do a trek on our own, but everywhere we asked they told us it was no possible citing the reasons like wild animals and military presence. After some research we opted for a three day hike with Sam’s Family Trekking, which is reputed to the best in the area (Jungle King is definitely to be avoided by the stories we heard). Even though it is possible to hike on one’s own, it is a very hard to do for a number of reasons. First of all, there are no maps. Google Maps, for one, is not aware of any villages or roads we walked. The best bet is to download one of the GPS tracks recorded by fellow hikers that can be found on the Internet. Second, there is no tourist infrastructure on the way. No hotels, very little restaurants and shops. In some villages they didn’t even sell bottled water and other villages had unmarked shops that were hidden inside people’s homes. Sleeping in monasteries is definitely an option, but the lack of restaurants and shops on the way is challenging. Thirdly no trekking company will forward your baggage to Inle. We asked at several places and the answer was no. Finally we got so much more out of the trek with a guide and it turned out one of the highlights in Myanmar. Definitely money well spent.

Kalaw area is hilly and dry. Also known for hiking

Kalaw area is hilly and dry. Dust is naturally everywhere.

Hiking is popular among tourists. As elsewhere in South East Asia locals are not very fond of walking, especially long distances.

The area can be described in terms of desolated landscapes and hill tribe villages

Farming is the main source of income for local people.

Among cultivated crops are oranges…

…bananas

…rice

…chilis

… and potatoes

Farming is hard work in this climate. Everything is done by hand, no machinery used.

Momo, our guide

Our team. Julie, Nicky, Amber, Kim, Anu and myself

Walking was a hard work, especially the bulk of the walk done during the midday under the blazing sun

Hiking was not a walk in the park, especially as the bulk of the walk done during the midday under the blazing sun.

Sunrise over rice fields on the first day of the hike.

There are very little signs of tourismization.

No hotels, no taxis and no hawkers.

There are not many restaurants on the way. Another reason why doing hike solo is difficult. This restaurant is one of the bigger villages and is very basic.

There are not many restaurants on the way. Another reason why doing hike solo is difficult. This restaurant is in one of the bigger villages and is very basic.

Children are used to tourists and expect presents. We did not have any.

Children gazing visitors in one of the highlands villages

Older children were more shy and only gazed at us

Children playing on monastery grounds

And trying to avoid the camera.

The journey also led us to a railway. We walked during a gap between trains, although dodging slow-moving local train would not have been a problem.

The journey also led us to a railway. We managed to walk just during a gap between trains, although dodging slow-moving local train would not have been a problem.

Two women enjoying tea in a tea shop on a train station

A misty morning on the third day of the hike.

Cows in the mist.

Bagan â€“ The Angkor Wat of Myanmar

Back in the day Bagan used to be the capital of the Pagan Empire, the first ever attempt to unify what the modern Myanmar is. The city has been abandoned since 1287 and nowadays it is a massive complex of thousands of temples set in the desolated landscape. It is dry, full of dust and feels like a ghost town. Sunrises and sunsets are fantastical, plus there are thousands of temples to choose from as your view point. There are little signs of any tourist development, which is reflected in poor accommodation options (the universal problem in Myanmar) and incostinency in selling tickets. Dust is inescapable and rental bicycles are one step away from falling apart. Electric bikes, on the other hand, despite making you look like a senior and feel like a teenager proved to be an excellent way to explore the area. As a random man from France put it: “You will spend four days here. Four beautiful days”. Well we spent three, but they were beautiful indeed.