Myanmar

21st November - 10th December 2016

 

International Flights

As always, Emirates were spot on. Both out and back the flights were to time with comfortable changes at Dubai (helped by the return flight from Yangon taking off and arriving early). The A380 is a quieter and more comfortable plane than the Boeing 777 so the longer journey was the more pleasant.

 

Yangon

We were met at Yangon Airport and taken to the Savoy. The traffic is horrendous in the city and all transfers and trips were to take an age. The Savoy was a splendid hotel which was perfect for a restful settling in. Our guide Moe recommended a restaurant round the corner, the House of Memories, for our first evening but this was more interesting for the history of the house than for the food it supplied. So we stayed at the Savoy for the second night’s meal.

We had a tour of the city centre on our only full day in Yangon. The morning was spent looking at sites in ‘downtown’ and around the docks. We requested an afternoon rest and then had a sunset trip to the Shwedagon Pagoda which was one of the highlights of our trip. The rush-hour traffic back to the hotel was so bad that we finally abandoned the car and walked last few yards.

 

Bagan

We had an early transfer to the airport for the morning flight to Nyaung U, near Bagan. We were met by a lovely young guide, a local girl who was Bagan born and bred. It was far too early to book into our hotel so we took in a local market in Nyaung U before visiting a series of ancient temples, some containing frescos. There was some sign of the damage caused by the earthquake earlier in the year. We then booked into the Aureum Palace Hotel, a magnificent resort with pools, spas, restaurants and many chalets. After a short afternoon rest, we had a sunset drive to an old temple, joining several other parties perched precariously on top as darkness fell.

The next day we were driven to Mount Popa where we walked up 777 steps to the crest of a volcanic plug, a vertically sided finger of granite towering 800ft above the village. There was much relief that Jill’s knees stood the strain of the steep descent. We returned to the hotel for a quiet afternoon and did our own sunset trip to the top of the tower adjoining the hotel. The 9^th floor restaurant looked nice so we reserved a table, returned later in the evening for a wedding anniversary meal to be rewarded with the classiest food on the whole trip.

The River Cruise

We thought they were pulling our legs. We were told we were the only passengers for the 48 hour cruise up the Irrawaddy River to Mandalay. On board the Paukan 2012, we found that it was not a joke: we had the 18 cabin cruiser to ourselves. How embarrassing! It took some getting used to the individual attention we received but the crew were splendid in their attitude and we had a fabulous few days. We called into a very poor riverside village on the first day to see how basic life can be in a subsistence economy. Then the boat hit a fishing line and we had to haul up at the riverbank and await engineers from Mandalay who arrived late and worked through the night to free the propeller.

So at 4am the engines were powered up and off we set again against the stiff current to make up the lost time. We sailed for 14/15 hours on day two, stopping briefly to let us look around a more prosperous village busy with pot making. Here we had a song from the local school children who turned out for the tourists even though it was a Sunday, The next morning we had another early start and the engines fired up at 5am so that we could be on time for our next rendezvous. The city of Sagaing looked an absolute picture with its golden rooves and pogodas on every hilltop. It would have been an interesting place to visit. 

 

Pyin Oo Lwin & Hsipaw

Tun Tun and his driver were waiting at Sagaing on the riverbank as we said our farewell to the crew. There was a long and rather uninteresting drive round the outskirts of Mandalay, passing limestone quarries, a prison and many roadworks. Eventually the landscape got more dramatic as we climbed up onto the Shan Plateau, which is not a plateau per se but rugged hills split by deep canyons. On the way into Pyin Oo Lwin, we stopped at the governor’s house, now a hotel and museum, and then called in at an Anglican church; rather bizarre in this land of pagodas. We had a late lunch in a modern style coffee shop and then requested to be taken to our hotel, the Pyin Oo Lwin Hotel to rest after our long morning. We let the guide and driver have an afternoon off and walked ourselves round the gardens, complete with its orchid collection and butterfly house. We ordered a taxi in the evening and were taken round to a Feel restaurant on the side of a lake. It was so cold we did not really enjoy sitting in this unheated café. So we were glad to pick up our return taxi and climb into our bed beneath the thick covers.

The next day we were driven to Hsipaw, pausing briefly to view the train viaduct that we were to cross in two days-time. Our hotel in Hsipaw was positioned on the opposite side of the river to the town, access to which was by ferryboat. So we had lunch in Club Terrace which impressed us so much that we reserved a table for later. We again gave our guide an afternoon off whilst we had a short siesta and then re-crossed the river to try the chocolate cake in the café next door to Club Terrace. The evening crossing to the restaurant was very exciting in the total darkness and we were grateful to the beautiful young waitress who descended the restaurant steps to help us off the boat.

The next morning another boatman took us upstream to do an hour trek up to a monastery. The path wound up between fields of fruit and vegetables. It really is the most fertile of countries. On the way back down the river, we called at a Shan village of beautiful wooden houses, all on stilts to avoid river flooding.  We ended our trip with a visit to the Shan Palace, East Haw, where we had a talk from Fern, herself a Shan princess, about the Austrian girl who married a Shan prince, the subject of Twilight Over Burma, which we had read before our holiday. Fern also recommend another book, My Vanished World, by Nel Adams, who was her cousin who now lived in Cheshire very close to us. We had our meal in the hotel that evening and met an interesting couple from Gloucestershire.

The next morning we had to be at the station early because advanced bookings for the train are not possible. Our guide did the queuing for us and it was very busy. The train rolled along slowly on a most amazing journey spiralling down into a canyon before running along the edge of a cliff, through two tunnels and out onto the Gokteik Viaduct. Soon afterwards we met up with our driver again and we finished the final part of the journey into Mandalay by road. We drove passed the old fort, now in the hands of the military, and stayed at the Mandalay Hill Resort, a rather classy hotel. We popped down for happy hour in the bar and then ate at the Thai restaurant in the hotel.

 

Kalaw & Inle Lake

We had a very early start from Mandalay, breakfasting soon after 6am so that we were ready for a 7am transfer to the airport. This was a very long way out of the city in the wrong direction. It seemed to me that it would be easier to drive to Kalaw, but maybe not. The plane was early and we were only in the air for 25 minutes to reach Heho and its military airport. The guides are not allowed into this military area and we had to be escorted to where our guide, Kyin Kyin, and driver were waiting.

We had studied the schedule and found that we could make improvements to our plans for the next two days. I was very relieved that our guide agreed and supported these changes wholeheartedly. So we rearranged our scheduled afternoon trek for the next morning when it would be cooler and substituted a visit round Aungpan market, an afternoon rest, and a late trip round Kalaw town. The next morning we were able to get away on our four hour walk before the sun rose too high in the sky. We had a great young trek guide, a local lad who took us up and over the hills and through peaceful villages before dropping steeply down into the next valley and a popular cave/shrine.  We had a quick cup of tea before driving to Nyaungshwe and a late lunch in a lovely restaurant in a quiet part of town. Then it was onto the boat and away down the lake to our hotel, the Villa Inle Resort.

The next two days were as close to idyllic as it is possible to get, travelling round the lake visiting the various communities around its shores. We saw many local cottage industries, weaving, silver smiths, boat building and found interesting restaurants for lunch. The Villa Resort was quiet and the food was routine without being exciting but our chalet was lovely and peaceful. This fulfilled all our wishes of a mid-trip break after the previous week of travel.

 

Golden Rock and Hpa An

Another early start. Why do the flights go so early? We were picked up at 7.15am and driven back to Heho airport where we said our goodbyes to our fabulous guide and were escorted into the airport buildings. This time the plane was late and we were almost an hour down on a planned pickup time at Yangon. It was a delight to see Moe again, our guide from the start of the trip.

We then set off on an amazing day. It started quietly enough with a long drive across the flat delta around Yangon but eventually we arrived at the border with Mon State and here the landscape changed dramatically. The town of Kyaiktiyo is known as base camp and is the point at which we abandoned the comfortable car and its careful driver, grabbed a few overnight things and climbed into an open truck. Then we set off up the mountain on a desperately steep concrete road than made Alp d’Huez look like a flat stage of the Tour. We took some 50 minutes of bone shaking to reach the summit and chaos reigned. It was the eve of a major festival and it seemed that the whole population seemed bent on attending and spending the night on the bare mountain. We quickly booked in at the Mountain Top Hotel, risking the sheer drop to our bedroom that clinged to the mountain-side above a 3000ft drop. Then we walked up to the Golden Rock where our promised sunset was spoilt by a low bank of cloud on the horizon. The rock itself was an amazing sight. Pictures were duly taken and we retreated for an early meal and bed as the night got cold and windy.

The next day was pandemonium. I had not experience a crush like this since my last cup final at Wembley. And we were heading the wrong way! We were trying to get off the mountain when everyone else was coming up. Eventually our truck got us down to base camp but it struggled to find a place to disgorge us. It was a relief to be back in the car and onto smooth flat tarmac. There was then a long drive, broken by visits to cave/shrine complexes, before we got to our hotel outside the town of Hpa An in Karen/Kayin State.  This hotel was described as simple but had great potential, nice bungalows and restaurant, but the place just did not have that tourist feel to it. No seats or furniture round a lovely but total barren swimming pool. They have some way to go to get to the standards of service for the international tourist (but amazingly it was busy with French as well as Thai clients).

I have a suggestion for improving this part of the trip. The three days/two nights would have been better based in Mawlamyine with the visit to Hpa An as a boat trip upstream and car and cave visits on the way back. This would have reduced the amount of driving and given us more time in the more interesting of the two state capitals. But I would not have missed the monastery at U Na Auk for all the tea in Burma.

The Coda

The return to Yangon was a long drive with little of interest along the way. There was little sense in taking to the rail so we drove straight through to get into the city before rush hour. We had time for a late lunch at our ‘day’ hotel before repacking our bags for the trip home and resting for the evening. The transfer to the airport was just before mid-night and, because I had been able to check in online, we were soon through the preliminaries and spending our last kyats of a cup of coffee. The flight to Dubai was away early so we had time at Dubai to gorge ourselves on huge pieces of chocolate cake, our first for nearly three weeks. We were back in the café society.

 

Summary

This was a well-thought through trip which catered for most of our interests. The only drawback was a total lack of interest in the wildlife, but this seems general to the whole of SE Asia, not just in Myanmar. The highlight was meeting the people and talking politics. They were a most welcoming and friendly people. We loved the fact that we were not pestered and tips and donations were not expected but were gratefully received. We have rarely felt so safe and appreciated. We were privileged to get there so soon after democracy (or their version of it) has released them from their yoke. Things will change pretty quickly from now, and we hope that the people will not lose their charm and naivety which it was such a great pleasure to enjoy.