Northeast Burma travel guide
Canoeing around Inle Lake
Shan State
The image of an Intha fisherman standing at the stern of a flat-bottomed canoe, rowing with one leg past a backdrop of mist-shrouded mountains over the shimmering waters of Inle Lake is one of Myanmar’s most iconic. With its idyllic stilted villages, ancient stupacomplexes and fabulous backdrop of green hills, Inle is the top attraction of Shan State, in the country’s hilly northeast. But the region holds plenty of other compelling destinations, many of them in areas newly opened to tourists.
In the forest hills due west of Inle, Kalaw, a former British hill station, is visited primarily by travellers wishing to make treks into the tribal areas surrounding it. The most popular routes wind east to the lake, through pine forests and a fertile belt that’s intensively farmed by a variety of colourfully dressed minority groups. Another popular trail works its way 110km (70 miles) northwest to the fabulous Pindaya Cave, with its thousands of carved Buddha images. An alternative trekking hub is the market town of Hsipaw in the Nam Tu Valley, to the northeast of Pyin U-Lwin. The choice of accommodation is more limited here, but the tribal villages nestled in the surrounding countryside see correspondingly fewer visitors.
Shan is Myanmar’s largest state, extending west as well as east from its administrative capital, Taunggyi, for 350km (220 miles) to Laos and the notorious “Golden Triangle” of the opium trade; nearly as far north to the Burma Road and the Chinese border; and south a lesser distance to the tribal states of the Kayah and Kayin (Karen). This is largely a region of high, roadless peaks, of rugged river gorges and fiercely independent tribes-people who until recently were locked in a war with the Burmese government.
Kachin State
North of Shan and Kayah states is Kachin State, which has slowly opened to foreigners. Foremost among its attractions is the week-long trip down the Ayeyarwady from the towns of Myitkyina or Bhamo, which can be covered on a government ferry or on one of the handful of luxury cruises that operate on this relatively unfrequented stretch. Home to colourful tribal groups, Kachin State’s Indawgyi Lake, the largest in Myanmar, is breathtaking, as are its snowcapped mountain ranges in the far north around the town of Putao, near to the border with India.
The state is also an important source of Burmese jade, which has long enthralled gem merchants far and wide.
Top places to visit in Northeast Burma
Inle Lake, Shan State
Thanks to its cooler climate and picturesque setting in the lap of the Shan Hills, Inle Lake these days attracts serious numbers of visitors during the winter tourist season. In between leisurely sojourns gazing from their hotel verandahs across the water, travellers while away days taking boat trips to ruined stupas, hot springs and the stilted villages of the local Intha people. The Intha are responsible for Inle’s defining image – that of the local “leg-rowing” fishermen, who propel themselves across the lake’s surface by wrapping one leg around oars fixed to the stern of flat-bottomed canoes.
Around 70,000 Intha live in the towns and scattered villages clustered on the shores of the lake, which is approximately 21km (13 miles) long and 11km (7 miles) wide. As well as their distinctive rowing technique, the minority are known for their “floating gardens”, or kyunpaw, which they create by collecting weeds from the surface and lashing them together to form metre-thick strips. These are then anchored to the bed of the lake with bamboo poles, and heaped with mud scooped from the bottom. One advantage of the method is that it can be used regardless of fluctuating water levels. Crops – including cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, peas, beans and aubergine – are grown year-round.
With regular connections to Heho airport (40km/25 miles northwest) from Yangon, Mandalay and Bagan, getting to Inle is straightforward if you fly. Overland it’s a tougher undertaking by bus or taxi along mountain roads via the junction town of Shwenyaung, or highland capital Taunggyi to the lake’s principal town and transport hub, Nyaungshwe.
Taunggyi, Shan State
The administrative centre and main market hub for the Inle Lake region is Taunggyi, seat of the Shan Council of Chiefs during the British colonial period. The town was founded by Sir James George Scott, one of the most respected colonial officers in the history of British Burma.
The five-day market is visited in large numbers by the region’s hill tribes who flock here to buy and sell home-grown fruit and vegetables, and to stock up on household essentials imported from China.
In the city centre, close to a monument to Bogyoke Aung San, stands the Taunggyi Museum (also known as Shan State Museum). It is small, but worth a look if you’re interested in the region’s hill tribes, with displays of 30 or so costumes from Shan minorities.
Kalaw, Shan State
Perched on the western rim of the Shan Plateau, Kalaw, 70km (44 miles) west of Taunggyi, was once a favourite hill-station retreat for British officials and their families during the hot season – little wonder, considering its beautiful setting amid bamboo groves, orange orchards and pine woods. In common with mountain retreats in the Himalayan foothills of India, the town retains a faded colonial atmosphere, and a noticeably cosmopolitan mix of people descended from the Sikhs, Tamils, Nepalis and Indian Muslims who were drafted in as a labour force in the late 19th century. In addition to this cultural legacy, the British left behind some attractive gardens and Victorian buildings, but most visitors come here to trek in the surroundings hills. Kalaw also hosts one of the region’s most vibrant five-day markets, for which minority people descend en masse from the hills dressed in traditional costume.
Pindaya, Shan State
Pindaya, a three- to four-hour drive northwest of Nyaungshwe (Inle Lake), is famous across Myanmar as the site of the extraordinary Shwe U Min Cave Temple, a huge, convoluted complex of limestone grottoes crammed with around 9,000 Buddha images. Varying in size and style, the figures were mostly installed between the 16th and 18thcenturies, and are made of gold, silver, marble, lacquer, teak and ivory.
The caves honeycomb a steep hillside rising above Pone Taloke Lake. They are accessed via a network of covered stairways and lifts leading to ornately gilded and decorated entrance pavilions. It’s obvious from the start that the Buddha statues are very much objects of active veneration: worshippers young and old bow before them, offering flowers and incense in clasped hands to honour the principles of kindness, compassion and tolerance which the images embody.
The most revered cave is the Antique Pagoda, built by King Sridama Sawka more than 2,000 years ago, comprising a myriad of golden Buddhas sitting in red niches stacked one above the another.
Hsipaw, Shan State
Hsipaw, an old mountain valley town on the sinuous Tu River, was once the administrative centre for the state of the same name, one of nine formerly ruled by Shan princes. The town is noted for its haw, or European-style palace, where the last sawbwa, Sao Kya Seng, and his Austrian-born wife, Inge Sargent, lived until the military coup of 1962, when the chief disappeared. He was later found to have been murdered by the regime – events described in vivid detail in Sargent’s bestselling biography, Twilight Over Burma. The old palace is now occupied by Sao Kya Seng’s nephew, the affable Mr Donald, who, until he was arrested by the government for showing foreigners around the building, used to act as an unofficial tour guide. Mr Donald has since been released from prison but no longer welcomes callers.
The majority of travellers who make it as far northeast as Hsipaw tend to come in order to trek to hill-tribe villages in the area, which are far less frequented and accustomed to foreigners than the country around Kalaw. For those travelling independently, trips of varying lengths, from day hikes to full-on expeditions lasting a week or more, may be arranged through local hotels and guesthouses.
Hsipaw’s main pagoda is the Mahamyatmuni Paya on Namtu Road, a much more modest complex than its namesakes further south but which is worth a visit for its immaculately painted stupas and gleaming brass Buddha statue, backed by a halo of flashing red and purple UV lights. Of more traditional interest is the old quarter just north of the centre where, among numerous antique wooden buildings, stands the Maha Nanda Kantha Kyaung, home to a Buddha made entirely from strips of woven bamboo.
For a great panoramic view over the town, head 1km (0.6 miles) south to Five Buddha Hill, where the terrace fronting the Thein Daung Pagoda offers a popular spot for a late-afternoon stroll, whence its local nickname, “Sunset Hill”.
Indawgyi Lake, Kachin State
One of the principal attractions of Kachin State is Indawgyi Lake, the largest body of fresh water in Myanmar. Around 24km (16 miles) from north to south and 12km (8 miles) across, it is sustained by a dozen streams feeding into a depression. Large gold deposits are held in the surrounding hills, as well as extensive teak forests worked by three major logging camps.
Train tickets to Hopin should be booked on the eve of departure. Arrive at the Myitkyina railway station early as there is almost always a long queue.
A chain of picturesque Shan villages dots the lake shore, comprising clusters of wooden stilted houses. From an island in the middle of the lake rises the dazzling white and gilt Shwe Myitzu Pagoda where relics of the Buddha are said to be enshrined. It sits on a two-tier platform consisting of a central golden stupa surrounded by scores of smaller white stupas. Panels depicting scenes from the Buddha’s life decorate the ceilings covering the lower tier of the platform, which is also adorned by statues of nat, said to still roam the Indawgyi area. Access is via a narrow sand causeway that gets partially submerged in the wet season. Visitors can take in the various villages, wooden monasteries, Kachin churches and manaotaing (decorative totem poles used for festive occasions), or drop in at one of the three logging camps to see elephants at work. The jade mines of Hpakant, to the north of Indawgyi, are strictly off limits to tourists.
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