ZED67

As the COVID-19 scare waned and restrictions were lifted in late spring, my helper disappeared and work in the garden stopped. Whit an increased free time and wanting to do something more useful then waste time on social media, a "miniguide" series was started. Titled "Amazing Vistas Miniguides", these little but informative ebooks were to present hikes in little-known but stunningly beautiful places. Five miniguides were finished, and there are a few more drafts at different levels of completion. Those that are done and ready feature places in Laos and Myanmar. The timing wasn't the best, but I was optimistic that by autumn life would return to normal and travel would restart, and that there would be interest in these guides. I also hoped that I could go back to Asia, to explore these great locations a bit more and to discover new ones. But it seems no such luck... the second wave of the pandemic is on us now, and international travel is still not really possib...

After Pinlaung I went back to Kalaw again from where I wanted to start my journey back to Thailand, as my visa had already expired a few days ago. But I had a full day, so I thought I go for an easy walk. One of the things with the hills around Kalaw is that they have very dense vegetation, so even if you find a way to the top, there is no guarantee you can see anything. But this hill, visible from most of the town, has only very few trees and it sounded like a good idea to climb it. I headed towards the hill and locals were very helpful pointing me the way. The top of the hill is actually a cultivated land, that's why there are so few trees. I carried on in the forest until the rocky hill with the Buddhist stupas became visible, the ones that can be seen from Ma-Naw-Lha. If I had time, I would have crossed over, but since I had a bus to catch I just returned the same way. Had some food in town, and waited for my night bus that would take me Myawaddy, the town at the Thai borde...

I have never heard about Pinlaung, a Pa-Oo city in the Shan State, it is not mentioned anywhere. But on my way to Loikaw we drove through Pinlaung and I knew I had to return. So, after Loikaw, I decided to spend one night here. A small place, but surely this is one of the most beautiful places in Myanmar.

Two Kayan ladies - one representing the old, the other the new. 

You see golden stupas and rocks all over Myanmar, but towards the Kayan mountains not far from Loikaw there is a silver pagoda. According to our guide, Sabina, silver represents peace, and here everything is silver coloured to commemorate the peace agreement between the animists and Buddhists who were locked into a bitter fight some time ago. In this Buddhist site, as a guesture, there is also an animist spirit pole.

I haven't seen so many churches in Rome or Jerusalem as around Loikaw, the capital of Kayah State. The city is the centre of an area where different tribal peoples live, most of whom were animist originally. Many now have converted to Christianity, some to Buddhism, a few remain animist, and often they mix these things.

A beautiful 2-day trek in the Eastern Mountains, starting in Shwe Nyaung and visiting several mountain villages and viewpoints, then finishing at the lake where I visited my guide, Ko Khant's village, before taking the boat back to town.

I expected it to be very touristy, so I wasn't disappointed - the boat tour I took with a group of other visitors was actually quite nice. There is no other way around it: if you want to see Inle Lake, you have to take a boat, either as a group or charter one alone if you can afford it. Either case, it is pretty much the same thing: watching the fishermen, visiting the villages on the water, the workshops, markets, religious and historic sites, eating at overpriced restaurants. So if you do not expect something very authentic and unique, it is a nice day out on the water. There were some things which I didn't like though and left me with mixed feelings.

Nyaung Shwe must have been a small market town, or rather a big village, a few decades ago, but since Inle Lake became so popular a lot of new developments took place. Today traditional wooden houses and modern multy-storey hotels stand side by side. The town is quite unattractive and boring, but it still serves as the economic centre of the broader area. While in the main canals you see boats caring for tourists, the real life takes place in the back canals where the warehouses and market are found.

Since I wasn't interested in the Kalaw-Inle Lake trek, I was planning to get to Nyaung Shwe, the town at the lake, by bus. But I was told there is a nice alternative, that is taking the train to Shwenyaung and from there catch some transport. It was supposed to be very scenic and not too touristy, but on the day I went to the station in Kalaw it was full of foreigners. Tickets are sold only half an hour before departure, and there was a little panic when the station master announced there are no more seats left. He meant no more upper class seats, so most of us ended up in the ordinary class. It was actually better: not that it really matters but it was cheaper (MMK 500 instead of MMK 1,250), but more importantly you could choose where you wanted to sit, and since the carriage wasn't full at all, you could always move to the side where the view was better. Those stuck in their upper class seats had no choice, had to sit where they were assigned a seat. The train ride was ni...

There is a market in the centre of town that is open every day, but a street market is also held regularly in Kalaw. It actually includes several streets, and people from the broader area come to sell their products or buy things.

Kalaw is located in a high-altitude basin, so some of the best views are actually out of town from the perimeters of the mountain range. You can find several view points marked in the maps.me application, so I decided to visit some of them. They could be visited in a very long day on foot, but it is more like a multiple day hike. I was also thinking of hiring a mountain bike, but the steep ascents put me off, and instead rented a scooter. I found the correct road after a few tries, and the landscape indeed was fantastic. I found a few viewpoints marked on the map (there is often a restaurant/café there), but also a Palau village with a monastery atop a hill which wasn't marked at all. I left my bike at a café and walked most of the way to the distant monastery - I was told it would take 45 minutes but would have been a couple of hours if I didn't get a ride with a truck. On the way back I just hired a guy with a motorbike to take me back to the café. I had nice South Asian ...

There is a hill, or mountain, with a Buddhist temple at the top that is visible from everywhere in town - it is called Ma-Naw-Hla, or Manorhla with another spelling. I actually found the path the first day, but it was too late to walk all the way. Nevertheless, I've got to some points from where you could have fantastic views of different parts of Kalaw. The second day, after the disappointing hike to "Antenna Hill", I decided to return to this place and walk all the way up for the sunset. It's a fairly long walk but there is a dirt road, you cannot miss it - locals, including the monks themselves who reside at the top, actually ride their motorbikes up. I've only met one monk who was very friendly, invited me in and offered tea and crystalised sugar, and their loud but cowardly dog. The views along the way and from the top are amazing - not only of Kalaw but also the surrounding area and distant mountain ranges. Yet, I did not come across this place in any of...

Kalaw is famous for being the starting point of the 2-3-day trek to Inle Lake which is so popular that what I've heard everywhere is that it is now as touristy as the Champs-Élysées. I also checked photos of the trek and I wasn't too impressed - the landscape is nice, rolling hills with different agricultural plots, but nothing really special. And for attractions in Kalaw, I didn't find anything interesting, only the usual stupa, cave, market, local food suggestions. For these reasons I did not plan to stop in Kalaw at all, only to drive through to Taunggyi, but when my microbus got there I changed my mind. As we were approaching Kalaw the landscape got more interesting, and I realised the town itself is up in the mountains. I liked the setting and got out - and I did not regret it. I found quite a few things to do which others were not talking about. And the town itself is quite pleasant, although quite cold as well at this time of the year.

Home to the powerful nat spirits, Mount Popa is an extinct volcano in the sprawling central plain of Myanmar. It takes 2-3 hours to reach its highest peak on foot, although locals ride up with their motorcycles almost all the way to the top. In the first half of the way nothing can be seen as the road is in thick forest, but then there are great views on Taung Kalat, the surrounding area and inside the crater.

Taung Kalat and Mount Popa are often confused - the former is a monastery atop a rocky outcrop at the foot of the latter, an extinct volcano. Both are stunning, and both offer amazing views on each other and the surroundings. But while Taung Kalat is an easy walk up a few flights of monkey-shit-covered stairs, getting to the top of Mount Popa is a fairly strenuous hike, that is, if you don't take the easy option.

Chin State is home to some of the highest mountains in Myanmar, as well as to the unique Chin people. Many different groups exist within the Chin, some of them don't even understand each other, as I learned from my chance guide, Timothy. Mindat, itself located above 1000 metres on top of a mountain, is one of the places from where treks can be organised to Khaw-nu-soum, known as Mount Victoria in English or Nat Ma Taung in Burmese. But trekking in this region is quite expensive, so I just hired a guy with a motorbike to take me across the valley to a village I spotted, so I can have a view of Mindat. But I've got more than I was expecting...

The answer is simple: the Chinese do. In every tourist highlight there are hordes of Chinese nouveau riche tourists, and it seems the camera is one of the status symbols. These tourists all have very professional looking stuff, and they make photos of sunsets, local people and of course themselves. Otherwise U Being Bridge is nice; it's a long wooden bridge across a swampy lake, but a sunset is just a sunset where you see a yellow dot on the red sky and the contour of the dark landscape. Anyway, the bridge is popular around sunset, but if you descend from it (there is a simple restaurant/bar in the middle on a little island) you can actually meet the locals, not only point your oversized objective at them.

If you only visit the tourist attractions of Mandalay, the city looks as touristy as Thailand or any other popular destination. Nevertheless, if you are in Mandalay, it's worth to check out the tourist attractions: Mya Nan San Kyaw, the Royal Palace; Mandalay Hill with its nice views; Shwe Nan Taw Kyaung, the wooden pagoda; Kuthodaw Pagoda, the "world's biggest book"; Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda, home to the marble Buddha. Plus, you can take a boat trip to Mingun to see the unfinished (and now damaged) Mingun Paya; the world's biggest sounding bell; and the photogenic Hsinbyume Paya (Mya Thein Tan Pagoda), the white pagoda. And there is another picture-perfect attraction outside Mandalay, very popular with "photographers" trying to catch the sunset photo of their life, but that's in another post...

I've seen it on a few blogs that Zegyo market is not interesting; one said, it is just a "hideous five-storey brick and concrete building" with nothing special inside. Idiots! It's not what's in the building, but what's around it! If you don't see it, you might as well poke your eyes out, they're useless. It's the district where Zegyo market stands is what fascinating. From 26th street to the 31th, from the 84th to 88th, and perhaps even beyond, the whole neighbourhood is a market! It's open from early morning until a few hours beyond sunset, but then people set up the night market - right in the middle of busy 84th street, leaving two narrow lanes for vehicles to pass. Sure, there are a lot of things you don't want to buy, but there is also great food. Once again, I finished the day on the corner of 27th and 82nd streets, in my favourite Mandalay restaurant. At mid-day the corner is outsourced to serve really good Burmese cuisine, and ...