Hill Tribes in Myanmar
Programme Overview
Duration: 12 days
This bespoke itinerary provides access to remote hill tribes in Myanmar, a once in a lifetime experience.
Highlights: Yangon, Heho, Inle Lake, Pekong, Loikaw, Kalaw, Keng Tung, Mongla.
Arrive Yangon
Yangon is a city where contemporary and colonial Myanmar continue to coexist decades after British departure. It is a handsome city with a history of over two millennia, though it has been a capital for a mere 100 years. Rebuilt on a grid plan in the 1850s, the wide tree-lined boulevards are bordered by fine stone buildings. In the 1880s, Yangon was renowned as “the Queen of the East”. Today, Yangon bustles without urgency, high-rise buildings, traffic jams or department stores. Instead, small shops sell everything from antique lacquerware to silver-backed dressing table sets left over from colonial days.
Upon arrival, you are met and transferred to your hotel.
This afternoon start your sightseeing with a visit to Botataung Pagoda. This 131 foot stupa is unusual in that it is hollow and visitors are able to walk around inside. The original pagoda was destroyed in 1943 when it took a direct hit from an Allied bomb. During the cleanup a golden casket containing a hair and two other relics of Buddha were found.
Then continue on to visit the Sule Pagoda. For centuries it has been the focus of much of the social and religious activity of the city. The British established the pagoda as the centre of the urban area when they structured their grid-street system around it in the mid-19th century. The 157 foot pagoda remains the tallest building in the town area.
At sunset visit the Shwedagon Pagoda. This architectural masterpiece is a golden fantasy of gilded stupas, serene Buddhas and mythical beasts said to be 2500 years old. According to legend, eight hairs of the last Buddha are enshrined within. On the outside the stupa is plated with 8,688 solid gold slabs while the tip is set with 5,448 diamonds and 2,317 rubies, sapphires and topaz. A huge emerald sits in the middle to catch the first and last rays of the sun.
Overnight: The Governor's Residence
Yangon - Heho - Inle Lake
In the morning you are transferred to the airport to fly to Heho. Upon arrival, you are met and then continue on to Inle Lake, surrounded by the Shan Hills.
A full day of sightseeing will include a visit to the Phaung-Daw-U Pagoda, which enshrines five golden Buddha images carried back to Myanmar by the 12th century King Alaungsithu upon his return from the Malay Peninsula. The images were deposited in a cave near the lake, and were not rediscovered until centuries later. Since their relocation to this pagoda, however, they have been covered with so much gold leaf that they look more like balls of gold than Buddha figures.
Next you will see some Shan handicrafts.
Inle Lake on the Shan Plateau is an oasis where you will see the unique methods of farming and fishing which sustain the local residents.
Surrounding the lake is a wide belt of silt and tangled water hyacinths, which over time creates a thick humus-like layer. The government sells plots of this floating land to be farmed by the villagers. Women tend the plots from boats and grow cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, beans and eggplant.
Fishing is done by means of a conical trap containing a net that the fisherman thrusts to the bottom of the lake when he sees movement. All this is done while the fisherman perches precariously on the boat’s stern with one foot and twists his other leg around a long oar that he uses to propel the boat.
Visit the Jumping Cat Monastery. This wooden monastery, built on stilts over the lake, got its name from the monks who train their cats to jump through small hoops. Here you will see impressive Buddha images in Shan, Tibetan, Bagan and Inwa styles on a highly ornate wood and mosaic pedestal.
Overnight: Inle Princess Resort
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Inle Lake
Begin your day with a visit to the five day market. This rotating market changes locations every five days and is where the local hill tribes come to buy and sell their goods. Items range from hand-made crafts to produce grown on the floating gardens. Take notice of the colourful outfits worn by the different hill tribes as they barter in this lively setting.
Continue to the Sikat-style silk weaving industry at Inn Paw Khone Village.
Next visit Nampan Village where you can witness traditional village life on the lake and observe a blacksmith’s and boat builder's workshop. You can also have a go at trying to make a cheroot, the famous Burmese cigar, in a cheroot factory.
In the afternoon, you will cruise through a densely forested river to visit Indein which is situated on a hillside in the southwestern corner of Inle Lake. Wander through this typical lakeside village while observing the lives of the local people. Walk through a bamboo grove and up a beautiful stairway lined with wooden columns to old Shwe Inn Dein, an impressive and thankfully unrestored collection of ancient Shan style stupas. At the top there is a stunning view out across the lake and beyond, to the hills in the east and the rolling countryside to the west.
Overnight: Inle Princess Resort
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Inle Lake - Pekong - Loikaw
After breakfast, sit back in your private long-tail boat and head south on the lake to an area little visited by tourists. Your journey takes you through some beautiful lake scenery to the old ruins at Sagar. These semi-submerged pagodas are a stunning example of early Shan state temples.
A stop will be made at Thakaung Village to enjoy lunch where you will along with the guide and the boatman sit in the shade of an ancient pagoda and prepare your own traditional Shan food. After lunch, you will briefly visit Thakaung Pagoda. Continue onto the village of Pekong in the Shan state. Here you will meet your car to take you onto the capital of the Kayah state, Loikaw. Kayah state is famed for its numerous hill tribes including the most famous of them all, the Padaung, or as they are more commonly known “the long necked ladies”.
Overnight: Minmahaw Guest House
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Loikaw
Begin your day with a visit to the fascinating local market. This is a five day market, meaning that every five days the market changes location. It is great place to see the numerous hill tribes who come down from their remote villages to buy and sell their produce.
Head onto Sunbun Village, where you can sit down and meet some of the local Padaung women with their famous brass coils around their necks.
This will be followed by a visit to Chitkel Village to observe the traditional Tagundaing posts erected for the Kuhtoeboe Festival. These posts are a way of paying homage to their gods and are believed to aid in the blessing for fine weather, fertile crops throughout the year and, most importantly, a prosperous life. This will be followed by a visit to a weaving workshop for a glimpse at the way in which the Padaungs weave their traditional costumes.
After lunch in a local restaurant, head back to Loikaw to visit the museum which has a display of the local hill tribes in the surrounding area. Visit the monastery where roughly 500 monks live. Here you will be able to witness the young novices reciting their Buddhist scripture. This will be followed by a visit the nunnery, home to many orphans. Finish your tour with a visit to the Taungkwe Zedi for a sunset view over the town of Loikaw.
Overnight: Minmahaw Guest House
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Loikaw - Kalaw
After breakfast in the market, set off for the former British hill station of Kalaw in your private car. En route you will stop in the village of Moe Bye for a photo opportunity with some local Padaung women. Continue onto the Pin Laung Village and visit Pin Laung Haw, a stunning example of a late 19th century Shan palace.
Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant before continuing onto the town of Kalaw, a beautiful old hill station surrounded by pine forests and home to a large Nepalese community.
If time permits, enjoy a gentle trek up to Palaung Village.
Overnight: Hill Top Villa
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Kalaw/Heho - Keng Tung
In the morning you are transferred to the airport to fly to Keng Tung. Upon arrival, you are met and transferred to your hotel.
Keng Tung is a small, sleepy little backwater town tucked away in the far east of the Shan state. The quiet town is located in a valley in the infamous area known as The Golden Triangle, once famed for its opium production and smuggling. The town is situated at 1,200 metres above sea level in the semi tropical hills of the eastern Shan state. The adjacent countryside is home to numerous ethnic minorities and hill tribes living today as they have done for centuries.
This afternoon, you will wander around the old town of Keng Tung, a treasure trove full of traditional architecture with old style houses and their intricately designed wooden balconies characteristic of Shan architecture.
Overnight: Princess Hotel
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Keng Tung
After breakfast, you will be driven up to the town of Loimwe. The drive up to Loimwe is spectacular and takes you through many ethnic villages and forests, and alongside many paddy terraces. Upon arrival in the town, located at 1,600 metres above sea level, wander around this strange town with its old colonial houses complete with chimneys and take a visit to the old area commander’s house.
In the afternoon head back in the car to Joe Phyu, an ethnic Wa village. The Wa tribe are former headhunters and expert opium producers, but today they no longer perform either trade.
This will be followed by a very gentle and beautiful walk downhill and along the old British pony track through numerous Akha ethnic villages. In these villages you will be able to enjoy their generous hospitality, take some wonderful photos and generally converse with a people little changed over the centuries. Wander through forests, along terraced rice paddies, through villages all the while enjoying wonderful views of this breathtaking scenery in the eastern Shan state.
Return back to the town of Keng Tung and enjoy a brief stop at a Shan village to enjoy the wonderful wood carved houses.
Overnight: Princess Hotel
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Keng Tung - Mongla
After breakfast, you will drive to a Loi village to meet the Loi people. Their village is beautiful with a tea plantation. There will be time to visit two Loi villages today.
In the afternoon, drive for three hours to Mongla, a town on the Chinese border. Here you can enjoy Mongla’s recent developments – grand hotels and restaurants, nightclubs, a casino and an anti-narcotics museum which is cited as progress in the combined efforts of Myanmar, China and Thailand to eradicate the drug trade. You can observe photographs of burning poppy fields, the destruction of refineries, and the seizure of heroin shipments and weapons. It seems Mongla’s past has already changed under fresh paint.
Overnight: Mongla Hotel
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Keng Tung
After breakfast, drive back to Keng Tung.
On the way visit Wang Yant Monastery, a stunning example of a 13th century Burmese-Shan monastery. Beautiful original carvings, statues and columns make this arguably the most beautiful monastery in Burma.
Overnight: Princess Hotel
Meal Plan: B,L,D
Keng Tung - Yangon
After breakfast, visit the central market which bustles daily from 6 to 11am. The market offers products from China and Thailand and also has local traditional clothing, antique coins and other implements for sale, making good souvenirs.
In the afternoon you are transferred to the airport to board your flight back to Yangon. Upon arrival, you are met and driven to your hotel.
Overnight: The Governor's Residence
Meal Plan: B,L
Departure Yangon
This morning, you are transferred to the International Airport for your departure flight.