The Southeast Asia Travel Specialists Since 1999
Every part of Lake Inle; whether watching the golden sunrise creep over the mountain tops, visiting the stilt villages or exploring the astonishing floating gardens are obvious highlights of any Myanmar (Burma) tour so we’ll narrow our 2-day Lake programme down to what’s probably our favourite part – the morning visit to In Dein. The spectacular forest of ancient stupas, colourful…
The fascinating, yet rarely-visited town of Monywa lies just to the west of Mandalay in Burma’s (Myanmar’s) Sagaing Division. As usual, on our Southeast Asia tours, the issue isn’t which destinations to include but rather which ones time restraints force us to omit. There are myriad wonderful sites to be seen but if you included everything the tour would last…
Mandalay Burma – a very evocative name but as with say Casablanca or Shangri La, (which is, of course, mythical but which the Chinese government has now seen fit to locate in northern Yunnan Province), the reality may not live up to the expectation and these days Burma’s 2nd largest city is busy, grubby and to many visitors, somewhat lacking…
Another of our off the beaten track Burma suggestions is the small, picturesque and highly photogenic town of Hpa-An Karen State. Possessing a magnificent setting on the banks of the scenic Salween River, surrounded by dramatic limestone, karst scenery and home to one the best local markets we know in the country this is another, little known, yet superb destination….
Great set of photographs taken on Wi’s recent Burma tour; Discover Burma (Myanmar). The ancient sites at Mingun aren’t usually on the itinerary but since the boat company had seen fit to cancel the Mandalay to Bagan service, siting low numbers during low season, Wi organized an alternative boat trip up the Irrawaddy to visit the riverside site of Mingun…
Burma’s picturesque Inle Lake has numerous fascinating sites on offer to visitors: the lakeside markets and stilt villages, ethnic minorities, temples, myriad handicraft and traditional ‘cottage industries’ to check out and the amazing ruins of the old Shan city at In Dein but it’s two most famous sites are probably the floating gardens plus the unusual fishermen who row with…
If these fantastic stagecoaches were to be found in any other country apart from Burma then we reckon they’d certainly be housed in museums. Now contrary to what you may imagine they are not used to give tourists rides but are a genuine form of local transport in the former old, (and near unpronounceable), British hill-station of Pyin U Lwin….
Hiking in the Shan Hills; a few photos and brief description. Firstly many thanks to our awesome local guide Moe Zaw for designing and testing what proved to be an excellent hiking trail close to the small town of Kalaw on the Shan Plateau. Despite terrain seen below, (i.e. picturesque but hilly!), he managed to find us a predominantly flat…
Great boat trip down this picturesque and as yet unspoilt river, (the Burmese president having recently suspended the controversial Myitsone Dam project), and well worth the early start for the superb dawn views as we headed down the Irrawaddy from Mandalay. According to the Burmese powers that be Aerawaddy is a closer transliteration to the Burmese, (or Myanmar), pronunciation so…
A selection of photos and description of a Rangoon train ride. The Yangon, (Rangoon), circular – (that’s a local railway line, not a 6 lane ring-road or an underground line) – does a loop from the city’s main station through the inner city, suburbs and outlying villages, before returning to the station some 3 hours later. It’s a local train…