by Michael

After a two-hour bus ride from Mawlamyine, we arrived at our pre-booked* hotel in Hpa-an (pronounced pah-ahn, not hop-a-on) and inquired about tours  of the surrounding caves for the next day. We learned that an evening trip to a famous bat cave nearby was leaving in two minutes. Bat cave it was. The cave is known for the million-plus bats that fly out around sunset. We jumped into the back of the pick-up (actually more like a covered pick-up bed pulled  by a motorcycle), headed out to the caves, waited maybe 15 minutes, and watched in awe. The bats leave just late enough that it is tough to take good photos, so you’ll just have to trust us that it was amazing.

Streams of bats. This photo actually has two streams of bats. The big stream across the photo is bats leaving the cave (off camera to the right) and flying to the left. Under that on the left side, you can see the beginning of the stream that started a few minutes earlier, flow across the river, and is now headed toward the bridge.

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By Michael

While traveling in Myanmar, we always planned to reserve part of our 28-day stay for the southeast part of the country — specifically the cities of Mawlamyine and Hpa-an. We ended up enjoying these towns so much that we stayed for an extra two days beyond the length of our visa!

More on this later . . .

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by Michael

After Mandalay, our next stop was Pyin Oo Lwin, considered the summer capital of British Burma since it is where the British governor resided for part of the year. We left Mandalay by shared taxi (~90 mins, 6000 kyat each), and explored Pyin Oo Lwin by bicycle. The streets are full of lovely colonial mansions and we attempted to follow a hand-drawn map from our guesthouse around to some of the more notable buildings.

The Candacraig Hotel, formerly the British Club, was under renovation during our visit.

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By Michael

Our time in northern Myanmar was marked by beautiful travel between places — Mandalay was a prime example. We took a boat from Bagan to Mandalay, explored its surrounding sites including a temple with pythons and even found our own “Little Bagan” nestled just south of the snake temple near Mandalay.

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by Elizabeth

A must-stop destination on any traveller to Myanmar’s itinerary, I wondered as we got off our 12-hour overnight bus ride if Bagan could possibly live up to the hype.  It does.

The Bagan Archeological Zone is a collection of over 3,000 individual archeological sites in a relatively small area.  These buildings (and more) were built over a two-and-a-half century period from the 11th to the 13th century.  During this time, Bagan’s kings commissioned over 4000 Buddhist temples, including many wooden buildings that are long gone.  What’s left has been ravaged by time and earthquakes, but it’s amazing how much there still is to see thanks in part to recent restoration attempts.

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by Michael

Once a prosperous port, then a national capital (before the junta decamped to the woods of Nay Pyi Taw), Yangon remains the bustling metropolis of Myanmar. It’s often difficult to get around — our hotel advised taking a taxi to the bus station three hours ahead of departure due to the city’s sometimes horrific traffic. So to get started, we focused on the somewhat walkable city center.

Yes, that is a temple in a traffic circle.

Yangon, formerly Rangoon, was the place where much of Myanmar’s history took place. It was here that political rivals assassinated President Aung Sun, where students rioted over the treatment of the body of former UN Secretary General U Thant, and where Aung Sun Soo Kyi was under house arrest for decades.* I had some understanding of the country’s history (independence, military rule, elections voided by the military, new elections but uncertainty) but not the details. So I ended up seeing the relevant places before I learned more about their significance during our trip.

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by Elizabeth

We just wrapped up a full month in Myanmar!  Our visit was filled with explorations of ancient pagodas, trekking through bright green rice paddies, children waving and crying out “bye bye” before shyly hiding behind their parent when we waved back, and crunchy tea leaf salads.  The highs were offset (or potentially accentuated) by long, uncomfortable bus rides, painfully slow internet connections, and out of date information.

Hard to beat the view from the top of one of the many pagodas in Bagan.

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