Shan State - Burma Travel Information

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Shan State is situated in North-East Burma and captures about a quarter of the geographic land size of the country. The state is the most mountainous area in Burma, which makes it the area with the most reasonable weather during the hot season.

A small tip: the preferred order to visit in the Shan State is a bus drive to Hsipaw, then a bus drive to Pyin U Lwin and from there return to Mandalay by pick-up. The reason for it is that the purchase of a bus ticket from Pyin U Lwin to Hsipaw is very expensive. For some reason the prices are much lower in the opposite direction.

Another part of Shan State is Inle Lake, which you can read about separately.

Hsipaw

The village Hsipaw is a small and friendly village, about 200 km north eastern to Mandalay. The village itself is not especially impressive, but its surrounding area is interesting for traveling and what make it special is the people that leave there.

In the past the area was an independent state (the Shan State). The last days of this princedom are documented in a book written by the Austrian wife of the Shan’s last prince. The book is called “twilight in Burma: my life as Shan’s princess”. The princedom reached its tragic end when the army took over Burma, the prince was kidnapped and disappeared and the princess escaped the country in 1962.

The travelers that came to the place couldn’t pronounce the people’s names, and so started the traveler’s custom to call the people in various “Mister” nickname. Thus you can meet Mister Charles the hotel owner, Mister Donald the Shan’s royalty descendant, Mister Food, Mister Rice and Mister Book (which you can guess what they are selling).

To tour the area you can join the daily tours of Mister Charles. The recommended tour is the tour that he does with a boat along the river, but usually the tour is more standard and on foot. The on foot tours are free of charge. During the wet season (or right after) the tour will include beautiful waterfalls, that are getting dried during the dry season.

Mister Donald is the nephew of the last prince of Shan’s princedom. Mister Donald leaves in the former royal palace, and receives guests every day at 16:00 to talk about his family history and the politics of Burma. Very interesting! There is no need to coordinate your arrival in advance.

In summary - it is worthwhile coming to the village, to visit Mister Donald, next day to go on Mister Charles’ daily tour and then continue to Pyin U Lwin. Quiet lovers will even want to stay longer.

Pyin U Lwin - Maymyo

This village was built as a recreation village because of its pleasant weather (the village is situated 1070 meters above sea level). The village offers the travelers a blessed break because it is very different for the rest of Burma. The village is located about 67 km eastern to Mandalay.

In the area there are few things worthwhile doing, so don’t go there as a day tour! It is recommended to stay at least 2 days.

It is recommended to dedicate one day to tour the village, and to enter the impressive botanical gardens. The gardens gave us the impression of British gardens that are going through a Burmese invasion. It is recommended to do the tour with bicycle that cost about 300 Kyat a day.

It is worthwhile dedicating another day to the Anisakan Falls. Don’t get confused with Paw Kaok Falls which are less pretty. To get there you need to catch a pickup that goes towards Mandalay, and get down after about 8 km at Anisakan village. From there you need to walk along the road and then along a trail that leads to the falls. The way down is long and the way up is even longer. But the falls are simply worth it!

Another thing to pay attention to is the unique transportation in the village – carriages that looks like small models of the carriages of British’s nobles.

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