I have to say it m surprised by your experience at Tune KLIA we stayed there maybe 4 times last year and only had one problem - damp sheets! Apart from that, which was soon rectified with a change of bedding. Although it did take three staff to change the bed and one manager to supervise.

One time, on check in we were concerned to arrive just in front of a Chinese tour group - rowdy to put it mildly! Expressed my concern to the receptionist and she assured me that they had a "special floor" for the Chinese! Otherwise, the bus were comfortable, wifi good and even had some decent to channels

As for the lack of beer, that is totally unacceptable. Perhaps even more concerning than the anySame happened to us. I don't care if it was Ramadan there should still be beer in an airport hotel!

the any - should read the ants!

Now that I'm back home and settled back to my normal routine, I'm picking this report up again. Thank you for bringing so many corners of SE Asia that I haven't visited yet to life for me.

Glad to hear your leg is better! I hope the cold passes soon, too.

Still following your adventures -- and your experience with the Tune Hotel is a definite low point! Ants - ewwww! Not what you want to be having such an intimate experience with!

Enjoy your return to Myanmar! I'm sure you will get a wonderful welcome from your friends.

Thanks for your replies.


Ahh, Mandalay. It's fast becoming my second home, and the welcome at Peacock Lodge was indeed like a homecoming. Now is the low season, so the room price is USD $35 per night, a bargain for Myanmar. The lodge has only 4 out of nine rooms occupied, but I lucked in with a young Swiss couple, and a delightful French couple who were really good company for the many hours when it was simply too hot to do anything. Temperatures are nudging 42 C most days, and I'm melting.

The owner of Peacock lodge had some errands to run in town, so I gave him my phone and 5000 kyat, and am now connected with fast internet. The company is Ooredoo, there are top up cards available everywhere.

I've happily noticed a few changes, 60th street is now paved (apparently the house owners fund half of the cost, the government picks up the rest) which is a double edged sword as the motorbikes now go fast. At the lodge a pavilion sits where previously a colonial era horse drawn carriage sat. The carriage is out the back.

My days consist of visiting the school, having lunch with the teachers, and dinner at the lodge, also with various teachers. With two teacher friends we went on a mission to buy a silver gift for my house sitter, then to Mingalar Mandalay a new shopping mall for some window shopping. I bought only toothpaste, but was tempted by some stylish linen shirts for around $30....

A group of six joined me in a visit to U Bein bridge for sunset and dinner. The water levels are extremely low, unusually so. Tun (owner of Peacock Lodge) told me not to eat fish there. He explained that the fishermen used to stun the fish with low level dynamite, but that has been banned. They now use poison... Don't eat the fish ! Where we did eat there was no lighting, eating in the dark !

Next up, I'm invited to a Nat ceremony at the mother's house of a teacher friend.

The Nats are 37 different people's spirits, all are said to have met a violent or gruesome death. From what I can gather, Nat worshippers are mostly rural folk. It's an adjunct to Buddhism and the younger generation is less inclined to believe. M is a teacher within the MEDG (Monastic Education Development Group) a division of Phaung Daw Oo. This is the group that teaches teachers. It is his mother's house that I've been invited to for lunch today.

The all purpose chef/handyman/taxi driver from Peacock lodge dropped me at the school, where M met me and we walked the 800 or so meters to his mums house. The black patches on the road were not water, the bitumen was melting. Have I mentioned how hot it is ?

The story goes that the mother of M had been promised at a previous ceremony that she would be able to buy her own home. If she achieved that, she must hold a ceremony to give thanks. This was the thanksgiving ceremony. I have no idea how she made the house purchase happen, the father of M had a stroke two years ago, is disabled and can no longer walk or work as a driver.

Anyways, well before we reached the house, I could hear the music.
In the front yard (about nine square meters) a huge sound system was set up, there were six male musicians playing two drums, many brass cymbals surrounded by an ornate gold coloured circular structure, a horn, plus a female singer. There was a table set up altar style, which had piles of fruit and vegetables, cooked chickens and other meats, cans of soft drinks, bottles of whiskey, many flowers and wooden statues of what I guess are images of the Nats.

The dancers were all women, each performed solo and changed into amazing costumes in the front room of the house where I lurked in the doorway. The makeup and hair decorations were colourful and intricate, but the dances OMG were entrancing. The first one I saw involved two large swords, I watched as people gave cash to the dancer, one note for each hand/sword. Of course I joined in with the cash giving, was invited to dance, and eventually was blessed by a gift from the third performer. There are 37 different performances, and the ceremony runs over two days from 10 am to 10 pm.

The next dancer went trance like, several audience members wailed and cried along, one even collapsing dramatically. This time the cash notes were folded into a triangle shape and stuck in the hair decorations. The third dancer I watched gifted four audience members (me included) with different items. Mine were boiled sweets and quite delicious. I'm keeping some for the next flight, damn you head cold.

By this stage I have noise pollution in the extreme, and it's really really hot, 44 C, feels like 100 C. We decamp to an air conditioned restaurant, M explaining that they hadn't had time to cook lunch, but not before I bought ice creams (100 kyat each) for several kids from a mobile (bicycle) vendor.

Today is my wedding anniversary, 22 years, if I have to be several thousand miles away from DH, there's probably no better way to spend it. Serendipity.

Tonight I ate at the lodge sharing a meal with the Swiss and French couples.

Tomorrow, we head for the hills.

Wha a wonderful opportunity to experience the Nat worship. We saw nat shrines at a number of the villages we stopped at on the Chindwin cruise.

Enjoying your report!

This report keeps getting better and better. Thank you for sharing.
And Happy Anniversary too!

Happy Anniversary to you and yours. As someone of Chinese heritage, nat worship, as you're describing it, reminds me very much of our ancestor worship traditions.

Thanks for your replies and anniversary wishes.

To the northern part of Shan state and the mountains, in other words Hsipaw or Thibaw. There seems to be at least two different spellings for every place in Myanmar except Mandalay.....it's always Mandalay.

I wanted to go to Hsipaw on our last visit to Myanmar but it didn't happen. This time, it's sorted. I had offered to pay for transport, accommodation and food for any of the teachers who wanted to go. On Sunday morning at 8.30 am a Toyota Hi Ace mini bus (circa 1986) arrived. Six teachers, a baby who will have his first birthday in two weeks, an excellent driver and me set off for the five hour drive to Hsipaw. We stopped for coffee, tea or milkshakes just outside of Pyin Oo Lwin in a rest area. It had thatch roofed pavilions and the cleanest and best bathroom facilities I've seen outside of a five star hotel. My crew are looking after me.

Driving in Myanmar is nightmarish...it's de rigeur to overtake around blind corners, or undertake using the edge of the road. The Oriental Highway connects Mandalay to China and is filled with heavy vehicles hauling goods of all sorts. Forget any western concept of long vehicle, over height vehicle, over weight vehicle, yada yada. The many hairpin turns as we climbed or descended were often queued as the trucks needed the whole two lane road to take the bend.

Here are some of the most considerate drivers I've ever seen, along with some of the least considerate drivers I've ever seen. Need a pee ? Stop on a bend blocking all traffic. Most of the heavy vehicles would use their indicators to suggest whether the road ahead was safe for overtaking. We are in a right hand drive underpowered mini bus, driving on the right side of the road, so it's hard for the driver to see what's ahead. In the front passenger seat I became "lookout" using a thumbs up for "go for it" or a frantic hand flap (and one time a little scream) for no. A few times we had to turn off the aircon to help the car cope with the climbs.

We turned off the main road and drove about 30 minutes down a very poorly made dirt road to a viewpoint overlooking the Goteik viaduct. Here the crew had Shan noodles in a tin hut, I didn't trust the food, and opted for just a soft drink. In the spirit of "timing is everything " a train soon turned up. This is Goteik station, the walk down to the station was steep, maybe 300 meters, I stayed at the top with three of my crew, the others trekked down.

Here there were no foreigners apart from me, many stares from a few other Myanmar tourists, including a bunch of monks. I feel very blessed to see this side of Myanmar.

Arriving in Hsipaw is a bit frustrating..... We can't find the hotel I'd booked, no one on the street knows where it is, and Google maps doesn't work. Eventually at 17.30 we find La Residence, and wait for maybe 30 minutes to check in, because the one person able to do the paperwork was not around. Do not book this hotel. It is possibly the worst hotel experience I've had in 20 years. More about this later.

Next, we take a day trip to Lashio, experience an epic storm, rescue a driver from a car that has slid off the road, and there's another ant encounter !

Glad you're getting to see an "undiscovered" part of Burma even with what sounds like a partially-terrifying trip on the roads. Since your last visit, are you finding larger tourist crowds in a place such as Mandalay?

"It is possibly the worst hotel experience I've had in 20 years." Of course, we all need to hear about this.

I love all the little details about Myanmar. Hsipaw is a place I'd like to see as well. There is a small museum there of tribal artifacts. Have you read Twilight over Burma (My life as a Shan Princess)?

TP it's low season at the moment, due to the heat (even the natives are saying it's unseasonably hot). I'm back at Peacock Lodge, and the only guest.

Kathie, I haven't read that book, will look out for it. I wish I'd known about the museum, my research was poor for this visit to Hsipaw. We tried twice to see the palace of King Thibaw, but each time the gates were locked. Apparently an old woman who's a descendant of the King lives there alone, I hope she's okay.

La Residence hotel in Hsipaw is up there with the worst hotel experience I've ever had. I can think of one flea pit in London that was worse, but that was in 1986 and cost considerably less.

My Burmese friends were also very disappointed, and that says a lot. I paid USD $36 for one bungalow, and $32 for each of three double rooms. That was all that was available. The double rooms have a private bathroom, but they're not attached to the room, a fact not mentioned on booking.com. There was only a dribble of water pressure. Outside is an open air bar/restaurant sitting under a high tin roof, at least they had cushions on the chairs. This area got busy late afternoon with local men, there were no other guests.

We went looking for dinner, these guys eat a lot, and settled on Law Chun McFood a Chinese restaurant. The meal was good, the beer cold and the service great from Mr McFood. Many times I would hear one of the teachers say "it's Caroline's time, we all must speak English" that usually lasted about 10 minutes....

It was crash time.

Kathie, i missed answering your question about AirAsia. I booked KUL to MDL on one ticket, and there was a transfer desk at DMK so I didn't have to go through immigration. I don't have any checked luggage, but presume they would transfer that (probably for a fee).

Lashio (pronounced lar sho) is the capital city of Shan state and about 90 minutes drive from Hsipaw. We set off at 9.00 after a miserable breakfast- the two choices were western (eggs either fried, scrambled or omelette, plus 3 slices of stale bread) or Shan noodle soup plus a few pieces of fruit, and one (only one) packet of instant coffee.

The drive through the mountains was again scenic and manic, the trees are majestic, perhaps a legacy of the British colonial era. In Lashio we visited the Man Su temple, and all paid our respects to our "day of the week" animal shrine. I'm Wednesday morning born, so my animal is elephant with tusks, three of my crew are Thursday born, which is the red mouse, we also have a tiger amongst us, a dragon and two lions. The temples all have 8 shrines, to configure with the square nature of them, so Wednesday is split into two, elephant with and without tusks.

Next up was the central bazaar. My watch had stopped at 6.15 this morning, I assumed the battery needed replacing, so we found a watch guy and left if with him. I bought an embroidered shirt, where my friends bargained the price down from 19k kyat to 17k kyat. Lunch was at a hole in the wall restaurant with the usual fare of several different vegetable stir fries, soup, chicken and rice.

We picked up my watch, apparently something apart from the battery needed replacing. It was fascinating watching the jeweller pull it apart, cleaning the face of scratches, and reassembling it in a grimy little stall with thin drawers full of tools and spare parts. Cost was 9.5k kyat.

The couple with the baby who'd joined us were here in Lashio 2 years ago when there were violent clashes between Buddhists and Muslims, including a bomb. It's terrible that these ethnic tensions continue. The city has many Chinese folk, ethnic Shan, Baman and Muslims. There is a rather impressive mosque, which didn't interest my friends.

About half way back to Hsipaw the rain started, big heavy drops so typical of the tropics. The driver noticed a car off the road in the jungle. He stopped, and we all ran back to see if we could help. The car was perched a bit precariously, so while the driver and our one male teacher held onto the car, the women and I helped the driver climb out. He was shaken, but otherwise unhurt. By this time others had stopped and found large pieces of wood to chock the car. We were all drenched.

In the spirit of "bringing reality home" we drove quite a bit slower back to Hsipaw. Arriving at around 15.00 it was clear that the storm had been quite violent, large tree branches were down and pieces of twisted metal awnings were scattered around.

We went to the Kings palace gates, but they were locked. Back to the hotel to ask for suggestions of things to do with the rest of the afternoon. The crew settled on a visit to a waterfall. That usually means climbing and with the wet ground, I decided to stay at the hotel and catch up on my notes.

The outdoor area had been drenched, so no cushion for me. The power was out, so no aircon in the room. That's when the rain of ants started. These were not the relatively benign sugar ants from the Tune Hotel, these were large light brown bitey ants. They really did sting, so I spent the next hour checking myself constantly, many ants died.

Okay, the power outage due to the storm was not the hotels fault. However....there is a generator, but at the time no one strong enough to use the hand crank to start it. I could have found a man on the street to do that, as they could have, they were just too stingy to run it. The receptionist said they would turn it on at night time, and sure enough the loudest generator in the world coughed into life at dusk. Shortly afterwards the power came back on, I retreated into the room for some aircon, only to find water all over the floor, and the room not made up ! None of our rooms were serviced, and that was apparently our fault because we didn't put out the "make up my room" sign. There was no hot water. When I asked why, the staff looked at me like I was a looney, and replied "it's summer". Right.

There was no pool table (as described by Booking.com) I thought it would be fun to play 8 ball with the crew, nope. The wifi worked for about 3 minutes.
When the crew returned I bought beers to share with the driver and our lone male teacher, while the women went shopping.

I complained, and explained that if they wanted to attract western tourists they needed to offer some basic services. To their credit they comped us one drink each and a few plates of snacks. By now I just wanted to go to bed, no dinner was had.

Tomorrow I'm dreading the drive back to Mandalay, we see another car off the road with likely a much more dire outcome, the aircon in the car stops working, and I have a minor meltdown.

Thanks for the Air Asia info.

Wow - that is a terrible hotel experience... and for that they comped you a drink? They needed to have comped each of you a night, IMO. Anyway, I expect the booking.com info will look different after your review.

As always, looking forward to the next installment.

Kathie, to be clear the room cost was for a total of two nights, so $18 and $16 respectively. In the spirit of "you get what you pay for" I was probably being a cheapskate. If I'd not paid for the rooms as requested while the crew were at the waterfall, we would have moved.


After another miserable breakfast identical to yesterday's, we checked out, loaded the car and tried to visit the Kings palace. The gates were again locked.

It was 9.00 am, very hot at 39 C and we were parked in the sun, this is when the aircon broke. The two guys tinkered trying to fix the aircon. There was no power getting to it thru the 30 year old switches. I got out of the car, sat on a concrete bollard in the shade and considered my options. I asked if there's an airport in Hsipaw (kinda knowing there wasn't) the nearest is Lashio.

I am adamant that I'm not driving for many many hours in an unaircondtioned car. It's not only the heat, it's also the exhaust fumes. In a country where emission control doesn't exist, they're sickening, not to mention dust from the third lane. I know it's not cool to lose your temper in many SE Asian countries, but there were a few four letter words (which even the driver understood) and maybe a foot stamp.

We searched out a mechanic who could fix the aircon. If I had known this would take two and a half hours, I would have asked them to drop me and the other women at Mr Charles Hotel, where we could wait in the lobby. Hindsight, a wonderful thing after the fact. As it was, we took a tour of mechanics, auto electricians and aircon repair centres in the ever increasing heat. I don't think I've ever been so hot.

At 11.30, aircon fixed, we lumbered out of Hsipaw and visited Bao Kho pagoda, another large and beautifully decorated temple. Continuing on, we came across a group of people standing at the side of the road. We parked up, and went to see what was going on. I could have, and should have stayed in the car, but when in Myanmar.... The concrete safety barrier was missing a section of about 3 meters, and about 30 meters down the steep embankment a crumpled minivan just like ours was wedged amongst some trees. Lucky that the trees stopped them there, it was many more meters to the train line below. The contents of the minivan were scattered around, bystanders told us an ambulance had collected the occupants. I really hope they're okay, but can almost guarantee they wouldn't have been wearing seat belts, and that means human projectiles.

Even more concerned now about the drive home, the drop offs in some sections are hundreds of meters, and surely not survivable if you're forced off the road, which is probably what happened to the crumpled wreck.

I have heat exhaustion, still the head cold, and now I feel even worse because the baby has my virus. At least the leg has healed.

Next, a stop for visiting a friend in Kyauk Mai town, lunch at a local restaurant, and the longest 30 km drive of my life.

Gosh. What a rough few days. I hope it turns around for you quickly, but please be safe at least.

Very much sympathy! Sometimes you can get too authentic!

I just found your wonderful trip report, and I'm loving reading it. But I do hope you feel better very soon.

I understand better now, Satoric. I'm sorry you had such a rough trip to Hsipaw. It does tell me that if I go, I want the best guesthouse in town and a reliable vehicle... both not always easy to find. The heat makes everything harder.

Take care of yourself and feel better soon.