Hey there,

My husband and I spent 9 days in Myanmar this past December. We had an amazing trip and I'm finally posting about it on my blog [http://kristinpotenti.com/blog/our-f...ical-gardens/] . There's just one post now but I'll continue to post trip details over the next few weeks. I arranged the trip partially on my own and partially through Green Myanmar Travel Agency. I highly recommend them. They made our visa on arrival procurement very smooth, the driver they arranged was wonderful and the trekking from Kalaw to Inle Lake arranged through them was my favorite part of the trip.

The following was our itinerary
Day 1 Flew DMK (Bangkok) to Mandalay, drove to Pyin Oo Lwin & stayed overnight
Day 2 Took the train from Pyin Oo Lwin over the Viaduct and then drove to Hsipaw; explored Hsipaw and stayed overnight
Day 3 Day trek from Hsipaw to a Palaung (pronounced Palaw) village (17km distance mostly uphill)
Day 4 Drove from Hsipaw to Mandalay- sunset at U-Bein Bridge
Day 5 Flew Mandalay to Bagan (30 minute flight)
Day 6 Bagan
Day 7 Flew Bagan to Heho; GM Travel picked us up at the airport and we drove directly to begin our trek just outside Kalaw; Spent the day trekking and stayed overnight in a Pa'o village
Day 8 Trekking from Pa'O village to Inle Lake
Day 9 Inle Lake
Day 10 Departed from Heho

I'm happy to answer any questions if you're thinking of doing a similar itinerary.

Best,
Kristin

Stunning photographs!

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

We will be visiting Bagan and Inle lake this time next year.

Hi Kristin, we also enjoyed the gardens in Pyin U Lwin. I wasn't much impressed with the town itself, as it was so overrun with military.

Glad you had such a good time, I enjoyed your photos.

I enjoyed your photography/tips as well as your blog. My plan is to fly to Burma and tour the country and then to Thailand and end on one of the sleepy islands. Giving myself a month for it all. Still working on how to arrange the trip...either spontaneously or through travel agents. Traveling on my own, I hope to travel budget and stay at small guest houses where I can meet people. All the best and thanks again!

Nice photos! You only took the train part way from Pyin OO Lwin to Hspiaw? Wish I had thought to do that. Did you just pick up a driver at that point or did you arrange in advance to be met? We ended up skipping the train ride to Hsipaw and I am sorry that we did. Although the drive was pretty interesting. At one point we did see the viaduct in the distance.

Somehow we missed the viewing tower at the gardens which I thought lovely. There wasn't a whole lot to the town, but we did not see military anywhere. We were in Pyin OO Lwin on a Sunday maybe that made a difference.

Looking forward to reading more about your trip.

Lovely photos! Thanks for posting the link.

Wow - there are times when you don't see military in Pyin U Lwin? There is at least one military University and many of the generals have built McMansions there. They were pulling down some of the old Englsh cottages while we were there. We ran into military in the market, at the temples and some in the gardens. You can see why we felt overrun.

@Kathie -- I would have hated that. I vaguely remember the military university. We saw mostly families enjoying a beautiful day.

Unfortunately we have to choose between Bagan and Lake Inle. Can you give me some insights to help make the decision?
Thank you,
JAT

jat600, Since the OP hasn't posted since this report, you would be better off to start your own thread to get some feedback on your question. You will get better answers if you can tell us what you are interested in seeing/doing/experiencing in Myanmar.