Myanmar Lighting Festival Tour

Saturday 3^rd October – Yangon

• Arrive at your convenience into Yangon, the former capital and most populated city of Myanmar. It is well connected to Asia and Europe.
• Transfer to our centrally located hotel.
• Pre-tour meeting will be held at the lobby of our hotel at 6:00pm to discuss tour itinerary and to meet your fellow travellers and YPT guide.
• We’ll go and explore the nightlife of Yangon. For this we will need to go to Chinatown, or at least the Yangon version of it. There, we’ll find 6 real pub type places, as well as a plethora of BBQ joints selling beer and BBQ to the masses. The street food here is also some of the best in Yangon!
• Dinner and overnight in Yangon.

Sunday 4^th October – Yangon

• We’ll explore the city centre and its fabulous mix of architecture and sites. The streets are filled with historical buildings, many of which have a faded colonial charm not seen elsewhere in Asia. Learn about the fascinating history of the city as well as get a taste for the more modern side of the city.
• We will then head east for a walk around Kandawgyi Lake, originally an artificial reservoir built by the British to supply clean water to the city. On its surface floats the Karaweik Palace, shaped like a royal barge.
• Next is the Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda, home to a 66-metre-long reclining Buddha completed in 1973, notable for its detailed soles depicting the 108 marks of the Buddha.

Afternoon

• Lunch on some local delicacies.
• We will check out the Martyr’s Mausoleum, housing Aung San – father of modern Burma – and containing the remains of various people including the former Secretary-General U Thant, but more famous in recent history for being the site of an assassination attempt on the South Korean president by North Korean agents. It is only open one day per year, so we’ll see it from the outside.
• In the late afternoon, we will set off to see the sunset at the breathtaking Shwedagon Pagoda, one of the most beautiful sacred sites in all of Myanmar. The exterior of the stupa is plated with 8,688 solid gold slabs, its tip set with 5,448 diamonds and 2,317 rubies, sapphires and topaz. A huge emerald sits in the middle to catch the first and last rays of the sun.
• At the pagoda, we’ll observe local pilgrims and monks offering their devotions and enjoy the amazing sunset view.
• We’ll also enjoy more street food for dinner, and for those inclined, more drinks. Depending on the bar, one can get a local mixed drink for as little as $1.
• Overnight in Yangon.

Monday 5^th October – Yangon – Naypyidaw (The Ghost Town)

• After breakfast at the hotel, we will drive to Naypyidaw, (367km), which takes around 5 hours on the expressway. On the way, we’ll make some stop for refreshment.

Afternoon

• Naypyidaw is the capital city of Myanmar. It is 7,054 square kilometres in size, roughly four and a half times the size of London, but its population is only 924,608 people. With 20-lane highways and wide streets designed for a future of expansion, the city seems like a ghost town.
• We’ll explore the city and try to get a glimpse of buildings such as official residences of government ministries and military, the ministries itself (often well hidden behind big walls and trees), endless empty roads and lanterns. We might even be able to take a sneak peak at the parliament from the 20-lane highway.
• Similar in size to the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the 99-meter tall Uppātasanti Pagoda is impossible to miss. It houses a Buddha tooth relic and was completed in 2009 and offers stunning views over the plains around the city.
• Overnight in Naypyidaw. As an almost empty city, the nightlife there is quite… absent. But we’ll to visit the night market, one of the best spots of the new capital. It is the first day of the Thadingyut festival (Lighting festival). Buddhists celebrate to welcome the Buddha and his disciples by enlightening and festooning the streets, houses and public buildings with coloured electric bulbs or candles around the country.

Tuesday 6th October – Bagan

• After breakfast at the hotel, we’ll drive to Bagan, which will take around 4 hours. On the way, we will make some stops for refreshment and photos opportunities.

Afternoon

• Big city tour of Bagan, an ancient city steeped in history and home to the largest and densest concentration of Buddhist temples, pagodas, and ruins in the world.
• From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom. More than 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains at that time, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas survive. We’ll visit a selection of them.
• We’ll head to the river or hill viewpoint for sunset.
• In the evening, we’ll head to the Taw Pyi temple. This is the best spot for seeing locals sending off balloons to the sky amidst thousands of candles shining in front of the illuminated temple! You can send off your own balloons as well, often together with the friendly Burmese. It is the main day of the Lighting festival, so temples all over Bagan are illuminated and many people gather to celebrate.
• Overnight in Bagan.

Wednesday 7^th October – Bagan

• Our exploration of Bagan will continue today. We’ll start by visiting a busy local market in Bagan.
• More than just temples, our tour aims to provide you with a great overview of Bagan’s history, culture and local lifestyles. That’s why we’ll continue by visiting villages near Bagan to view the real way of life for most Myanmar people.

Afternoon

• Visit to the traditional lacquer ware workshop to observe the production of one of Myanmar’s best-known handicrafts.
• For those who like, we can make a 30-min stop at the view tower, which currently allows the highest view around the area and helps to understand the dimensions of Bagan (extra fee, around 5 USD).
• We’ll continue to Ananda Temple, a 900-year-old architectural masterpiece and one of Bagan’s most beautiful temples. We’ll enjoy an unforgettable sunset over the plains from one of the elevated viewpoints. Sit back, relax and be amazed by the beauty of Bagan as you watch the sun slowly set behind the ancient Pagodas.
• We will enjoy another evening of the lighting festival, the last official day, and see whether the traditional puppet show is on as well, telling popular traditional tales of Myanmar.
• Overnight in Bagan.

Thursday 8th October – Kalaw

• After breakfast, we’ll drive from Bagan to Kalaw (268km about 4-5hrs drive).
• Founded by the British in the early 20th century as a hill station, Kalaw offered colonial administrators and soldiers respite from the heat of the lowlands. Some of the original colonial-era houses, Anglican churches, and railway structures remain, giving the town a distinct character.

Afternoon

• Upon arrival at Kalaw, have a first glimpse and walk around town to soak in the vibe. The town still feels like a high-altitude holiday resort – the air is cool, the atmosphere is calm and the tree-lined streets still contain a smattering of colonial-era architecture.
• We will visit the Hnee Pagoda, home to a 500-year-old Bamboo Buddha image. The statue, crafted from interwoven bamboo and covered in gold leaf, is said to have been brought from Thailand by a wandering monk. Today, the pagoda also serves as a refuge, housing families fleeing the ongoing civil war. Getting to know to the real Myanmar means interacting with its people and they are incredibly open for it.
• Transfer to our hotel for check in.
• Dinner with a view over the valley and overnight in Kalaw.

Friday 9th October – Kalaw and Inle Lake

• In the morning, the heart of Kalaw is its market, where villagers from the surrounding hills come to sell their produce.
• We’ll then drive to Inle Lake to check in at our lakeside resort with own jetty and a massive wooden dining hall.

Afternoon

• After lunch overlooking the lake, we will visit the Shwe Indein Pagoda complex, one of the most evocative sites in the Inle region. Believed to date from the 17th century, though possibly older, it contains over a thousand stupas scattered across a hillside. Some have been restored, while others remain partly reclaimed by nature.
• The day will conclude with a sunset boat ride across the lake. Because the lake’s surface is covered with floating vegetation and narrow waterways, traditional rowing would have made it difficult to see ahead. Instead, the Intha men learned to stand at the stern of their narrow boats, wrapping one leg around the oar and using a single leg to row, leaving their hands free to handle fishing nets. This leg-rowing technique, both graceful and practical, is now a symbol of Inle Lake.
• Overnight at Inle Lake.

Saturday 10^th October – Inle Lake

• Optional: Hire a boat for sunrise at 6:00am and get the best possible atmosphere and photo opportunities for the fisherman that come out early in the morning, balancing on one leg and rowing with the other while throwing their net out. There is no other place on earth where you can see this (extra fee, around $5).
• Today will be entirely devoted to exploring Inle Lake by boat. The lake, stretching over 20 kilometres in length and home to around 70,000 people, is a vast, living landscape of floating villages, temples, and markets.
• Our first stop will be the Nga Phe Chaung Monastery, one of the oldest and most venerated wooden monasteries on the lake. The monastery was founded in 1850 and built almost entirely from teak on stilts rising above the water. Inside, it houses a notable collection of Shan-style Buddha images, some dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries, brought from surrounding villages for safekeeping.
• We will sail through the Kay La village, then across a fishermen’s village, and arrive to Khit Sunn Yin, a weaving workshop renowned for its production of lotus-fibre textiles. We’ll also visit the Ngwe Zin Yaw cheroot workshop, where women hand-roll traditional Burmese cigars.

Afternoon

• After a local lunch, we’ll visit the Phaung Daw Oo Pagoda, the principal religious site on the lake and one of the most important in Shan State. The pagoda in its current form largely dates to the late 18th century.
• Our last stop of the day, and certainly the most meaningful, will be our encounter with long-neck Padaung women. Originally from Kayah State, many Padaung have been displaced by the civil war. They will tell us about their life and traditions.
• Overnight at Inle Lake.

Sunday 11^th October – Mandalay

• After breakfast at the hotel, we will drive to Mandalay. It is a 5-6 hours-long drive, so we’ll make sure to stop on the way at some local villages for refreshments.

Group A members:

• On arrival in Mandalay, tour concludes with airport drop-off arranged according to your flight details – YPT is also able to arrange advice for flights.

Group B members:

• Our patience will be rewarded as we arrive at Mandalay in the late afternoon and drive to the top of Mandalay Hill as the sun begins to set to enjoy magnificent views of the city and Irrawaddy River.
• Dinner and overnight in Mandalay.

Monday 12^th October – Mandalay (Group B only)

• After breakfast at the hotel, we will visit local artisans’ workshops of gold leaf making, tapestries, woodcarving and marble carving. Many of the techniques used to create these have remained unchanged since the times when they were used to craft items for the Royal Court.
• In the afternoon, visit the beautiful Golden palace teak monastery, the only remaining building from the 19th century Royal Palace. This grand teak building is known for its exquisite woodcarving.
• We’ll continue to the Kuthodaw Pagoda, which is known as “the world’s biggest book” due to the Buddhist scripture carved on 729 marble slabs.
• Before sunset, we’ll visit a 200-year-old teak bridge, the world’s longest teak bridge built by Mayor U-Bein. It is one of the most photogenic sights of the country and not to be missed.

Tuesday 13th October – Mandalay (Group B only)

• After breakfast, will transfer to the jetty and you’ll board a private local boat for a trip up the Irrawaddy river to Mingun (45 min each way).
• There, we’ll visit the Mingun Bell, the world’s largest intact bronze bell, the unfinished Mingun Pagoda (built with the intention of being the world’s biggest pagoda) and the Hisnbyume Pagoda, a white-washed temple built to resemble Mount Meru.
• Throughout Mingun there are small neighborhoods crafting traditional basketry and other artistic items and there is plenty of time to stop and interact with the craftsmen and friendly locals.
• Back to Mandalay for our farewell dinner
• Overnight in Mandalay.

Wednesday 14th October – Mandalay (Group B only)

• Breakfast at hotel
• Tour concludes with transfer at the Mandalay International airport arranged according to your flight details – YPT is also able to arrange advice for flights.