Hiking from Hsipaw to Htansant village

Breakfast at 7 AM this morning and then off to Lilys'. We left our big luggage there, and our guide showed up. Small guy, difficult to guys his age but first impressions included very good English. Then we headed out of town in a big tuk-tuk - our guide, the driver and the eight of us who were going to hike today. Cloudy morning but it was OK since that also meant lower temperatures for hiking up the hills.

The next two hours were spent, slowly walking up the road, passing through a couple of villages taking time to say hello, take some photos, enjoy the country side and basically have a great time. Our group was a mix of people from Switzerland, Italy, France, the UK and us from Denmark. Some on holiday in Myanmar for a couple of weeks, others on longer trips.

We stopped at the "junction" after about two hours into our 7 hour hike with the option to stay on the road and meet more tourists but take the easy hike or go on a smaller footpath and have it all to ourselves - but with some more up and downhill. We chose the "harder" hike and spent the next couple of hours hiking through some amazing landscapes having it all to ourselves.

And lets not forget our guide. Not only was his English really good, he had grown up in the village we were heading to and had an amazing knowledge about the area, plants, flowers, Myanmar in general and after a while he also told us he had just turned 24.

Being rather exhausted we had lunch break at 2 PM for around an hour, local food with rice and vegetables and the option to lie down on a mattress and stretch the sore body. The sun broke through the clouds in the afternoon and the last part of the hike was a little easier and we made it to Htansant Village just before 5 PM. The first ones to greet us was a small group of Myanmar Army soldiers hanging out in front of the local store.

Our guide hadn't told us that recently there had been fighting "some three hours away" which in local speak is fairly close. So close that when we heard a small explosion he stopped dead in his track to determine whether it was from the local mine near Hsipaw or from a RPG. So much for peaceful hiking Myanmar.

We went to the place where we would sleep for the night, got our mattresses and left the day packs to go our and look at the village, all the kids playing outside the houses and also pay a visit to the monastery.

Once done with the photos we headed back to relax and an early dinner. We sat outside the house after dinner at the fireplace and heard our guide tell stories about village life and how he had grown up in Htansant village and then in a monastery in Mandalay before returning home to work as a tourist guide. It really felt like being from another planet listening to him. Early to bed since we were tired, the village was completely silent at 9 PM and pitch black dark except for a few lights inside some of the houses. No public electricity here so they rely on a bit of solar and batteries.

6 AM - All packed for two days of hiking

On our way to Lily's hotel

Ready to start the hike

Locals working the fields

The view from the top of the mountain

Hungry hikers

Tired guide

Hiking the last bit to Htansant village

Group photo at the local monastery

Horses coming home for the night

Warm clothes for cold evenings in the mountains

Dinner

Mandalay to Hsipaw in a shared taxi

The nice ladies at the reception asked us last night if it was OK to share the back seat of the taxi with another customer. Of course. It also meant we were quite certain to share with two others. Maybe back packers.

Breakfast at the hotel, get all our stuff from the room, head down to taxi, and then out in busy Mandalay traffic. First stop some kind of office for our driver. He left without a word and came back ten minutes later giving us some time to look at Mandalay morning life this morning. Then we headed out into the suburbs and he started to call and - presumably - ask for directions. Then more waiting before a monk and a local guy appeared, loaded bags in the trunk and got in the car - one of them. Then we drove off. Next stop same routine, except we picked up a young monk. We spent a little more than an hour on the two pick ups.

Then we headed towards Hsipaw - our destination - maybe some six hours away from Mandalay. The first hour with busy traffic, lots of big trucks hauling goods to and from the Chinese border some days of driving away. The roads here a small and not really designed for this kind of traffic but our driver managed to overtake on the right places and after a couple of hours we had our first stop - some small town on the road where we pulled over, our driver got out and left without a word. So we hung out around the car, the monk still sitting in there paying attention to his smart phone and the other customer heading for early lunch.

It also gave us the opportunity to observe something we haven't seen anywhere else on the planet - "Car watering". A car would park in front of the restaurant, the driver would get out, find an available hose, open for the water and start to rinse the wheels - presumably to cool the brakes and then open the hood to the engine and jam the hose down there with the water running and leave for his break - our driver did exactly the same. We made jokes about them making sure that the thirsty elephant got enough to drink at the stops along the way and cars must need the same. Only in Myanmar.

We left and drove further towards Hsipaw, stopping just one other time, about an hour away from the town, this time in the early afternoon and Mikkel went from a cautious lunch. Didn't want to wake the dragon from yesterday and then also in need of food.

We arrived at the hostel at around 3 PM, got our room at "Mr. Charles" place and once done with the practicalities of arriving we went outside to look for a day trip to the mountains with perhaps the option to stay at a local family for the night. Turned out all the guides didn't return until 4 PM, so no one to sell in the mean time. So we went for a walk and realised just how small Hsipaw is. When we came back the guides where there, including a lot of other back packers. After some time we managed to get in contact with one of them and get half the explanation about the trip options. Turned out that we were the first one to commit ourselves to the two day hike starting tomorrow, so it was only when there was a group of 4-7 persons that the price would be 30.000 Kyat per person. It took a while to find out if they would do the trip with only the two of us and what the price would be then.

We left for another walk around town having signed up for the trip but not having paid. Among all the two story houses in town there are a few bigger and way newer buildings standing out - one of them being the high rise hotel called "Lily the home". We went in and spoke to Lily, she had a trip starting tomorrow and the group would only be 6-8 persons going on another trail than the rest of the tourists. We signed up and paid and headed back to our room at Mr. Charles place, telling the guides there that we were not going tomorrow. Early start tomorrow, and packing for an overnight stay as well tonight.

Mandalay view from our hotel room

Our shared taxi

Another shared taxi

The car is thirsty - we think

Down and up narrow roads

Back to local food for lunch

Checking out the local market in Hsipaw

Also checking out the local shakes

And the local sunset

Mandalay Palace visit and a very slow day

We both woke up this morning feeling sick - like some kind of food poisoning. No need to figure out where the source was we stayed in the room all morning, skipped breakfast and well, enjoyed the comfort of our own private bathroom.

So much for any plans, we just needed a bit of time to come back to normal. It also meant the we gave up on any plans to go for train tickets for the 4 AM departure tomorrow. Instead we forced ourselves on a very slow walk around 2 PM towards the Mandalay Palace which the nice people at the hotel told us would close around 4 PM. We didn't have energy to hurry, so we walked slowly towards the giant moat that circles the entire complex and headed down towards the main- and only entrance.

It almost took an hour to get there, the walk being way longer than we anticipated. To our joy the lady at the ticket office said that they didn't close until 5 PM or later, so we had plenty of time to walk around inside the palace area. And we didn't have to show our passports.

Most of the walled area is off limits to foreigners but the palace is great. We spent almost a full hour walking around the various buildings, the lazy afternoon sun breaking through the clouds and us trying to muster whatever energy was left in our bodies. Mikkel managed to climb the watch tower - all 121 steps and get some good photos of Mandalay from there.

Then we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel, go for a late siesta nap, and for dinner go to the big supermarket in Diamond Plaza mall to see what they had to offer. Much to our surprise it was amazingly we stocked with everything including yoghurt - from Germany. Must have for dinner, along with a few other snacks and some apples. Let's see if the stomach can come back to normal. Also on the list - try out the ATM's in the mall. The hotel ATM we tried in the afternoon was no success, but we had a few others in the mall that might give us money. Malene was to first to try and once she'd managed to go through all the prompts and entered the amount the ATM started to count down from 60 to 0 - and then nothing. Then it just continued to count up and after 8 more seconds decided to spew out money. Mikkel tried the same and somehow the transaction was only 5 seconds in total this time - still with money coming out.

Loaded with 600.000 Kyat in brand new 10.000 Kyat notes (yes, we fell quite rich here) we headed home with our expensive made-in-Germany yoghurt. So much for sustainability tonight. 8:30 AM shared taxi booked for tomorrow. To go to Hsipaw.

Good morning Mandalay

Walking along the impressive moat of the Royal Palaca

Main gate

Gold covered royal palace - as they are supposed to be

The Queen and the King

View from the top of the watch tower

Dinner when you are a bit broken