Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Shan Market
2km northeast of Purcell Tower, Mandalay-Lashio Rd • Daily 6am-4pm
Startthemorningatthebustling
ShanMarket
ontheeasternsideoftown,atitsbestbetween
6.30am and 8am. Originally, Shan farmers gathered here to sell their produce because of the
market'sproximitytotheirvillageseastofPyinOoLwin.Whileit'sstillagreatplacetovisit,
rents have risen and the majority of stallholders and customers are now Yunnanese migrants
- the Shan have moved to a muddy lane 1km further east along the Mandalay-Lashio Road.
Circular Road and the suburbs
CircularRoad
(or Myo Part Lan in Burmese) started life as a forest ride for British officers.
Today the leafy thoroughfare inscribes a semicircle around the eastern half of Pyin Oo Lwin,
leading south from the Shan Market and the main Mandalay-Lashio Road into the wealth-
ier suburbs and the richest seams of colonial buildings. Of particular note are the buttercup
yellow
Seventh-dayAdventistChurch
on Cherry Street, and the half-timbered
No.4Basic
Education High School
(formerly St Michael's), a missionary school for Anglo-Burmese
students.
The British government departments were clustered on
Yone Paung Sone Street
. Several
attractive colonial-era offices still occupy similar government functions today - the former
Survey Office is now the Myanmar Survey Training Centre, and across the road the old
Forestry Department is today's Myanmar Forest School.
It'salsoworthseekingouttheold
Candacraig
and
Croxton
hotels,bothformerlycompany
guesthouses of the Bombay Burmah Trading Company that operated as state-run hotels until
they were privatized in 2013. Both properties were closed for renovation at the time of re-
search.
Chan Tak Temple
Forest Rd • Daily 6am-6pm • 09 204 5570
Despite its relative newness,
Chan Tak Temple
is a classically styled Chinese complex, its
ornate halls and pagoda set among attractive gardens and replete with flying eaves and con-
crete dragons. The temple's dining hall serves a vegetarian buffet at lunchtime (10am-1pm),
making it a pleasant spot for a break.
National Kandawgyi Gardens
Nandar Rd, 4km southeast of Purcell Tower • Daily 8am-6pm (some attractions close at 5.30pm, and staff may
be reluctant to let you in after 5pm) • K5000 • 085 22497 •
Horse-drawn carriages
cost K10,000
Pyin Oo Lwin's major visitors' attraction, the
National Kandawgyi Gardens
, was estab-
lished in 1915-17, when hundreds of Turkish prisoners of war were put to work excavating
thecentral
KandawgyiLake
andlandscapingitssurroundings.Afterindependence, thepark
graduallydeteriorated,untilthe
HtooGroup
tookitoverin2000andredevelopeditasascen-
ic spot.
