THE GUIDE - The Rough Guide to Myanmar - page 451

$170toYangon.WhenarrivinginLashioAirport,notethatthebaggagereclaimshedisactu-
ally just outside the gates. Shwe Ka Thit, 34 Theinni Rd ( 082 25702), offers decent ticket
prices and has helpful, English-speaking staff.
Destinations Heho (for Inle Lake, 2 weekly; 1hr); Mandalay (daily; 45min); Tachileik (2-3
weekly; 1hr); Yangon (daily; 1hr 45min-3hr).
Bybus Lashio'smainbusstationisontheMuseroad,3kmnortheastofthemarket,justsouth
of Mansu Pagoda. There's also a more central local bus station just south of the market on
Mandalay St, which has a few services to Hsipaw. At the time of research, foreigners were
not allowed on buses to Muse, and you may also have difficulty buying tickets to Taunggyi.
Destinations Hsipaw (3 daily; 2hr); Kalaw (3 daily; 15hr); Kyaukme (3 daily; 3hr); Man-
dalay (3 daily; 9hr); Meiktila (5 daily; 10-11hr); Muse (daily; 4hr); Naypyitaw (daily; 13hr);
Pyin Oo Lwin (3 daily; 6hr); Taunggyi (daily; 15hr); Yangon (2 daily; 18hr).
Bysharedtaxi SharedtaxistoMuse(4hr;K10,000)andwesttoHsipaw(2hr),PyinOoLwin
(5hr 30min) and Mandalay (7hr 30min; all three destinations K15,000) depart from around
the main bus station each morning when full. Book a seat through your accommodation and
the car will pick you up from your hotel.
By train Lashio's railway station is 5km northwest of the market, K1500 by pick-up or
motorbike taxi. The daily train to Mandalay (17hr), which stops at Hsipaw (4hr 30min),
Kyaukme (6hr) and Pyin Oo Lwin (11hr) en route, departs at 5am, with tickets on sale from
4.30am.
MUSE AND THE CHINESE BORDER
The small, scrappy town of Muse (pronounced Mu-say) sits just across the Shweli River
from the high-rises of Ruili on the Chinese side of the border. While the border (daily
6.30am-10pm)isnominallyopentoforeigners,atthetimeofwritingtravellersstillneeded
an official guide and permit as well as a valid Chinese or Myanmar visa to get across, al-
though there were rumours that this would be relaxed in the near future.
Check with a Yangon- or Kunming-based tour operator before you commit to using this
route as the permits take up to a month to process and the whole package (including guide
and transport) usually costs $200-250 for the single day from Ruili to Lashio. There is
a Myanmar consulate-general in Kunming ( [phone], mcgkunming.org )
where visas take three days to process. Chinese visas are available from the embassy in
Yangon and the consulate-general in Mandalay (35th St, between 65th and 66th sts; 02
35937, mandalay.china-consulate.org ) .