Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
at the police station and then left at the monastery. The palace is up the track past
the immigration office.
Activities
Hiking
Each of the guesthouses can organise guides (around K10,000 per day, K20,000 for an
overnight trek) to take you on a range of fascinating walks into the hills above town visit-
ing Shan and Palaung villages. Mr Charles Guest House is especially well organised and
most evenings there'll be guides sitting on the front terrace to answer questions about the
various options. Generally a next-day departure is possible if you don't want anything
too adventurous. Trekking without a guide is less satisfying (very few villagers speak
English) but it is possible - get someone to write down your destination in local script
before departing. Most villages have motorcycle tracks too, so it may be possible to pay
a villager to drive you back if you're fed up, although finding a bike isn't always
straightforward.
DON'T MISS
TREKKING AROUND HSIPAW
The Palaung and Shan villages dotted in the hills surrounding Hsipaw are perhaps
the main reason to visit the area, and treks to them are deservedly popular. The
most visited village is
Pankam
, a Palaung settlement nestled on a ridge about five
hours' walk from Hsipaw. It's a gentle trek that takes you through a number of
timeless Shan villages with stilt-houses. Note how each hamlet has a kin-gyiao,a
wooden phallus placed above a buried urn of vegetable oil to ensure fertile fields.
Gateways with crossed wooden knife symbols are present to protect the settle-
ments from evil spirits. Pankam itself has a fascinating shrine commemorating the
12th-century legend of how a powerful natspirit bestowed tea seeds on the
Palaung. Tea remains the principal source of income for the Palaung, who regard
themselves as the guardians of tea cultivation in Shan State.
Pankam can be visited as part of a multiday trek, hiking out and back in two
days, or you can hitch a lift one-way on a motorbike (K4000 from Hsipaw, but
K8000 coming back) if you don't want to stay overnight. Going with a guide will en-
able you to communicate with the locals, but you can do the trek on your own. Take
the road to Mandalay for a mile and then branch right where the main road swerves
sharp right at the far edge of Hsipaw. After that, keep on asking the way!
