As you might remember, after spending 2 days in Hpa-An, I decided to travel to the Shan State of Myanmar. More precisely, my idea was to go on a 3D2N trek to Inle Lake. In order to do that, I could take a bus to Kalaw and from there go straight to the trek or… I could also spend a day in Kalaw finding out if there was something worth doing 🙂
There are around 500 km from Hpa-An to Kalaw so, as you might imagine, if you take the bus in the evening, you would be arriving kind of pretty early in the morning. Thus, I felt like it would be too much coming out of the bus and going directly to the trek. I paid 25 K for the bus at the reception of my hostel in Hpa-An. They told me where I had to wait for it and I was there in time, but the bus arrived an hour late. It was pretty comfortable though and they provided us (for free) with water, an energy drink and even dessert. The only downside was that, like as pretty much throughout my whole trip in Southeast Asia, the aircon was too high and I was freezing.
Where to stay in Kalaw?
I didn’t sleep much. I never do it actually when I am travelling in public (or private) transport and I envy those who can do it. Why?! Sat next to me was a girl from Taiwan. She was travelling on her own. It wasn’t the first person I met who was travelling solo but, regardless, they all evoke the same feeling on me: a deep feeling of admiration. We didn’t speak much during the bus journey but it turned out we were going to the same hostel. Was it fate or was it that Kalaw, like Hpa-An, doesn’t have as many accommodation options as other bigger cities in Myanmar?
We stopped to have dinner a few hours after having left Hpa-An. It was my second time having dinner at a road bar and both times the food was pretty good. Nothing new at this time I guess. Myanmar has some really good food all around! The bus journey was kind of calm and it seemed everything was going well until… 1 km before arriving in Kalaw the bus said enough. And I’m not even kidding:
We spent a while inside because we were told they were going to fix it but, eventually, we decided to enter the town like heroes and we just walked there. The girl from Taiwan, two young local girls and myself entered Kalaw at around 08:30. We spoke for a while and the local girls pointed us out to Golden Kalaw Inn, my accommodation for my day in Kalaw.
I paid 13 K for a bed in a 4-person mixed room. Breakfast was included. The room was big enough and the beds weren’t bunk beds but regular ones. The hostel was spacious and it looked clean. The lady in charge was very kind and helpful. She gave me a map with a description of the highlights of Kalaw. Thus, after changing my clothes, I got ready to stroll around Kalaw. By the way, it was the first time in Southeast Asia (without taking into account bus journeys) that I felt kind of cold. I guess that the height of Kalaw (1300 meters over the sea level) had a lot to do with it 🙂
What to see in Kalaw?
Kalaw is a small hill town at around 65 km from Inle Lake. As aforementioned, many travellers use it as gate to famous trekking destinations such as Inle Lake or Pindaya. While in Kalaw, you can also go on shorter trekking routes in the hills around the town. Kalaw was founded as a hill station by the British during colonial rule. It was popular among them as a cool destination to flee the heat of the plains.
As of today, the town of Kalaw is notable for a significant population of Nepalis and Indians, whose ancestors came here to build the roads and railway during the colonial era. While walking around Kalaw you can still find tracks of the British colonial-era architecture.
Kalaw’s Market
I love Southeast Asian markets. You can find pretty much anything there and they are always surrounded by a unique and colorful atmosphere. As soon as I left Golden Kalaw Inn and started walking on one of the main streets, I arrived, without realising, to Kalaw’s Market.
The market was kind of big and it had plenty of different stands. They were selling fruits and vegetables grown in Kalaw and the surroundings. I saw colorful red hot chilli peppers all around. But also huge tea bags, salted fishes, different types of nuts and even locally-produced wines.
The market wasn’t just about food though. You could find plenty of clothes, crafts and even conical hats! Unfortunately they were even smaller than the ones at Hpa-An so I had to pass :/. Due to the Nepali and Indian population living in Kalaw, you could also find products and foods from their countries.
As far as I know, the market is open daily, so you have no excuses to go check it out. Other than the market itself, all around it, there are plenty of local and even foreigner restaurants. Some of them with signs as funny as this one:
Kalaw’s Park
It felt nice walking around Kalaw. The streets were spacious and clean and they even had sidewalks. The town was kind of small but I would say it was where I saw the most tourists. I guess they were all there to go trekking because, as mentioned before, Kalaw is some sort of a trekking Mecca. The downtown of Kalaw was surrounded by the market, pagodas, houses and restaurants. There was also a tall clock tower, which, apparently, is used by locals as some sort of a meeting point.
I was enjoying strolling around with no particular destination in mind. I felt happy and relaxed. Eventually, my feet took me to what was known as the “Public Park”. There was a small bridge, ponds and a fountain. The whole soil was covered in lawn and there were some food and beverage stalls around. Apparently, that night, an important event was taking place and the park marked the end of the parade and the beginning of the show. They would be celebrating “The Way of the Buddha” and there would be parades, music, fireworks and… lanterns flying in the sky! Finally!
Shwe Oo Min Paya
After my unexpected visit to Kalaw’s Park, I decided to go check one of the highlights of Kalaw, according to the map they gave me at Golden Kalaw Inn. All the highlights were at a walkable distance so I decided to use my feet and do some exercise.
It took me around 15 minutes to get to Shwe Oo Min Paya. As I was getting to the platform where most of the stupas were, I saw plenty of military and police officers. It was the first time during my 3 weeks in Myanmar that I saw so many of them. “Finding George Orwell in Burma”, the book I was reading, would talk about how brutal and dangerous police and military officers were but, up till that moment, it all seemed to belong to a far away past. All in all, I made it to the entrance of Shwee Oo Min Paya without any issues.
It was my third time seeing Naga Buddha statues. These ones were kind of small but, their small sizes were made up for the numerous smaller Buddha statues and stupas that surrounded them. Shwee Oo Min Paya, apart from the platform full of stupas and Buddha statues, is basically a cave. Inside the cave, as you might imagine, there are more Buddha statues, inscriptions and other relics. I had already been to other (more) impressive caves back in Hpa-An so I didn’t spend much time there. Nonetheless, if you are around Kalaw, I would say Shwee Oo Min Paya worth a visit.
Hnee Paya
Hnee Paya is known for its “bamboo” Buddha. I had already seen thousands of Buddha statues during my time in Southeast Asia, specially in Myanmar. That being said, it was the first time I heard about a Buddha statue made out of bamboo. Therefore, I felt like I needed to go check it out.
Hnee Paya shouldn’t bee too far away from where I was but, after having been walking for a while, I felt like I might had misjudged the distance. I was walking around kind of lost when a local girl passed me riding her moto. I think my face was an open book because she suddenly stopped. “Hnee Paya?” She smiled and with a gesture told me to jump on the back of her motorbike. She was really kind and, after a few minutes driving, pointed me out to the entrance of Hnee Paya. After thanking her a lot I started walking upwards.
What do you feel when you take a look at that sign? You probably feel kind of lost because you don’t understand anything, right? Well, that’s how I felt many times during my 3 weeks in Myanmar. On the one hand, there are many beautiful places you can enjoy just by being there and watching them. On the other hand, there were quite a few times when I felt like I would have liked to have someone by my side who could read those signs and let me know about the history behind the building. Thus, once again, depending on where you are and what you want to see, you might consider hiring the services of a tour guide 🙂
I guess Hnee Paya was a famous place in Kalaw because there were plenty of local tourists and even some buses arriving to and leaving the place. The whole area was pretty big so I wandered around it for a while until I found some stairs to go upwards. Eventually, I made it to some sort of a big living room where there were people praying, meditating, eating and drinking tea. At the end of the room there was this:
Judge it yourself. Does that Buddha statue look like it is made out of bamboo? I asked quite a few locals around: “Bamboo, Buddha, where”? All of them pointed me out to that Buddha statue and I was like what? I spent a while there, looking at it from different angles but I just couldn’t find the bamboo anywhere. Apparently, the statue is around 500 years old and it is made of “gold-lacquered bamboo”… Not sure what else to tell you. Once again, it would have been nice to speak to someone (in English) who knew about the story behind the Buddha statue.
As I was wandering around trying to find the secret bamboo, they offered me free tea and nuts. I thanked them and sat down to eat and drink what it had been offered to me. After a while, I walked closer to the Buddha statue but I just couldn’t distinguish the bamboo between the gold so I just left lol.
Ariyavasa Dhamma Center
Hnee Paya was supposed to be a great view point of the city of Kalaw and its surroundings. The paya stands up on a hill so I figured it would be truth, but I just couldn’t find the right viewpoint (if there was one). Another highlight on my map was a Buddhist monastery. Not sure if someone talked to me about it or I just made it up but I walked there kind of in a hurry because, apparently, at 14:00 there was a meditation session taking place.
I was kind of running when another local passed me with his motorbike. This time was a young man who, as it had previously happened with the girl, offered me to jump on the back of his motorbike. How nice of him! He gave me a long enough ride and when the time came for me to go back to walking, I offered to give him some money but he rejected it. My day in Kalaw was going pretty well. I was just running into nice people 🙂
The Ariyavasa Dhamma Meditation Center was huge. I arrived in time but I had a hard time trying to find my way. I didn’t see anybody around so I just randomly walked from one room to another. It felt like if I was part of a video game. I opened a door, walked inside the room and saw a monk alone meditating inside a mosquito net… Luckily enough I didn’t start screaming or anything and I just left the room silently. I then opened a different door from a different room and found two monks meditating. My “mingalaba” didn’t have any effect on them so I just left that room as well.
I walked outside to a courtyard and found some builders. I asked them where I could go and they advised me to go upstairs. And… Bingo! I finally found a monk who was not meditating and who could speak English. It turned out there were no meditation sessions as such. The center was mostly used for locals who came to meditate on their own. There were also tourists who attended meditation camps and/or retreats. Have you ever heard about a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat? If you Google about it, you will arrive to the “Dhamma” website. And what was the name of the meditation center? Bingo!
He saw the sign of defeat on my face and kindly asked me if I had some previous experience meditating. I told him that I had some experience and he offered me to sit down there and meditate on my own. And so I did but… I was to sleepy to focus and, after 30 minutes, I left and walked back to downtown 🙂
Where to eat in Kalaw?
Kalaw, specially downtown (the area around the market) is full of food stalls and restaurants serving both local and foreigner food. I was innocently walking around when I saw a woman cooking something very peculiar. It looked like meatballs but they were filled with chickpeas, coriander and rice dough. She was using the same ingredients to cook some sort of crepes. It looked like this:
I ordered both the meatballs and the crepe. It was ridiculously cheap and delicious. I paid 500 K for 1 crepe and 4 meatballs and I wouldn’t lie if I said it was one of the best foods I tried during my trip in Southeast Asia. Needless to say, it was one of the highlights of my day in Kalaw, but it wouldn’t be the only one. I asked the woman about the name of the food and she wrote “Mont Lin Ma Yar” down for me. After that, I did some research and found out it was translated as “Husband and Wife”. Why? Take a look at this 🙂
My mouth was in heaven but I still wanted more. Thus, in order to keep on trying different stuff, I kept walking around. I’m not a big fan of restaurants but, due to the Nepali and Indian influence in Kalaw, I decided to go to Everest Nepali Restaurant. I like that kind of food and back home it wasn’t easy to have it so I decided to go there. The place was kind of pricey (I paid 5300 for my lunch and drink) but the food was really good and they had plenty of vegetarian options.
I was sitting there, enjoying my food, when I realised there was a man a few meters away from me. He was also having lunch. Not sure who broke the ice but, after a few words, we realised we were both from Spain. Crazy, isn’t? He was from Mallorca and was working as a police officer. He decided to take a break from work and travelled on his own. His flight ticket didn’t include a return date and he didn’t have a fixed itinerary. I told him I was in Kalaw to go on a 3D2N trek to Inle Lake but I hadn’t been able to decide what agency to choose yet. After further speaking with him, I convinced him and dragged him to come with me and join me in the trek. I hope everything is going alright, Pedro 😉
What’s the best trekking agency in Kalaw?
Not sure how many there are in total, but the most well-known trekking agencies in Kalaw are: Jungle King Trekking, Eversmiling and Uncle Sam. Throughout the day, I had already visited all three of them but I just couldn’t make up my mind. Prices were similar between the first two ones while Uncle Sam had the highest one. Uncle Sam didn’t have a fix priced but prices varied depending on the amount of people joining the trek. All three of them offered the 3D2N trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake but there were some subtle differences. Some were offering home stay accommodation during both nights while others (such as Jungle King Trekking) were offering the first night in a home stay and the second one in a monastery.
All three of them included accommodation for 2 nights, meals for 3 days and the boat ride across Inle Lake. My biggest concern was the level of English of the tour guide. It wasn’t because I had anything against him or her but, as aforementioned, I had been feeling as if I was missing many important things because I didn’t speak the language. Thus, if I was going to go on a tour with someone who spoke English, I wanted that person to speak well enough so I could understand everything.
A friend of mine (Giulia) who had already done the trek advised me to ask for “Suny” at Jungle King Trekking. Unfortunately, he wasn’t available. I explained my concerns to all three agencies and they all assured me their tour guides spoke good English. But, what could the say?
It turned out that the first agency we stopped at after leaving Everest Nepali Restaurant was Jungle King Trekking and Pedro didn’t think it twice so we ended up signing with them. I paid 35 K for the whole 3D2N trek and my guide was going to be Cindy, a young local girl. I did some research on Tripadvisor (they asked me to do it due to my reluctance) and she had great reviews. And I would find out later on during the tour that I couldn’t have been luckier with my choice. She was an awesome guide and her English was just perfect! 🙂
Getting ready for the Tazaungdaing festival
They say best things in life happens when you don’t expect them and I agree on that. While it is truth that some locals had already told me about “The Way of the Buddha”, I didn’t expect it to be that big. I walked back to the hostel after saying good bye to Pedro and, once there, I bought a beer and walked up to the rooftop of Golden Kalaw Inn. It was empty but, after a few minutes, the girl from Taiwan who was sat next to me in the bus from Hpa-An to Kalaw showed up. At around the same time, a monk from Vietnam also joined us.
His English wasn’t the best but nonetheless we spoke about quite a few topics. He had just become a monk and was on his way to Yangon, where he was going to spend 4 months. Before becoming a monk, he used to work as a music teacher for kids. The reason behind his change in career and life was related to meditation. He wanted to spend more time meditating while he improved on his technique. To that extend, he decided to become a monk.
I asked him some interesting questions regarding the point of view of Buddhism about the disconnection between the mind and the body when the body dies. Due to the language barrier, he couldn’t answer to me properly. But, overall, I felt pretty happy to have met him and to have shared around an hour with him.
I said good bye to him and wished him good luck with his new life and, after taking a shower, walked out to the street. There was a French girl (Shiva) who was also staying at Golden Kalaw Inn. She has also heard about the parade and light festival and we decided to go check it out together.
About Tazaungdaing festival
In Kalaw the people called it (or that’s what I understood) “The Way of the Buddha”. In other places in Myanmar and around the world is known as “Tazaungdaing festival”. What’s sure is that it is held on the full moon day of Tazaungmon, the 8th month of the Burmese calendar, and it is celebrated as a national holiday in Myanmar, marking the end of the rainy season. The festival’s origin seems to have something to do with the introduction of Buddhism to Myanmar. Thus, I guess that’s why some people were referring to it as “The Way of the Buddha”.
In many regions of Myanmar, the sky is full with hot-air balloons as a way to celebrate Tazaungdaing festival. Fireworks and lanterns competitions can be see all around. Alms-giving and charity, both religious and secular, are also commonly undertaken during this festival, as a means of merit-making. Some locals decide to use this festivity to visit pagodas and, in general, plenty of concerts, parades and other secular festivities are held all around the country. And I was lucky enough to be spending a day in Kalaw when the Tazaungdaing festival was taking place. What else could I ask for?
Unlike the city of Taunggyi, known for its notorious hot-air ballon festival, where people from all around the world travel to, the town of Kalaw hosts a more humble but not less spectacular festival. Lanterns, small candles and sparkle sticks can be seen all along the huge parade that starts in downtown and goes all the way to Kalaw’s Park. The cherry on the cake and one of the icons of Kalaw’s Tazaungdaing festival is the use of the traditional “Mee-Shaw-Dine”. That is nothing more and nothing less than a bamboo tall pole with hundreds of fireworks stuck all around. You want to know what it looks like when lit? Then, keep reading 😉
Experiencing the Tazaungdaing festival in Kalaw
We had just been walking for a few minutes when we made it to one of the main streets in Kalaw. It was already full of people of different ages walking together in a parade.
Many girls were holding some sort of flower-looking lights while moving their hands. There were also guys who seemed to be part of an organisation dancing and chanting. It looked like this:
Kalaw was (almost literally) on fire. People were pretty happy and you could feel it. Some thrones were pretty “special”. The whole festivity was supposed to be about the Buddha but at some point there was a shape which I couldn’t really distinguish. What do you think?
Many locals approached us and asked us to join them dancing and singing while some others were playing the drums and other instruments. It reminded me to “Las Migas” we host in Valdepeñas de Jaén and I couldn’t reject their offer. I had a great time!
Eventually, after an hour or so, we arrived at Kalaw’s Park, where the parade was finishing and a lantern and firework show was taking place. Back in Yangon, there was also a full moon festivity taking place. They were having a light show but there was no track of lanterns. Ever since I saw it in the movies, I felt like I wanted to be there when a light show with lanterns flying was taking place. And my dream just came true. It was a perfect way to put an end to my day in Kalaw… Except for it wasn’t finished yet…
Remember a few paragraphs back when I told you about “Mee-Shaw-Dine”? It was huge bamboo pole with hundreds of fireworks stuck to it. Once they light it up… Can you guess what’s coming up next?
It was astonishing. It felt like if we were at war and misiles were just flying above our heads. In fact, two of them hit me: one on my shoulder and the other one on my leg. Luckily enough nothing happened except for a few scratches on my clothes. The experience is amazing but you want to be careful and try to place yourself at a fair enough distance from the fire-pole. Apparently, the Tazaungdaing festival goes on for 5-7 days. In one single night they light up 7 fire-poles. If you are around go and check it out but be careful, some other people were hit badly.
As we were enjoying the lanterns and the fire-pole, we started to speak with a couple of girls. They were from France and they were also in Kalaw to then visit Inle Lake. Their names were Sarah and Eva and they were pretty kind. We decided to buy some beers and keep enjoying the Tazaungdaing festival. We spoke about different stuff and overall had a great time. The third fire-pole had already finished working and we felt like we had had enough. Thus, we started to walk back to our hostel. My spectacular day in Kalaw was over but it wouldn’t be the last time I would run into the 3 French girls… Nothing new at this point I guess 🙂
So, how did you like my day in Kalaw? Have you ever been there? Did you stop for a day or more? Did you find it worth it? Were you lucky enough to be there during the Tazaungdaing celebration? Did you check out the fire-pole? Were you hit? Let me know in the comments below!
