6Days Highlights Of Myanmar

Arrive at Yangon airport in the morning. Meet with your guide at Yangon international Arrival Hall after clearing immigration and custom formalities. He or she will welcome you or your group with welcome signboard. Then transfer to your hotel for check-in (if early check-in is available). If early check-in is not available then drive through the Colonial Style Buildings downtown, the Chinatown area and the Indian quarter. Enjoy your photo stop at Sule Pagoda and City Hall.

In the afternoon, drive around the Kandawgyi Park and pass through the Karaweik Royal Barge. Then visit to the reclining Buddha at Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda, is almost as large as the enormous figure in Bago Shwethalyaung. Enjoy sunset at Shwedagon Pagoda, the ‘heart’ of Buddhist Myanmar. The Pagoda is believed to be 2,500 years old and there are always full with many people praying and making offerings at Shwedagon and especially on Full Mon days and religious days.

Early morning, drive out of Yangon to the ancient capital of Bago (Pegu), about 2 hours’ drive northeast of Yangon. Visit Shwemawdaw Pagoda, which has a stupa, inlaid with diamonds and is Bago’s golden landmark. See Shwethalyaung Buddha, which dates from 994 and is revered throughout Myanmar as the most beautiful Reclining Buddha. Just outside Bago, visit KyaikpunPagoda with four 30-meter high Buddha figures seated back to back. From Bago, drive to the small town of Kyaikto and on to the ‘base camp’ of Kinpun.

In the afternoon, take a truck up a bumpy track about half way up the mountain.  From here, walk up the path which climbs steeply to the legendary ‘Golden Rock’.  (The climb takes around 1 hour and those unwilling, or not fit enough, to walk can hire four porters to carry them in a sedan chair).  The climb offers magnificent views over the surrounding countryside and the opportunity to make friends with the many local people who make the pilgrimage to Kyaiktiyo. The incredible ‘Golden Rock’ sits precariously on top of the mountain, and is said to balance thanks to a precisely placed hair of Buddha.  Weather permitting, sunset views from Mount Kyaiktiyo are amazing. Accommodation Kyaikhtiyo.

Early risers may enjoy returning to the Golden Rock; about 10 minutes’ walk from the Kyaikto Hotel or 60 minutes from the Golden Rock Hotel. After breakfast, walk down the mountain and return by truck to your car/minibus, or alternatively walk all the way down to the base camp at Kinpun (leaving very early morning if you choose to do this).  Drive south towards Mawlamyaing(Moulmein), through seemingly endless rice fields.

In the afternoon, visit the Sa Dan Cave. This cave has a length of 2260 feet with many stalactites / stalagmites and a natural lake at the end of the cave. Also visit the Kaw Koon Cave where Buddha figures are carved out of the wall of the cave. Drive to Mawlamyaing, where you will arrive late afternoon.

Depart Mawlamyaing and drive south to Win Sein Toya, near Mudon, where the largest reclining Buddha in the world is under construction.  Stop will be at Thanbyuzayat, formerly the western terminus of the infamous ‘Death Railway’ on which Allied Prisoners of War were forced to work by the Japanese military.  An estimated 16000 Prisoners died, of which 3771 have graves in immaculately maintained Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery. Continue driving to Kyaikkami, a small seaside resort known as Amherst during the British era. 

You will visit Ye-le Pagoda, which is perched over the sea and reached by a two level ‘bridge’ (the lower level is submerged at high tide).  This shrine is said to house a Buddha image which floated on a raft from Sri Lanka and landed at this spot near Kyaikkami.  Look out for the shrine built in the shape of a boat. In the afternoon, return to Mawlamyaing and visit Mawlamyaing’s small Museum (if open) and the Local Market.  We will make photo stops at some interesting old colonial-style houses, a mosque and churches.  Late afternoon, drive up into the nearby hills, which are home to many pagodas and monasteries. 

Visit Mahamuni Pagoda, built in typical Mon style, with covered walkways linking the various square shrine buildings. Visit the Yadana Bon Myint monastery with beautiful woodcarvings showing the previous life of Buddha. Visit also Kyaiktanlan Pagoda, the tallest in the city, and the nearby viewpoint to enjoy beautiful sunset views over the harbour and out across the River. 

This morning, transfer to Yangon Airport