Draped around the shores of Thaungthaman Lake on Mandalay’s southern fringes, the leafy suburb of Amarapura, site of the Konbaung Dynasty’s capital in the early 19th century, is famous for its long, teak causeway known as U Bein’s Bridge. M…

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The compact market town of Hpa-An on the Thanlwin (Salween) River serves as a congenial base for trips around the beautiful limestone Zwegabin massif to its southeast. Rising in spectacular fashion from the surrounding rice paddy, the foot…

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The route crossing the north of the Shan Plateau towards Kunming in southwest China – a stretch of the old ‘Burma Road’ of World War II fame – is punctuated by a succession of lively market towns, the most picturesque and interesting of whi…

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Magical Inle Lake lies a short, 40-minute flight southeast of Mandalay, amid the outlying hills of the Shan Plateau. Nowhere else in Myanmar exemplifies the country’s geographical and cultural diversity as vividly as this vast body of water…

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Another perfect antidote to the congested streets of Mandalay is a visit to the archaeological site of Inwa (Ava), where monuments spanning five centuries of Burmese history stand among the paddy fields. You have to cross the Myitnge River…

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The vision of Kyaiktiyo’s gilded boulder glowing molten yellow in the dying rays of daylight is simply one of the most ravishing Myanmar – or indeed the whole of Southeast Asia – has to offer. To Buddhists, the opportunity to pray before th…

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Kyaingtong, also written ‘Kengtung’ and pronounced ‘Cheng-dong’, is the hub of Myanmar’s ‘Golden Triangle’ region. Long one of the world’s principal opium growing centres, it remained off-limits to foreigners for decades, but is now easily…

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For many, the opportunity to gaze at the ruins of ancient Bagan, silhouetted against their distinctive backdrop of dusty acacia scrub and distant hills, is reason enough to travel to Myanmar. Over 2,000 brick, gold and stucco stupas and tem…

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Reachable in a day trip from Yangon, or en route to Mawlamyine and the southeast, Bago served as the Burmese capital between the 14th century and 16th centuries, when it was known as ‘Pegu’. A remarkable collection of monuments survive from…

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Mandalay, Myanmar’s second city on the left bank of the Ayeyarwady River, was founded in the 1850s by King Mindon of the Konbaung Dynasty, whose palace complex at the foot of Mandalay Hill was the most resplendent in Asia before it was dest…

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“Lookin’ lazy to the sea” is how Kipling famously described the towering pagoda of Moulmein, or Mawlamyine as it’s known today. The stupa is fact just one in a line of prominent religious landmarks punctuating the ridge that runs behind thi…

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One of the more colourful characters of Burmese history was King Bodawpaya (reigned 1782–1819), a ruler of megalomaniac tendencies who boasted 206 wives and concubines, and launched victorious wars of conquest against neighbouring Arakan an…

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