257MANDALAY TO LASHIOSLEEPING & EATINGNORTHERN MYANMARSLEEPING & EATINGNORTHERN MYANMARKYAUKMEplay areas add to the attraction for local
families but undermine any sense of natu-
ral serenity. It’s a two-minute drive down a
steep, easily missed lane excursion off the
Hsipaw road that starts directly north of
Aung Htu Kan Tha Paya.
December Strawberry Farm REST STOP
This invitingly stylish complex of new
thatched pavilions on a rolling roadside
lawn 2½ miles beyond Aung Htu Kan Tha
Paya off ers an easy stop for motorists to get
a meal or taste locally produced fruit wines.
Myaing Gyi VILLAGE
After descending a loop of hairpins, the Hsi-
paw road reaches pretty Myaing Gyi where
a photogenic monastery climbs a wooded
hillside. Two minutes’ drive beyond the
roadside Wetwun Zaigone Monastery is
equally photogenic with a fi ne array of stu-
pas and Balinese-style pagodas behind a gi-
gantic old banyan tree.
Peik Chin Myaung BUDDHA CAVE COMPLEX
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(admission/camera free/K300; h6.30am-4.30pm)
Many Buddha caves are little more than
rocky niches or overhangs but Peik Chin
is much more extensive. It takes around
15 minutes each way to walk to the cave’s
end (longer when crowded) following an
underground stream past a whole series of
colourfully painted scenes from Buddhist
scriptures interspersed with countless stu-
pas and buddha images. There are a few sec-
tions where you’ll need to bend over to get
beneath dripping rocks but most of the cave
is high-ceilinged and adequately lit so you
don’t need a torch. It can feel sweaty and hu-
mid inside. No shorts or footwear permitted.
The access road is around 2½ miles east
of Myaing Gyi, just beyond the green sign
announcing your arrival in Wetwun town.
Turn right through a lion-guarded gateway
arch then descend inexorably for another
2 miles to the large parking area thronged
with souvenir stalls.
Ky a u k me
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%082 / POP C85,000 / ELEV APPROX 900M
Pronounced ‘chao-may’, Kyaukme is a low-
rise district centre with a gently attractive
central market area bracketed by monastery-
topped hills, each only 15 minutes’ walk away
using steep, covered stairways. The main at-
traction is hiking and motor-biking options
into surrounding Shan and Palaung hill vil-
lages (see boxed text, p 258 ). Although Kyauk-
me is rather bigger than Hsipaw, the town is
far less accustomed to travellers and there’s
only one foreigner-licensed guesthouse. Ky-
aukme means ‘black stone’, fi tting a folkloric
belief that its citizens were dishonest traders
of precious (or not so precious) gems. 4 Sleeping & Eating
A Yone Oo Guest House (%40183; Shwe Phi
Oo Rd; s/d from $15/18, luxury $25/30, with shared
bathroom from $4/8) is the only accommoda-
tion for foreigners. The cheapest options
are basic bed-spaces with hardboard sepa-
rators – noisy, and the shared squat toilets
are across the yard. Pay a few dollars more
per person and the beds are better, walls are
thicker and the shared bathroom has hot
water. The luxury rooms set around the rear
courtyard are vastly better appointed and
come with fridge, air-conditioning and heat-
er but so too do the slightly larger, decently
maintained $18 doubles, arguably the best
deal here. Management speaks some Eng-
lish. Evenings, the hotel has a barbecue stall
out front. There’s a greater dining choice
around the cinema, three blocks south.8 Getting There & Away
Bus
Buses to Hsipaw (7am, noon and 4pm) plus the
7am air-conditioned bus to Lashio start from
the southwest corner of the market, two blocks
south of the guesthouse.
Four buses to Mandalay all leave around 5.30am
from a bus terminal, just across the rail tracks,
around 10 minutes further north. Mu-se–Hsi-
paw–Mandalay buses mostly stay on the AH16,
bypassing Kyaukme by over a mile, though some
halt at the Mao or Nentang Dan restaurants for
lunch (a K1500 motorcycle ride from town). Taxi & Motorcycle
Oddly, a taxi to Mandalay (typically K60,000) is
more expensive from Kyaukme than from Hsi-
paw and there’s no share taxi system. The guest-
house can help you organise motorcycle rentals.
Note that the gem-mining town of Mogok is
now completely off limits to foreigners – if you
travel too far along the road running north from
Kyaukme, you will be turned back. The rough
Kyaukme to Namhsan road is closed to foreign-
ers northbound. Train
From the guesthouse the train station is a
10-minute walk west then north.