Hsipaw Travel Guide

 planxty Says:  A wander along Namtu road, or restaurant row as I dubbed it, can very quickly degenerate into a pub crawl. To be honest, in the noonday heat, the best place to be is inside sipping a nice cold bottle of Myanmar or a Dagon draught.The Khit Mee, on the West side of the road... 

 planxty Says:  This is probably the largest religious building in Hsipaw, although it's nowhere on the scale of the great Payas in Yangon, Mandalay or even Prome (Pyay). It is the Mahamyatmuni Paya. The Lonely Planet guidebook assured me it was one of the busiest religious sites in Hsipaw,... 

 planxty Says:  I simply love wandering about markests, particularly in Southeast Asia. There is such a vitality to them, and in most of them you get the impression that you are actually mixing with local people (obviously there are "touristy" exceptions to this).The main market in Hsipaw... 

 planxty Says:  There are two markets in Hsipaw. the main market (see seperate tip) is in the large permanent structure East of Namtu Street and stays open all day. The second market is the morning market where local people gather to sell mostly foodstuffs. It is a much more ad hoc affair,... 

 planxty Says:  As alluded to in my introduction page, one of the elements of my ideal day in Hsipaw would include a tea or coffee down by the river. This is the place I was referring to, the Black House coffee shop.It's a relatively new venture, and may not have made it into the guidebooks... 

 planxty Says:  There are a number of restaurants on Namtu Road that don't have names. Actually, that's not strictly correct - they do have names but I just can't read the Burmese signs. This is one such place. It was a bit of a culinary adventure as there is no English menu and not a word... 

 planxty Says:  This place is quite sizeable by local standards and seems to have quite a reputation amongst travellers, although there are equally good places nearby that never seem to be patronised by Westerners at all.Having said that, the place is clean, service is good and it has an... 

 planxty Says:  OK, so this is not the most imaginatively named restaurant in the world (it's not even the most imaginatively named restaurant is Hsipaw!) but don't let that put you off. The food in here is really good. All meals are a "set" curry which means you get your bowl of curry, an... 

 planxty Says:  I'm a bit of a night bird really, and did find it somewhat hard to come to terms with everything closing relatively early in Myanmar. I did, however, on a Saturday night, find a most unusual entertainment in Hsipaw.There is quite a large cinema in the middle of town which... 

 planxty Says:  If you visit Hsipaw, you will probably come from, and return to, Mandalay. There several options for this route, share taxi, bus or train. I got the share taxi to Hsipaw, and found it most uncomfortable. This is purely due to my size and being cramped in a small car. The... 

 picek Says:  It takes app. 7 hours to get to Hsipaw by train from Pyin U Lwin and costs 2 USD/person. It's often crowded and you have to be careful when placing your baggage on the shelf above your head as it may fall down to someone's head and cause injury... It's nice experience to go... 

 planxty Says:  One of the great things about Hsipaw is getting out of it, and I don't mean that unkindly at all. A short walk in almost any direction will take you to small communities which appear to be fairly unvisited by Westerners. I went for a pretty long walk one afternoon / evening... 

 tina_vietnam Says:   I visited the nephew of the Shan prince, Mr. Donald. It was very interesting talking to him and asking him all the questions I had on my mind about Myanmar, its history and economical relations to China and the rest of the word.