Trekking in Hsipaw, Shan State

We arrived in Hsipaw in the small hours of the morning. We found our guesthouse easily enough, but it was harder to find someone to let us in. We eventually managed to unlock the door from the outside and found a man who had fallen asleep while waiting for our arrival. After waking him up, we quickly realised that he’d had one too many drinks at the full moon festival. Hilariously, he kept knocking on our door every five minutes with something new to tell us. The best part is when he came to our door hiding under a blanket, pretending to be a ghost. He was a bit surprised when at 3:00am we told him we were quite keen to go to sleep.

Hsipaw is a small town north of Mandalay in Shan State. It draws tourists who want to go trekking in the surrounding hills. We were planning on spending a few days trekking here, but found out that it’s not a great time of year for longer treks. Firstly, it’s the hot season, and secondly, it’s also the season when farmers burn off vegetation in their fields to make way for new growth. This leaves a thick haze in the air and blackened hills for scenery. Therefore, we decided just to do a two day, one night trek with a guide.

We were pleased that we decided to trek with a guide, not because it was hard to find our way, but because it was interesting chatting to him about life in Myanmar. The landscape wasn’t particularly inspiring, but it was fun walking through small Shan and Palaung villages with lots of friendly waves along the way. Tourism is yet to take off in the area, so the locals aren’t overwhelmed with visitors yet.

We stayed the night in a homestay with a Palaung family. They cooked us some delicious food and some more “interesting” dishes (like beef mixed with tree bark and river moss soup!)

The people in the village mostly earn their livelihood from tea plantations. It’s certainly hard work – they rise early and work long hours picking tea leaves. Education in these villages is very limited and often children start work from a young age.

We got to see how the villagers process the tea leaves. The leaves are steamed for about five minutes and then the liquid is squeezed out of them. The next day they are left out to dry in the sun before being transported to town to a tea merchant. It’s easy to forget about the amount of hard work that goes into making something simple like a cup of tea. It was also interesting to see a process that is still done completely by hand rather than being machine driven.

Steaming the tea leaves

The village mechanic was facing a daunting repair job

The next day, we had a quick, but hot, walk back down through the hills to our guesthouse in Hsipaw. We then had a couple of days just relaxing and exploring the town. One day we got up early to visit the morning market. At 6:00am, the market…. finishes. The stall owners set up shop by 2:00am every day! This allows wholesale customers from surrounding villages to buy their day’s produce and get back to their shops in time for sunrise.

We heard about a rock concert being held in town, performed by a band of blind musicians. Based on the music/karaoke we’d heard in Myanmar previously, we weren’t expecting much! But the band was actually really good. They had a lot of stage presence and sang in both Burmese and English.

Leaving Hsipaw, we headed for Pyin Oo Lwin, an old colonial hill station near Mandalay.

An awesome tree pagoda in Hsipaw

Written by Craig Drayton and Sally Robertson