Page 320 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

318 NortherN MyaNMar Pyin OO Lwin and arOund
There is an alternative route up the opposite side of the falls to The View Resort
(T085 50262, Wtheviewpyinoolwin.com), from where it’s a 2.5km walk back to the
main road. The luxurious hotel itself is not open to walk-in guests, but there’s a
restaurant on site where you may have better luck – call ahead to check it’s open.

Maha An Htu Kan Tha Paya
• 8km northeast of Pyin Oo Lwin • Daily 5am–7pm • Free • K3000 (return) by motorbike taxi
The main reason to visit the Maha An Htu Kan Tha Paya (“Reluctant Buddha Paya”),
completed in 2000, is for its backstory. In 1997, a temple in China commissioned
three marble Buddha statues from Mandalay. When the statues came to be delivered,
one fell off the truck just outside Pyin Oo Lwin, and after several attempts to reload it,
the head of a nearby village claimed that the Buddha visited him in a dream to tell him
the 17-tonne statue wished to stay where it was. A festival takes place here around the
Tazaung full moon in November each year, when locals gather on the hillside to release
huge bamboo and paper hot-air balloons shaped like animals.

Pwe Kauk Waterfall
• Pwe Kauk, 8km northeast of Pyin Oo Lwin • K500; camera fee K300, video fee K500 • Turn north opposite the
Maha An Htu Kan Tha Paya entrance
Then known as Hampshire Falls, Pwe Kauk Waterfall was a favourite picnic spot for the
8 British. The series of short, wide falls in a woodland dell occupies a setting that’s pretty
rather than dramatic, with some man-made attractions along the riverbank, including
a water-powered merry-go-round. It’s hardly worth the trouble of visiting, but if you’re
passing you could drop in for some people-watching.

Peik Chin Myaung Cave and around
• Near Wet Wun village, 20km northeast of Pyin Oo Lwin • Daily 6.30am–5pm • Free; camera fee K300, video fee
K1000 • K5000 by motorbike taxi from central Pyin Oo Lwin
Peik Chin Myaung Cave snakes into a hillside some 3km east of the village of Wet
Wun. The humid cavern is filled with gold-coated Buddha statues, large concrete
alligators and Jataka dioramas, and an underground stream gushes alongside the
concrete path. While you’ll need to stoop in places, the cave is open and well lit.
It takes around fifteen minutes to reach the end, and no socks or shoes are allowed
– although there are mats laid out in some places, the path can be slippery and your
feet will get wet. At the entrance to the cave is a large parking area with a few shops
and restaurants.
WET WUN (pronounced more like Woon than One) itself is worth a brief stop.
Ancient Banyan trees line the road, and you’ll find Wet Wun Zeiguan monastery
through a gate on the right as you travel away from Pyin Oo Lwin, where some of the
monks speak English. Join them playing football in the yard between the low hall and
the side buildings with their steeply tiered roofs.
arrIVaL aND DePartUre PyIN oo LWIN aND aroUND
By bus Buses and minibuses to Hsipaw leave from San Pya By pick-up Pick-ups to Mandalay (3hr; K2500) leave when
restaurant, 3km northeast of the Purcell Tower on the main full from just north of the first roundabout southwest of the
road. Buses to most other destinations leave from the Thiri Purcell Tower. Services start around first light, petering out
Mandalar Bus Station just southeast of San Pya. in the afternoon.
Destinations Hsipaw (6 daily; 4hr); Kyaukme (6 daily; 3hr); By shared taxi The fastest way to get to Mandalay (2hr),
Lashio (3 daily; 6hr); Mandalay (hourly; 2hr 30min); Kyaukme (2hr 30min), Hsipaw (3hr 30min) and Lashio (5hr
Monywa (3 daily; 7hr); Naypyitaw (2 daily; 8hr); Taungoo 30min) is by shared taxi. Mandalay-bound taxis (K7000)
(daily; 10hr); Yangon (daily; 12hr). depart when full from behind the Pin Se Teahouse, from

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