Page 326 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

324 NortherN MyaNMar Hsipaw and around
hot-and-sour mushroom soup for K1000. If you can’t find it, milk tea with a touch of ginger (K300). Chapati Place is
look for the bamboo building with open-air seating under open later than anywhere else in town. Daily 6–11pm.
a corrugated-iron roof. Daily 11am–5pm. Thiripyitsaya 4/54 Shwe Phe Oo Rd T082 40340.
That Nay Win Aung San Rd. Also known as “Chapati Opposite A Yone Oo, this little place has an English-
Place”, this Indian restaurant serves only three things – and speaking owner and an English menu, and serves simple
it does a roaring trade. The chapati and curry sauce (K300) food like omelettes, toast, juices and Shan noodles (K500–
and fried rice (K700) are both good, but best of all is the K1000). Daily 7am–9pm.
ShoPPING
Treasure Land Jewellery & Souvenir Shop 5/26 the friendly owner also sets and sells rubies and
Shwe Phe Oo Rd T09 5824 0190, Ephyusinwin sapphires from nearby Mogok, along with Indian
@gmail.com. One block west of Northern Rock diamonds and other precious stones. She’s happy to
Guesthouse, this place sells local souvenirs and simple show you her work and talk about the gems, even if you
jewellery. If you’re looking for something more serious, don’t want to buy. Best to call ahead.
DIreCtory
Bank KBZ Bank on the south side of the market has an ATM and offers currency exchange.

Hsipaw and around

8 HSIPAW (sometimes called Thibaw) is the former seat of an independent Shan state.
Today, the small, dusty town has an attractive air of tranquillity – venerable
tamarind and rain trees line the main street, the Dokhtawady (or Namtu) River
flows languidly to the east and the nearby hills conceal thatch-roofed Palaung and
Lisu villages. Add to this a good range of accommodation and some excellent cafés,
and it’s unsurprising that Hsipaw is a popular base for trekking into the
surrounding countryside (see box, p.327).
The town rewards detailed exploration, with a candle-lit morning market near the
river and small workshops around town, where it’s possible to watch tea being sorted
and cheroots being rolled. The most interesting sights, including the crumbling
pagodas of Little Bagan, the shrine to Hsipaw’s local nat, and the former palace, all lie
on the outskirts of town, a short bike ride away.
Brief history
The Shan saophas, or “sky lords”, of Hsipaw were among the most powerful leaders in
the Shan States, thanks to Hsipaw’s strategic location at the edge of the Shan Plateau,
above the Bamar-dominated lowlands. In 1886, Sao Hkun Hseng was among the first

PLATE OF TEA, VICAR?
northern shan state is one of the original homes of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, which
originated somewhere in the hills that range between northeast india, northern Myanmar and
southwest China. when the British first surveyed the shan states in the nineteenth century,
palaung and shan villagers had already been cultivating tea for centuries. in 1855, Burmese
officials told a visiting British delegation that the idea that the Chinese grew their own tea was
“preposterous”, so great was their neighbour’s demand for Burmese exports.
Tawngpeng, a largely palaung district that surrounds the (currently off-limits) hill town of
namhsan, is Myanmar’s main tea-growing region, with much of the harvest being reserved for
the production of lahpet (fermented tea leaves). The fresh leaves are lightly steamed and then
packed into lengths of bamboo, buried and left to ferment for up to a year, before they’re
ready to be eaten as lahpet thouq (tea-leaf salad), which is served as a snack everywhere
from Yangon’s Strand Hotel to the hawkers on Myanmar’s trains.

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