Land of Gold:
A Classic Myanmar Luxury Tour
Covering Myanmar's essential highlights and its hidden charms, this signature tour opens the heart of a captivating nation while traveling in luxury.
Oh how Myanmar enchants, its iconic destinations unraveling layer after layer of mystique. Yangon, city of colonial history decaying before your eyes. Mandalay, poetic destination of Kipling's musing. Bagan, strange landscape of temples that change color with the sun. Inle Lake, where fishermen row with one leg and villages rise on stilts above the water. Then what about caves filled with Buddha images? Sleepy colonial hill stations, cruising the Irrawaddy River, and Burmese capitals from many centuries past? This Myanmar luxury tour encompasses all these highlights and more, exploring the soul of a nation that's slowly opening to the world.
Experiencing Myanmar is like encountering a forgotten banyan tree on a dusty plain. From one angle you're consumed by mystery, wondering how something so impressive could be hidden from the world. Circle the banyan and you realize that it's both an ode to history and a coveted example of tomorrow's beauty. Get closer and you admire how every root has its own story and style. Nature and culture combine into one, a fascinating fusion that can't be captured on camera. Myanmar is a country shrouded in legend, slowly opening to the world. This luxury tour unveils it all: the lost-world wonder, the distinctive roots, and the classic destinations that have always made Myanmar blossom.
A Mystery Unraveled Through Cultural Connections
Simply uttering the words Burma or Myanmar creates asort of mystique. It's certainly inspiring to explore a country that was cut off from the world for so long. And over the 13 days you'll find that the mystery has many facets. Myanmar is not one monotone culture, but a rich fabric of lifestyles mostly untouched by time. Explore unique stilt villages on Inle Lake, meeting silk spinners and fishermen that row with one leg. Find monks amongst the incense and hear their tale on the passage of time. Connect with the spirituality that pervades daily life, joining lines of pilgrims and admiring the beauty of hope.
Myanmar has some exquisite sights. Caves filled with thousands of Buddha images, the mesmeric temple landscape of Bagan, crumbling capitals and golden pagodas. This classic tour connects these iconic highlights but goes beyond notions of sightseeing. Each pagoda has a fable, every colonial mansion a story, and each village a surprise. Using some of the country's best local guides, this tour is all about unraveling the mysteries through your own cultural connections. You'll see the sights through the eyes of those that can make sense of them. You'll listen and smell your way across the country. You'll follow the tangled branches of the banyan until it points out at red-robed monk in an 11th-century Bagan shrine.
Myanmar's Iconic Destinations and Highlights
Myanmar does not require you to go off the beaten track. This classic luxury tour travels to the most famous of its destinations, encompassing the highlights that are slowly becoming known to the world. Start in Yangon and stand captivated by the harmony of its contrasts. Relax on Inle Lake and see the lifestyles of the country's east. Discover the old-world glory of Mandalay and the ancient Burmese capitals nearby. Be baffled by both the scale and detail of Bagan, landscape of Buddhist wonder that's barely changed since the 13thcentury.
Dotted throughout are the country's iconic experiences. Relax on a two-day Irrawaddy River cruise, from Mandalay to Bagan by colonial steamer. Hot air balloon above Bagan, watching how sunrise casts its rainbow against the temples. Travel in a horse-drawn carriage through the imperial capital of Inwa. Spirit gods on Mount Popa, botanical gardens in Maymyo, tobacco trading towns and villages with their own uniquespecialism...these 13 days help you appreciate a patchwork of life that stretches back over a millennia.
Coating the Experience in Contemporary Luxury
Myanmar's tourist infrastructure hasn't fully developed, yet contemporary Western luxury is available when you know where to look. From opulent stilt hotels to balconies overlooking Bagan's temples, we carefully handcraft the accommodation that makes your vacationmore than comfortable. Personalized dining recommendations add a new layer of discovery. Chauffeurs provide a level of professionalism to accompany raw local sights. Over 13 days you'll find that this tour is both rare cultural discovery and the quintessence of Myanmar luxury travel.
Highlights and Experiences
- Unravel the secrets of Bagan, where mysterious sandstone pagodas imbue a thrilling sense of spirituality.
- Admire colonial relics in their redolent state of decay, from the townhouses of old Rangoon (Yangon) to the blissful hill station of Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin).
- Immerse yourself in local lifestyles and unravel the complexities of Burmese life, from stilt villages on Inle Lake to monks in hidden caves.
- Enjoy two of Myanmar's most iconic experiences, a hot air balloon ride above Bagan and a two-day luxury cruise on the Irrawaddy River.
- Explore Kipling's Mandalay, from the temples and monasteries to the ancient Burmese capitals that occupy its outskirts.
- Unearth the luxuries that survive from distant centuries, like afternoon high tea and landscapes of gold leaf.
- Go beyond the classic interpretations with some of Myanmar's best guides, meeting locals who openly tell their story and finding the subtleties behind an inglorious history.
Day by Day
Colonial Grandeur in an Evocative State of Ruin
Central Yangon resembles something from a century ago. The name has changed from Rangoon to Yangon, yet the buildings remain the same and a sense of old-world grandeur lives on. Historic townhouses are crumbling slowly yet the slow decay only adds to the charm. For Yangon is no longer a colonial enclave, but the quintessence of modern Myanmar life. Atmospheric street life dazzles, with stalls and food carts spilling their wares beneath ornate balconies. Scents from India and China mingle with dreams of afternoon high tea. It's the country in a nutshell, a vibrant mix of everything, seemingly frozen in the late 19th century.
After a morning arrival you're transferred to the city's most legendary hotel, a revitalized icon that has been one of the world's leading hotels for over a century. Spend the afternoon exploring, a local guide uncovering the subtle secrets of a surreal downtown. So many contrasts are on show, so many fables coming together in remarkable unison. Religious icons also impress and you watch how sunset bounces off the golden leaf of Shwedagon Pagoda, the country's modern ode to Buddhism. Also included today are a photogenic stop on Kandawgyi Lake and exclusive access to heritage buildings that are normally closed to visitors.
Culture and Tranquility on Remote Inle Lake
As this Myanmar luxury tour progresses you'll discover that the country is a patchwork of unique cultures, stitched together by the shared experience of political challenge. Stoic yet serene, the people are a message of hope, a defining symbol of happiness beyond publicized troubles. Inle Lake is a classic example of this. Boatmen row with one leg, flowers blossom on strange floating islands, and villages rise on stilts in the water. Smiles and waves greet you on a private boat cruise, one that showcases how cultural heritage can dominate the ambiance of today. Inle Lake is a place of escapism, a tranquil destinations hidden in the hills. But like everything in Myanmar, the destination provides a unique insight into a remote world and its people.
Serene Sunrise and Into the Mountains
Mornings are special on Inle Lake. Golden tones bounce off the water, catching the fishermen in silhouette. Markets come alive as boats bring endless supplies of fruit and vegetables, antiques and souvenirs. Village life wakes, from children taking a boat to school to pigs snorting beneath stilt houses. And you continue to cruise, connecting the highlights of this magical lake, including a silk factory on stilts and 16th-century pagodas. After lunch the guide drives you to Pindaya, past small villages, into mountains of forested slopes. Spend the night here, gazing out over the country's dreamy landscapes.
A Connection With Buddha and Conversation With Monks
Mystique floats on the morning breeze as you explore the Pindaya Caves, where 8,000 Buddha images provide a bizarre and baffling sight. Some are intricate, detail packed into a sculpture the length of a fingernail. Some gleam through the gloom, huge icons with eyes that seem to follow you through the caverns. Incense and candles burn softly, feeding on the vestiges of oxygen that join you in the remote ends of the caves. These caves create a poignant impression of Myanmar's spirituality, as do the monks of Mandalay. After a short flight to the city of Kipling's nostalgia, you'll join novice monks on the mountain about Mandalay city, watching the sunset as they seek to practice their English.
An Old-World Connection With Mandalay
As you explore the old city you may be whispering the lines from Kipling's poem: “for the wind is in the palm trees and the temple bells they say...come you back to Mandalay.”Gold leaf shimmers on pagodas across the city, intricate wooden carvings hide inside monasteries, dust swirls amongst villages and the bells speak with their chimes. We've been arranging Myanmar luxury travel for over two decades and we've identified the best of the country's guides, local experts that lead your unique discovery. Like most days, today's private tour is relaxed and runs at your pace, revealing Mandalay;s highlights along with its hidden sights.
The Royal Capitals From a Forgotten Time
This morning you depart Myanmar and continue on a Burma luxury tour, traveling to imperial capitals dotted around Mandalay. Explore Inwa to the sound of hoofs, a horse-drawn chariot piecing together monuments from three centuries as Burma's heartbeat. Wooden monasteries and leaning towers, ancient palace walls and majestic banyan trees, Inwa always impresses the camera. Cross the wooden slats of U Bein bridge on a visit to Amarapura, where more gracious fables come from the annals of history. Then explore a blossoming dining scene with reservations at a restaurant that blurs colonial and Burmese styles. Throughout this itinerary, we'll provide handpicked dining reservations that allow you to taste the contrast between Burma's regions.
Beauty and Botanical Gardens in the Iconic British Hill Station
In the colonial era, it was Maymyo that provided Burma luxury tours. Ascend from the heat of the Mandalay plains to this hill station from yesteryear, where grand mansions have retained their elegance, even though the town has been renamed as Pyin Oo Lwin. This is a place to relax and uncover another side to the country's history, one of sweeping botanical gardens and clock towers from Kipling's fiction. You'll explore on a horse-drawn carriage and meet colorful locals, who are remarkably open in telling their story of Myanmar's recent history. Like always, your hotel has been handpicked to fit the destination, a sprawling mansion with the atmosphere of colonial times. Think afternoon tea and gracious wooden balconies.
Exclusive Cruise Along the Irrawaddy
The great Irrawaddy River is Myanmar's lifeblood, traveling through the past and into the present. It connects villages of tradition, cities of grandeur, and remarkable Buddhist treasures. By traveling slowly you are immersed in it all, a legendary colonial steamer taking two days to connect Mandalay with Bagan. Children break from their ebullient splashing to wave from the banks; oxen wade across, just horns and eyes above the water; narrowboats are framed against scorched red banks; old pagodas stand above it all. The 1947 Pandaw is the river's most timeless vessel, an opulent steamer that complements the atmosphere of a forbidden and forgotten time.
Spend two nights on board, with land excursions to walk around local villages and visit a tobacco trading town. After seven days hopping between attractions, these two days also provide a tranquil interlude before the world-renowned temples of Bagan. Like so much of Myanmar luxury travel, these two days are both getaway and adventure, cultural immersion and personal indulgence. Note that water levels dictate that the Irrawaddy River cruise is not available between May and August. A journey by land can be just as insightful during these months, rugged roads piecing together villages that are far from any tourist trail.
Baffled by the Wonders of Bagan
Scorched sandstone greets you in Bagan, a plateau of Buddhist peaks rising above the southern banks of the Irrawaddy. A few minutes off the boat and you're completely surrounded, thousands of pagodas and shrines spilling out in every direction. At first it's baffling, such religious abundance punctuated by the odd lonely palm. Even after a full day exploring you struggle to make sense of Bagan's scale, how so many exquisite structures have been isolated by time. There are literally thousands; visiting them all would take the best part of a year.
It's destinations like Bagan where the quality of the guiding really shines through. You sidestep the tour buses, exploring the most famous pagodas when their poignantly quiet, and you can savor the spirituality that permeates their walls. Fables and fictions accompany each of them, sometimes told through the monks you meet. Most of the pagodas don't have names, only numbers, yet their craftsmanship is masterful. And as sunset arrives you're not stood on a famous "sunset" temple, you're virtually alone on a 12th-century masterpiece with an equally impressive view over the dusty plains.
Ballooning Above Bagan and More Intimate Sights
Bagan is like a kaleidoscope from a hot air balloon. Ruby as the sun pierces the horizon, deep ochre to vibrant orange as sandstone emerges from the shadows, diaphanous hues of cinnamon and yellow as morning firmly arrives. An aerial sunrise tour is perhaps Myanmar's most iconic experience, an insight into the archaeological site's scale and surreal splendor. After the flight, touch down to a second breakfast then spend the day exploring further, uncovering more intricate details with your historical guide. These aren't museum pieces but living places of worship, which an incense-perfumed meeting with a bare-footed monk confirms.
Tropical Landscapes and the Spirit Gods of Mount Popa
Bagan sits on a plain of red dust, casting everything in the glow of a post-production photo. Beyond the old city is a landscape of rich tropical colors which appear oversaturated when replicated on film. Palm plantations and fields of sugar, oases set amongst a desert climate, panoramas for taking a picnic. The final day of this Myanmar luxury tour travels to Mount Popa, legendary home of the spirit gods ("nats"). Hear the stories from those who worship there and feel the spirituality that seems to consume nature. On the return to Bagan you have a final sunset image, a last tranquil spot watching the mystery succumb to darkness.
Returning to Yangon and Departure
An early morning flight gets you into Yangon with time for additional sightseeing. Spend it at the lake, at one of the golden pagodas, or wrapped in the luxury of a five-star riverside hotel, where old-world grandeur provides the peaceful setting before your international departure. You'll have day-room use of a hotel, ensuring your fresh for the homebound flight. Leaving the country you rekindle the fables, remembering the people that made Myanmar more than a work of fiction.
Rise before dawn to visit the magnificent Shwedagon Pagoda as monks arrive, watching the morning sun bathe the stupa into a golden shimmer. After, return for breakfast at the Governors and embark to explore the former capital city rich in dilapidated colonial ruins, and where gleaming towers are now rising next to ghettos. In the evening, dining in the pleasant courtyard of Le Planteur.
In the heart of the southern Shan mountains extends the picturesque Inle Lake. Here the Intha, the "sons of the lake", live in villages built on stilts, including homes and pagodas, and farm "floating isands" primarily of tomatoes. Here are the famous fishermen who row with only one leg and a small presence of the "long-necks" or A boat trip will take you also to Indein Pagoda, which is surrounded by over 1,000 stupas.
Yangon - Bagan - Mandalay
Day 3 | Bagan
Day 5 | Bagan sightseeing
Day 6 | Mandalay - Heho/Pindaya
Day 6 | Amarapura & Inwa
This trip will encompass the sacred highlights of the country and far lesser known ones, along with unique activities and sightseeing, while emphasizing religious customs, arts and crafts, and vanishing traditional lifestyles in the villages through personal encounters in areas where few other travelers venture including monasteries and the Buddhist University in Mandalay where we will learn about the region's unique expression of Buddhism firsthand. We'll also savor the region's stunning diversity of landscapes, from karst river valleys, desert plains, high-mountain ranges at time's best for photography.
There are two separate but interrelated processes: the first is being both conscious of what we choose to include in our viewfinder and of course, what we choose to exclude. We will learn to see the subtleties of light Mark Tuscman Myanmar Photo Tour Leaderand consider aspects of composition and gestures into making compelling images that express our unique points of view. Secondly, once we have captured an image that speaks to us, what enhancements can we make using the tools of digital photography to either augment or transform the image so it coincides with the intention we had when we chose to click the shutter?
The varied and unique landscapes of Inle Lake and Bagan will be balanced by our authentic people-to-people encounters during this twelve-day exploration of Myanmar. Here are among of the gentlest people in the world and we'll attempt to capture their warm endearing spirit and deep Buddhist beliefs, including spending time with novice to graduate-level monks. We will also visit two projects in the country whose work are focused on women's issues and empowerment.
Our last photography series tour of 
Day 1 | Arrive Yangon
The country's tumultuous and infamous recent political history has served to complicate matters further. The military rule of Myanmar has, from time to time, forced isolation on the nation, sharply restricting the amount of foreign artistic influence, and its corresponding growth, that could enter the native art community. One will discover the scope of the artwork in the country has been able to grow in terms of technique and execution, although there has not been much in the way of pushing the envelope so common by artists in the West.
Surprising to some art-focused travelers, Burmese artists do not all fit into the "starving artist" stereotype and will find a variety of personas, from the 74-year-old retired math teacher Kyee Myintt Saw to the 39-year-old Nyein Chan Su, artists who are running their own galleries, and taking steps to make enough sales to continue art as a career, hoping to be discovered by the outside world. And that recognition is coming.
All of these artists may be working to build the art scene in Myanmar, but they also share a dedication to preserving their culture. Their culture and history live on in their artwork, and the influence of the past masters of the craft are visible in today's works, some quite successfully. Min Wae Aung, an internationally acclaimed artist, whose renditions of Buddhist monks sell for up to twenty thousand dollars in Hong Kong, London, and Paris. With the absence of a national art museum in Myanmar, it has fallen to people like Mr. Aung to preserve the historic paintings of the nation. He has a collection that he calls the "Old Burmese Masters", and is finishing construction on a new gallery in Yangon to house them adjacent his existing studio, New Treasure Art Gallery.
Day 5 | Inle Lake
Our exceptional biking tours canvas the popular highlights of the country, through the sleepy heartland from pious Mandalay on the storied Irrawaddy River and the picturesque Inle Lake, the vast ruins on the plain of Bagan, but also lesser known ones, such as Monywa, a small town in the agricultural heartland. Along with biking, emphasis on the distinct regional customs, arts, and cuisine, including attending any festivals such as the Paung Daw U Festival in Inle Lake, an annual event where hilltribes from throughout the Shan State gather to celebrate. Personal encounters (including home visits) are emphasized throughout.
At the festival, the fiery and colorful balloons which can come in various shapes such as birds, tigers, and some are big as a house are prepared and launched into the night sky. The balloons are released as an offering to the Sulamani Cetiya in Tavitisma, a heaven in Buddhist cosmology and home of the devas, or as a way to drive away evil spirits. However, the origins of the balloons launching tradition dates back only recently to 1894, when the British held the first hot air balloon competitions in Taunggyi, capital of the Shan State, soon after the annexing Upper Burma. There are also parades, carnival games, concerts, feasts, and massive fireworks with the last two days being the most interesting. Villagers from around the region congregate for this important festival and we have arranged travelers to attend the festival in Taunggyi for many years.
Myanmar's second most popular national festival, after Thingyan, celebrates the end of the Buddhist lent, the three-month Buddhist period time, during which all monks and novices must remain in their temples and typically marks the end of the rainy season.
High up on the mountains of remote Northwest Myanmar are the Naga, one of the over one hundred and fifty different ethnnic tribes in Myanmar.
Southeast Asia's most raucous festival, as in Thailand and Cambodia, Thingyan celebrates the end of the old year and the beginning of the New Year. The festival, which has traditional roots as a cleansing celebration, takes place annually in mid-April. when locals take to the streets dousing each other with water as they welcome in the Buddhist new year with a fresh beginning. Mostly younger people eagerly participate in water throwing by buckets, water guns, hoses or any method possible.