Day 1: ARRIVE IN CHIANG MAI (D)

Arrive in Chiang Mai airport be met and transferred to your hotel for check in. You are free to absorb the ambience of the northern Thai people and their Lanna culture by going among them in the streets, in the coffee cafes, shops, restaurants, temples and entertainment outlets.
At 7pm pick up at hotel lobby for an evening of cultural events and the khantoke dinner at the largest khantoke place in Chiang Mai – Khum Khantoke. You will see authentic traditional northern Thai and hill tribe performances while you partake of the non-stop flow of food to your round-table (khantoke). Return to your hotel or to the Night Bazaar.
Overnight at Rydges Amora Hotel or Royal Lanna, Chiang Mai.

Day 2:  CHIANG MAI - TOUR TO DOI SUTHEP (B, L)

Buffet breakfast at your hotel.
Meet in the hotel lobby at 9am for a tour up Doi Suthep to visit the mountain monastery, Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, with its famous naga staircase and golden chedi. On a clear day you can see the city spread out below and more mountains in the distance. A small museum holds exhibits of votive tablets and Buddhist amulets as well as Lanna-style Buddha images. Be sure to ring all the bronze bells surrounding the main chedi for good luck. Burn a joss stick, light a candle and say a prayer for yourself and friends. Return to Chiang Mai city and on the way drop in at the Tribal Cultural Centre in Chiang Mai University to know about the hill tribes living in the mountains around Chiang Mai. Lunch of good northern and central Thai cuisine at Tha Nam Restaurant beside the Ping River. After lunch, a tour of this old city in the afternoon to include the old city moat and gates, Kad Suan Kaew shopping complex, and a couple of the important temples like Wat Phra Singh, Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Suan Dok. Engage in a “Monk Chat” under the tamarind trees where the monks gather to meet visitors and chat about Buddhism or how they live in the monastery and study and learn the Dharmma. Free for the evening.

Overnight at Rydges Amora Hotel or Royal Lanna, Chiang Mai.

Day 3:  CHIANGMAI - DOI MAE SALONG (B, L, D)

Buffet breakfast at the hotel. Check out and meet in the hotel lobby for pick-up at 8am to go on an excursion of Chiang Rai province via Fang and Thaton. Visit the elephant camp at Chiang Dao for an experience with elephants. For those wishing to ride on an elephant with a mahout for a 10-minute romp into the jungle, pay a nominal fee to the mahout. Continue on to Thaton, the Kok River depot where boats cruise downstream to Chiang Rai. Lunch at Thaton River View Lodge. Early afternoon you continue to Doi (mountain) Mae Salong, now renamed Santikhiri to gain its new-found respectability. This is the successful settlement of the Chinese Kuomintang who fled communist China in 1949, initially to Myanmar; but in 1961 the Yangon government decided not to let them stay and so with their ponies and packed caravans they wandered into the mountains of northern Thailand and set up settlements.
From its infamous beginning as an opium fiefdom, Mae Salong has gained good name as a cash crop producer today. Among the many kinds of cash crops they produce is the famous and expensive oolong tea. In the cool season around February the whole place is covered in cherry blossoms. Visit an Akha and a Lisu hill tribe village to see how these mountain people live. Check into hotel and be at leisure.
Dinner at the hotel of the best Yunnanese food on the mountain.

Overnight in a Mae Salong Villa bungalow (fan room) or Naiphol Lodge, Doi Mae Salong.

Day 4: MAE SALONG – TACHILEIK – INLE LAKE (B, L)

Breakfast at the hotel. At 9am depart from your hotel to go to the Thai-Burmese border at Mae Sai. Along the 38km mountain road you can visit an Akha and a Yao hill tribe village as well as a school for hill tribe children. We arrive at Mae Sai on the Thai-Burmese border for immigration formalities to cross into Burmese Tachileik. While your guide processes your entry procedures you are free to walk in the town.

Tachileik has many kinds of goods from China - blankets, bed covers, fabrics, shoes, utensils, electrical appliances, mushrooms and fruits both fresh and dried. Duty-free cartons of cigarettes and bottles of alcohol of dubious quality are pressed on you along the shopping streets. By strolling about this small place you will acquire an insight into an aspect of Burmese life in a poverty-bound town typical of provincial Myanmar.

We then transfer to Tachileik airport to fly to Heho. On arrival at Heho airport, meet and transfer to the Inle Lake, an hour’s drive through stunning scenery of the southern Shan State.

Overnight at Inle Princess Resort or Golden Island Cottages, Inle Lake.

Day 5:  INLE LAKE (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, we begin sightseeing of “outrageously beautiful Inle Lake” by boat – a natural basin of water standing 875 metres high, 22km long and 11km wide, rimmed by lovely mountains. It is Myanmar’s second biggest lake and famous for its unique leg-rowers. These Intha fishermen are natives of the lake and by rowing with one leg while standing upright on the stern of the boat their hands are free to cast their nets efficiently. Tour highlights include visits to the Floating Market (only once in every 5 days); the venerable Phaung Daw-Oo Pagoda, focal point of religious activities on the Lake drawing in thousands of people from around the lake and the whole of the Shan State on festival days – the most important being the three-week long Phaung Daw Oo festival at the end of September-early October and the Thadingyut festival (end of Buddhist Lent) in late October. We visit

Inpawkhone village well known for its silk weaving industry on handlooms, Ngaphechaung Monastery with its jumping cats, watch traditional ways of fishing, and views of floating gardens of flowers and vegetables in patches upon the lake. Lunch in a local restaurant. As dusk gathers soak in the magical atmosphere of the lake as the fading light plays upon the calm waters. Then we have dinner at the hotel.

Overnight in Inle Princess Resort or Golden Island Cottages, Inle Lake.

Day 6:  INLE-PINDAYA-HEHO-MANDALAY (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel After breakfast, check out of the hotel to drive to Pindaya - a small quiet place famous for its limestone caves filled with more than 8,000 Buddha images placed there in the past centuries and lovely Boutaloke Lake. After sightseeing of Pindaya, drive to Heho airport for the flight to Mandalay, the royal capital that good King Mindon built in the mid-19th century. It is the centre of Myanmar Arts & Crafts. We arrive in Mandalay in the late afternoon and transfer to hotel. Evening visit to Maha Muni Pagoda where locals pay great reverence to a huge bronze Buddha image cast, it was said, during the lifetime of the Buddha. Dinner in a famous restaurant before checking into our hotel.

Overnight in Sedona Hotel or Mandalay Swan, Mandalay.

Day 7:  MANDALAY - MINGUN - BAGAN (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, check-out from the hotel to go to a jetty on the Ayeyarwaddy River for a boat trip to Mingun where the world’s largest ringing bell exists hanging by a pole inches from the ground. It is one of the several “biggest” constructions that King Bodawpaya aspired to build in Mingun during his reign. His pagoda if finished would be 150 metres high - the tallest in the world; but as it is, the base itself is already 50 metres high. It is called Pahtodawgyi (the Unfinished Pagoda). Two largest giant chinthes guarded the entrance to this massive pagoda. Visit Mingun village where an Old Folks Home (the Buddhist Infirmary) takes care of many abandoned people too old to survive on their own. Nearby is a blue pagoda of lovely design, the Hsinbyume Paya, that King Bagyidaw built for his beloved wife in 1816 (three years before he succeeded his father King Bodawpaya). Many of the Mingun structures were damaged during the 1838 earthquake, but what remains is still impressive. Return to Mandalay by our boat to have lunch before transfer to Mandalay airport for the flight to Bagan. Upon arrival at Bagan airport, transfer to hotel to freshen up.

Dinner and puppet show in a restaurant.

Overnight at Thiripyitsaya Hotel or Tharabar Gate Hotel, in old Bagan.

Day 8:  BAGAN – YANGON (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel. Bagan is one of the most stupendous archaeological sites in the world. No less than 5,000 pagodas stand around in ruins with about 20 important ones restored, providing visitors with an astonishing sight of the glory of ancient Bagan from the time of its founder King Anawrahta in the 11th century until the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. Sightseeing of Bagan starts as soon as we passed the Tharabar Gateway guarded by the brother-and-sister nats built in the 9th century and nearby to which King Anawrahta’s wooden palace was located. We stroll in the Nyaung Oo market giving us an insight into the daily victuals of the villagers living around the ancient site of old Bagan. We hit the temples with a first visit of the Shwezigon Pagoda - the prototype for later Myanmar pagodas built by King Anawrahta; then to the Ananda Temple - King Kyansittha's masterpiece and the crowning achievement of the early style of temple architecture; Kyansitha Umin – a cave temple with Mongol paintings as evidence of the Mongol occupation of Bagan; Thatbyinnyu Temple - the highest building on the Bagan plain; and Htilominlo Temple - the largest temple of Bagan. Lunch in a restaurant. After lunch, visit a lacquer ware factory producing this distinctive craft of Bagan. In Myinkaba village see the Manuha Temple that the captive Mon king of Thaton constructed to show Anawrahta his unhappiness at being a prisoner in a golden cage; Gubyaukgyi Temple known for its wall paintings depicting scenes from the Jataka; and Dhamanyangyi Temple - the most massive temple of Bagan.

Relax over a good dinner in a very good restaurant.

Overnight at Thiripyitsaya Hotel or Tharabar Gate Hotel, old Bagan.

Day 9: BAGAN – MT POPA – YANGON (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel. Morning departure for a half-day sightseeing to Mt Popa, the abode of Myanmar’s 37 Nats, standing 737 metres high on a solitary peak on the Myingyan Plain. A head nat rules over them all. A petrified forest formed on the plain since 250,000 years ago when the last volcanic eruption took place. The fertile plain produces lots of flowering plants and herbs. On top of Mt Popa is a complex of monasteries, shrines and stupas which you can get to in 25 minutes using the stone stairway. Return to Bagan for lunch, and be at leisure until time to transfer to the airport for the flight to Yangon. Meet and transfer to the hotel on arrival in Yangon. Dinner in a restaurant.

Overnight in Traders Hotel or the Grand Plaza, Yangon.

Day 10:  YANGON (B, L, D)

Breakfast at the hotel. Full-day sightseeing of Yangon, the only developing city of Myanmar. This ancient town that King Alaungpaya named “the End of Strife” in 1755 was occupied by the victorious British in 1852 and made the capital of British Burma in 1885 when they captured Mandalay and abolished the kingship by exiling King Thibaw to India. They built the city on its ancient foundation when it was called “Dagon’ until 4 January 1948 when they left, following Britain’s grant of independence to Burma. So you can expect to see both Burmese and British legacies scattered all over Yangon in today’s full-day sightseeing tour of the city. Foremost is the Shwedagon Pagoda, the 2500 year-old world famous stupa started during the lifetime of Gotama Buddha; Sule Pagoda, a beautiful octagonal golden stupa dating over 2,000 years; Botataung Pagoda, the landmark of Yangon's waterfront; and Chaukhtatgyi Pagoda housing a colossal reclining Buddha. After that, will visit the Local Glass Blowing Factory where you can see fanciful objects of glass produced by ancient techniques. Later in the afternoon, proceed to Gem Market where you can see and handle world famous Myanmar rubies and jades as well as various types of colour stones. We then adjourn to the large Bogyoke (Scott) Market for souvenir bargains. And lastly, a visit to China Town before our farewell dinner at Shan Kan restaurant.

Overnight in Traders Hotel or the Grand Plaza, Yangon.

Day 11:  YANGON – DEPARTIRE (B)

Breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, transfer to airport for your departure flight

 End of Program

Tour cost in Japanese Yen per person
Northern Thailand & Myanmar, 11 Days.

INCLUSIONS:

All Domestic airfares in Myanmar, THL-HEH-MDY-BGN-YGN.
10 nights’ hotel accommodation with daily breakfast.
9 dinners (one with show) and 10 lunches.
All transfers and transportation in air-conditioned car/van/coach.
Tours as stated in the program.
Boat fees in Inle Lake & Mingun.

All entrance fees when on tours including that to the Bagan Archaeological Zone, tolls and parking charges.

English speaking station guide services.

EXCLUSIONS:

International airfares and airport taxes (including that of US$10 in Mandalay): YGN-BKK.
Visa fee to Myanmar – visa-upon-arrival can be arranged with 14 days’ notice and cost of US$50.
Drinks at meals other than what is served at table.
Expenses of a personal nature like massage, use of hotel mini bar, laundry, phone calls, room service and the like.

HOTELS:

SUPERIOR (3-Star).
IN CHIANG MAI: Royal Lanna
IN DOI MAE SALONG: Naiphol Lodge
IN INLE LAKE: Golden Island Cottages
IN MANDALAY: Mandalay Swan
IN BAGAN: Tharabar Gate Hotel
IN YANGON; Grand Plaza Hotel

FIRST CLASS (4-Star).
IN CHIANG MAI: Rydges Amora Hotel
IN DOI MAE SALONG: Mae Salong Villa
IN INLE LAKE: Inle Princess Resort
IN MANDALAY: Sedona Hotel.
IN BAGAN: Sakura Thiripyitsaya
IN YANGON: Traders Hotel.

DELUXE (5-Star).
IN CHIANG MAI: Tamarind Village (boutique hotel)
IN DOI MAE SALONG: Mae Salong Villa (Superior room)
IN INLE LAKE: Inle Princess Resort (Deluxe room)
IN MANDALAY: Mandalay Hill Resort
IN BAGAN: Bagan Golf Resort (Deluxe room)
IN YANGON:  Pan Sea.