6 Days Keng Tung Trekking in Eastern Shan State _Medium to Hard

Detailed Itinerary 

Keng Tung – Pin Tauk – Ho Kyin – Lahushi – Wun Nyat – Wun Sen – Keng Tung

Day 1: Keng Tung Arrival & S/S

Trekking Duration = Nil

Upon arrival at Keng Tung airport, after luggage collection, you will be welcome by local tour guide. Then, drive to your hotel for check-in and if the time permits, drive to east of Keng Tung (approx: 30 minutes) to visit Akhe Tribal Village. Shan Ethnic has altogether 33 Tribes and Akhe is one of them who live in far off in the eastern Myanmar. Take a walk to the village when you car arrives at the junction in the rice-fields. Old Akhe ladies wearing their traditional costumes and kids will welcome you to their village selling hand-made traditional ornaments; Rosaries, pipes made of bamboo and so on. The tribe’s major means of living is farming and agriculture. Then drive back to Keng Tung.

Overnight in Keng Tung

Day 2: Keng Tung – Pin Tauk – Keng Tung (B/-/-)

Trekking Duration = Maximum 4 hours

After breakfast, drive to downtown of Keng Tung to visit the market. You may buy some snacks, medicines, stationaries, books to give as presents to the villagers and your picnic lunch should also be prepared in the market with the assistance of your Trekking Guide. Then, drive on the Chinese-Myanmar highway of Mai Yang approax; one hour to Pin Tauk where you can visit THREE tribal villages of Ann, Lahu and Akha. On the way you can visit a Shan village called Wan Kam where they distill the Country Spirit, schnap and why not try a bit! But be sure to taste looking carefully at the froths! Then continue to Pin Tauk. The car will arrive firstly at Lahu village and wait for you there.

Once you enter the village you will see the Akha Ladies with their traditional dress selling their hand-made home-made souvenirs. After 20 minutes or so easy trekking, you will arrive at the first Akha village where you may take a rest by visiting one of the village houses. Then, continue your ascending to reach the Ann village. Ann people live in the higher places away from the civilization and their ways of life seem to us a bit hard. The trekking is on up-and-up basis, but large green forest provides you ample of shade to take a occasional breaks. After more or less one hour, you will reach the Ann village. Visit Sha Mine, village;s spiritual leader house where you will experience the worshiping rituals and customs which is the old belief of Spiritualism mixed with Animism. Strict rules and disciplines reign over the traditional belief of remote place dwellers. Visit village Spirit Shrine on the hill in the village while hearing the commentary and explanations of Local Trekking Guide. Here the villagers speak their native language as well as State language of Shan but no one in the village can speak Myanmar. After picnic lunch arranged on your own, descending down to another Ann village living on the base of the mountains. Afterwards, the trekking trail slopes down crossing the rice-fields and finally you will arrive back to your car. Drive back to Keng Tung.

Overnight at Keng Tung

Day 3: Keng Tung- Hokyin – Keng Tung (B/-/-)

Trekking Duration = Maximum 5 hours

During your tribal tour in Keng Tung, you can make a visit one day to the Buffalo and Cow Market. It occurs 2 to 3 times a week on the outskirts of Keng Tung. How the dealers and traders work out the transactions at the market is really interesting.

Then you may visit the Keng Tung market for presents to the villagers and picnic lunch with Shan Food and Fruits! Afterwards drive to mountain base to Trek and Hike up to Mountainous Region of Hokyin on the Myanmar-Thailand highway. It takes about 50 minutes to reach the junction where you do the trekking ascending up to the Akha villages. Start your trekking of about 4.5 hours at this junction. After a few minutes, you will reach a small primary school where you can pay a visit and may be offer some books and stationary. Then, continue your hiking up the Hokyin Mountain passing on the way the Tea Plantation, Mandarin Orange Plantations and pine forest. Introduce yourself to the Akha people who you meet on your hiking trail.

After one hour or more, you will reach the mountain top where you can see the 4 Akha villages each sitting on the individual mountain top. The view is really outstanding from above and you may take a break there. Then descend down to the first Akha village. Here you will see three religious beliefs and separated by the three different wards of the village. For Buddhist villagers at the entrance gate, you will see a small pagoda, for Animist in the quarter you will see the crucifix, for Christians a Cross at the entrance. The main source of villagers’ income comes from Agriculture and Schnap Distillery. You can visit some houses to study how they brew the Rice Spirit using their own-version of yeast made of herbs collected in the jungle. Then proceed to another village, have your lunch there and in the afternoon, descend down to your car waiting for you at another highway junction and then drive back to Keng Tung.

Overnight at Keng Tung

Day 4: Keng Tung-  Lahushi – Keng Tung (B/-/-)

Trekking Duration = Maximum 6 hours

After breakfast, drive along the Mong Yan Chinese-Myanmar highway road and just outside the town at the toll-gate, turn left to the high mountains. Total driving hour is 50 minutes and you will arrive the starting point at the base of Mountain. From there ascend up about 20 minutes and you will arrive at a Akha village. You may take some pictures of Akha women in their traditional dress. Akha Traditional Head-dress is very famous in the world made of old coins, animal skins and so on. Then proceed up hiking for about 2 hours to get to the Lahushi Village which is on top of the mountain. You can see the village from a distance and the view is fantastic. To hike up to the village is a little hard but it is worth wearing out your energy. Very few tourists can reach them as it is remote from the society.

Visit the village head, which presides over 40 or so households and you may enjoy your lunch there at the house of Village Head. You can request the head to play their traditional musical instruments which they perform for their New Year festival that falls in the month of December. Enjoy the tea prepared by them from the fire-place that they use for cooking inside the house. After making friends with some curious villagers who come to see you at the village head’s house, you may continue to another village that can be seen at a distance on another hillock. Here the villagers shift from one place to another depending on the soil condition. If they live at one place for a certain time and the soil that they cultivate for agriculture has worn out and the whole village moves to another Rich-Soil Terrain. However, they choose only the site on the high mountains. Then, walk down back to your car in the afternoon and drive back to Keng Tung.

Overnight in Keng Tung

Day 5: Keng Tung-  Wun Nyat – Wun San – Keng Tung (B/-/-)

After breakfast, visit Keng Tung morning market for purchasing lunch and other presents for the villagers. Or you may bring alone with you the small gifts that you think suitable! Then drive to Wun Nyat and Wun Sen villages for about two hours along the Mai Lar Highway to Chinese Border. The first driving hour is on the very rough part of disappearing asphalt country road and the second is rather smooth asphalt ascending road. The views on the mountains during your drive come up very scenic and beautiful, and you can make a few stops for Pees and Pictures. After checking in at the check-point control you drive on about 20 minutes and you will reach a spot where you stop and start your hiking. Nearly one and a half hour trekking under the shady on the mountain ridges, you will arrive at the first village called Wun Nyat.

The colorful and well built Shan Style monastery will welcome you to the peaceful village. Visit the monastery and relax there for a while in it. Take the picture of the murals on the wall of the monastery and hear the explanations of the guide. Some antique Buddha Images and Drums and gongs can still be seen inside well-preserved by the Buddhist Monks. Then walk to the village just at the back and you can visit one of the houses, the traditional Tribal house made of wood, bamboo and thatch. Enjoy your picnic lunch there and introduce the villages to yourself. Situated in the remote place and language barrier make the visit difficult and you are one of the few tourists of the year to that village. After a short break, you can continue to Wun San village. It just takes 20 minutes or so to get to that village. Walk around inside the village and you may distribute your peasants. Then walk back to your car and drive back to Keng Tung.

Overnight at Keng Tung

Day 6: Keng Tung City visit and Departure (B/-/-)

After breakfast, explore Keng Tung town starting with the Lonely Tree Hill. Overlooking the town from hill top, Thitapin Taung, One-tree Hill serves as a place for relaxing, photographing and for the families, for picnic spot. You will see on the hill the Old Keng Tung Palace Wall and Fort built of red bricks. Originally founded by the Old Hermit, the town is named after that hermit and called Keng Tung. Actually the word is a combination of the name of the hermit ‘Keng’ and the lake ‘Tung’. The legendary Lake is in the center of the city and you can take a walk around the lake where you can make the beautiful pictures of the Last Shan King’s Palace and pagoda across the lake. You can also visit the Rice Noodle Making Factory, Lacquer Ware Factory inside the town. Then drive to Keng Tung airport for the flight to your onward destination.

End of program