As is often the case for us, when we returned from our 2013 visit to Myanmar we came away with the feeling that we wanted more.

Additionally, a favorite relative who had followed our first trip had expressed an interest in traveling there and we thought it would a nice way to spend some time with her so we began planning a return visit for November 2016.

Since this was the first time in Myanmar for some in our group, we hit many of the same highlights in Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake as on that 2013 trip so this report won’t go into a lot of details on those. The above links will describe that earlier trip but if you would like so see some new photos; these links will take you to our 2016 photo albums for Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake.

But we did have a couple new adventures planned that turned out to be some of our favorite experiences of the entire trip.

Since our first trip we had come across dramatic videos and descriptions of the Gokteik Viaduct Train from Mandalay to Hsipaw (pronounced See’ Pah) in the Northern Shan state so we worked a train ride over the gorge into our itinerary. You can read about our adventure in more detail and view our own video plus more photos at our Gokteik Viaduct Train page and our two night stay in the tranquility of the small town of Hsipaw at the linked page.

One new experience for us in Mandalay was a visit to Kuauk Sit Tan Street near the Mahamuni Temple where we walked among the many workshops carving images of Buddha from blocks of white marble.  We saw workshops and open air displays on both sides of the street for an entire block.

The statues ranged in size from small images that would fit on a book shelf to larger than life-size models as much as 10 feet tall. Some shops had only a few pieces on display but others had row upon row of finished and near finished statues.

The mostly young workers were covered in marble dust as they first shape an image with a grinder and then polished the rough piece smooth.

Many of the statues on display are complete but some others have the body finished but are presented with rough blocks for the head so that a buyer can custom order facial features and expressions.

While we would have loved to have one of the larger statues for our home we felt somewhat limited in terms of what we could bring back with us so we selected an image roughly 20 inches tall and then headed straight to a luggage store to buy a (rolling) carry-on bag to fit it. While a bit heavy, with some of our textiles serving as cushions our Buddha made it back with us safe and sound.

Our final stop in Myanmar was a return to Inle Lake in the Shan state, which is primarily populated by the same ethnic group as as found in the Northern Shan state but in a different geography.

The Shan people are the second largest ethnic group in Myanmar (after the Burma) and by far the largest part of their population is concentrated in these two states.

Inle Lake is one of those magical places that when you visit, you will think it was dropped in its place by aliens from another planet. In addition to the strong weaving tradition and a beautiful mountain lake landscape, the iconic image of Inle Lake are the fishermen who stand at the back of their boats on one leg, using the other leg to paddle while throwing nets and large cone shaped baskets into the water to catch fish.

Some of the food in Myanmar is unique to the country but much of it shows a strong influence from neighboring countries.  Versions of some dishes can be found over the entire country but some others will be limited to a particular region.

On both of our visits to the country, we found the traditional Shan cuisine to be our favorite style of food in Myanmar so it was only natural that we would take, what turned out to be a really wonderful cooking class at the Mr.Min Cooking Class.

On the morning of our class we boarded a long tail boat from our hotel’s dock and headed out the channel towards the lake center. After a short ride our boat turned left onto a narrow canal and continued through heavy vegetation to the middle of a floating village where we found a well equipped kitchen and outdoor dining table in a beautiful setting.

This really was an excellent class that I would recommend to anyone with an interest in Shan cuisine.

When we were planning this trip, we made sure that we would be in Inle Lake, during the time of the spectacular Taunggyi Balloon festival celebrated near there.

This is a week-long festival with the atmosphere of a carnival and a competition for hot air balloons constructed of paper shooting fireworks both into the air and on occasion from the air back at the crowd. Our evening there was one of the highlights of our entire 8-week trip to Asia.

You can view a video, photos and read in greater detail of our experiences at our Taunggyi Balloon festival page.