Upon arrival at airport in Myanmar, you will be warmly met by a representative, who will provide assistance and transfer to your accommodation to check-in.

Activities:

• Transfer (1.5 Hours); Visit Shwedagon Pagoda at sunset (30 Minutes) Shwedagon Pagoda: the highlight of any visit to Yangon, this pagoda towers over the city and is the most sacred spot in the country, and built to house eight hair relics of the Buddha. The Shwedagon and surrounding shrines are particularly beautiful during the sunset hour, as the golden stupa reflects the changing colours of twilight.

TIP OF THE DAY: Temples require visitors to take off shoes and socks, therefore, impress with a Longyi! Locals will really appreciate your taste of culture and might even ask to take a photo with you.

Overnight: Yangon

Activities:

• Transfer (1.5 Hours); Flight from Yangon to Bagan; Transfer (5 kms).
• Sightseeing in Bagan; Bagan is a spectacular plain stretching away from the Ayeyarwaddy River, dotted with thousands of 800-year old temple ruins. Although human habitation at Bagan dates back almost to the beginning of the Christian era, Bagan only entered its golden period with the conquest of Thaton in 1057 AD.
• Visit Nyaung U Market (30 Minutes); The busy colourful market in Nyaung U is a very lively affair each morning when people from all around town come to buy and sell vegetables, crafts, spices, meat and other goods. Walk around the market to observe the daily activities of local people and their trade.
• Visit Shwezigon Pagoda (30 Minutes); Originally the Shwezigon Pagoda marked the northern end of the city of Bagan. The stupa’s graceful bell shape became a prototype for virtually all later stupas all-over Myanmar.
• Visit Kyanzittha Umin (30 Minutes); This cave temple was built into a cliff face close to Shwezigon, the long dimly lit corridors are decorated with frescoes, some of which are thought to have been painted by Bagan’s Tartar invaders during the period of the Mongol occupation after 1287.
• Visit Wetkyi-in Village Visit Htilominlo Temple (30 Minutes); a two storey red brick temple built by King Htilominlo around 1211 who was King Narapatisithu’s son. It is one of the larger temples of Bagan reaching 46 metres and commands the road from Bagan to Nyaung-U.
• Visit Shwegugyi Pagoda (30 Minutes); Built by Alaungsithu in 1311, this smaller but elegant pahto is an example of the Middle period, a transition in architectural style from the dark and cloistered to the airy and light.
• Visit Mingalazedi Pagoda (30 Minutes); South of Bagan, Mingalazedi Pagoda, with its soft fluid lines, represents the height of Burmese Pagoda architecture. It was built by King Narathihapati. The stupa is noteworthy for its beautiful terracotta jataka plaques around the terraces.
• Visit Shwesandaw Pagoda (30 Minutes); In 1057 King Anawrahta built this Pagoda following his conquest of Thaton. This is the first monument in Bagan, which features stairways leading up from the square bottom terraces to the round base of the Stupa.
• Transfer to/from Restaurant.

TIP OF THE DAY: Sunset & Sunrise in Bagan are the most beautiful and memorable times of day. Be prepared with your camera at any pagoda you visit.

Overnight: Bagan – (B, L, D)

Activities:

• Sightseeing in Bagan – Visit Ananda Pahto, one of the finest, largest, best preserved and most revered of the Bagan temples. Thought to have been built around 1105 by King Kyanzittha, this perfectly proportioned temple heralds the stylistic end of the Early Bagan period and the beginning of the Middle period.
• Visit Ananda Okkyaung: This is the monastery, a small red-brick building within the Ananda Temple compound. The walls are covered in well-preserved 18th century wall paintings depicting scenes from Buddha’s life and scenes from Bagan’s history.
• Visit the Bagan Archaeological Museum: Built in 1998, the Bagan Museum gives an interesting glimpse into the glorious past of Bagan. The Museum holds a large number of religious images found in the temples around Bagan. In the main gallery is the ‘Rosetta Stone’, dating from 1113, which is inscribed in Pyu, Mon, Pali and Burmese allowing scholars to decode the Pyu script for the first time Visit a Lacquerware Workshop: The small villages around Bagan are known for producing the finest lacquerware in Myanmar.
• Stop by one of the workshops and learn about the painstaking process of laquerware making and decoration.
• Visit Bupaya Pagoda, right on the bank of the Ayeyarwady, this cylindrical Pyu-style stupa is said to be the oldest in Bagan. Local residents claim it dates to the 3rd century. The distinctively shaped bulbous stupa stands above rows of crenellated terraces.
• Transfer to/from restaurant.

Overnight: Bagan – (B, L, D)

Activities:

• Transfer (5kms) – Flight from Bagan to Mandalay. – Transfer (1Hr).
• Sightseeing in Mandalay Visit Mahamuni Paya, originally built by King Bodawpaya in 1784 when a road paved with bricks was constructed from his palace to the paya’s eastern gate. The centerpiece of the shrine is the highly venerated Mahamuni image that was transported to Myanmar from Mrauk U in Rakhaing in 1784.
• Visit Kuthodaw Paya, the central stupa here was modeled on the Shwezigon Paya at Nyaung U near Bagan. Building commenced in 1857, at the same time as the royal palace. The paya has been dubbed ‘the world’s biggest book’, for standing around the central stupa are 729 marble slabs on which are inscribed the entire Tripitaka.
• Visit Shwenandaw Kyaung, a monastery of great interest, not only as a fine example of a traditional Burmese wooden monastery, but as a fragile reminder of the old Mandalay Fort. At one time this building was part of the palace compex, and was used as an apartment by King Mindon and his chief queen, and it was here that he died. After Mindon’s death, King Thibaw Min had the building dismantled and reassembled on its present site in 1880 as a monastery.
• Visit Mandalay Hill at sunset.
• Transfer to/from restaurant. Overnight at Mandalay

Overnight: Mandalay – (B, L, D)

Activities:

• Excursion to Mingun, Sagaing and Amarapura with Boat trip. (SIC Boat) (8Hrs).
• This day’s tour visits three former royal sites, each with its own unique atmosphere.
• Travel by boat to Mingun, enjoying the views of river life – fishing villages, market boats, women attending to their washing, and children playing in the water. Explore the ruins of the vast Mingun Paya, a monument to human ambition – never finished, its size would have dwarfed all contemporary pagodas.
• After visiting other nearby pagodas, re-board your boat and start downriver towards Sagaing, a former royal capital and the spiritual center of Myanmar. Hundreds of stupas, monasteries, temples and nunneries are to be found in Sagaing Hill, sometimes known as a living Bagan. Thousands of monks and nuns retreat here for meditation and contemplation.
• Stop at some of the most famous temples, such as Tupayon Paya and Hsinmyashin Paya (the Pagoda of Many Elephants).
• Head to Amarpura, a former royal capital, and the Mahagandayon Monastery to observe monks and novices as they line up to receive their daily offering of alms and food from faithful Buddhists.
• Afterwards, visit the nineteenth century Pahtodawgyi Paya and the reconstructed Bagaya Kyaung, a close cousin to the monastery of the same name in Inwa.
• Pause to enjoy the atmosphere of U Bein’s Bridge, a picturesque teak bridge which extends over one kilometer across Taungthaman Lake, and the highlight of any visit to Amarapura.
• Transfer to/from restaurant.

Overnight: Mandalay – (B, L, D)

Activities:

• Transfer (1 Hours) ; Flight from Mandalay to Heho; By vehicle from Heho to Inle Lake (1.5 Hours); Transfer by boat (1 Hours); Excursion by boat on Inle Lake. Inle Lake: radiates the calm serenity of the Shan state, with persuasive still waters and colourful brush strokes of floating vegetation and slow moving fishing canoes most visitors never want to leave this picturesque haven. Rolling high hills hug the lake on all sides as the lake’s shore and islands host 17 villages on stilts, mostly inhabited by the Intha people. Enjoy the awe inspiring scenery and meditate on the one of a kind skill of the local fisherman who make use of their legs in this unique rowing technique to glide themselves peacefully around the lake.
• Visit the enchanting floating gardens, a teeming market and a peaceful Intha village around the lake.
• The day also includes a visit to the Phaung DAW OO Pagoda, INN PAW Khon Village (Lotus and silk weaving villages) and the NGA PHE Kyaung Monastery.
• Excursion by boat on Inle Lake to Indein (4 Hours) Travel by boat to the western shore of the lake to a stairway leading to the hidden Indein temple complex. Located on the shore of the lake, this site consists of hundreds of small stupas overgrown by moss and greens.

TIP OF THE DAY: Go for some delectable wine tasting at the Red Mountain Winery in Nyaung Shwe.

Overnight: Inle Lake – (B, L, D)

Activities:

• Transfer by boat (1 Hours); By vehicle from Inle Lake to Heho (1.5 Hours); Flight from Heho to Yangon.
• By vehicle from Yangon to Kyaikhto with sightseeing in Bago (176 kms). From Yangon, head west towards Bago, a historic city originally founded in 573 AD by Thamala and Wimala, two Mon brothers of noble birth as an outpost of the Mon Thaton Kingdom. The site, which was then on the Gulf of Martaban, had already been earmarked as the location of a great city by Gautama, the historic Buddha.
• Visit Htauk Kyan Allied WAR Cemetery on the outskirts of Yangon.
• Explore the main market and a typical Local Monastery in Bago to observe the daily lives of the monks, and then continue the highly venerated Shwemawdaw Paya, which has housed hair relics of the Buddha for well over 1000 years.
• Continue to Shwethalyaung Buddha, a huge reclining Buddha with a sign on the platform in front of the image giving the measurements of each body part. It is reputed to be one of the most lifelike of all reclining Buddhas. The Burmese say the image represents Buddha resting after attaining nirvana.

Overnight: Kyaikhto – (B, L, D)

Activities:

• Visit Kyaikhtiyo (the Golden Rock), one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites in Myanmar, the shrine at the top of Mt. Kyaikto seems to defy gravity. Perched on the edge of a sheer cliff is a giant golden boulder topped with a gleaming stupa. Particularly stunning at sunset and sunrise, when a magical atmosphere suffuses the shrine. By vehicle from Kyaikhtiyo to Yangon.
• From Kyaikhtiyo, head towards Yangon through scenic countryside dotted with rice paddies and streams.
• Stop en route to observe local people in their daily activities, visiting a Mon weaving village, as well as a Pottery village and Basketry village. Before reaching Yangon, pay a short visit to the Htauk Kyan allied war cemetry.
• Sightseeing in Yangon – Visit Sule Pagoda, this 48 meter high golden dome was used by the British as the nucleus of their grid pattern for the city when it was rebuilt in the 1880s. The pagoda’s peculiarity is its octagonal-shaped stupa, which retains its shape as it tapers to the spire.
• Visit Maha Bandoola Park, square urban park offering pleasant strolling and in the morning the Chinese come to practise tai chi. Occupying the centre of the park’s northern section, an Independence Monument is surrounded by two concentric circles of half-lion/half-griffin sculptures.
• Visit Bogyoke Aung San (Scott) Market (closed on Monday and official holidays), also known as Scott Market, this building contains over 2000 stalls and is the best place in Yangon to browse through the complete range of local handicrafts.

Departure: Transfer. Special note: The flight out of Yangon must be a very late flight; otherwise, this day program needs to be adjusted. – (B, L)