Pyin Oo Lwin
Pyin Oo Lwin is a small town located about 70 kilometers east of Mandalay. At an elevation of 1000 meters, it has a pleasantly cool climate all year round. Because of this, it became a popular resort town for the British colonialists beginning in the early 1900s. It is full of beautiful victorian homes and buildings.
The drive in, and our hotel
The drive takes almost three hours due to endless road construction and some interesting village markets enroute.
Some market scenes...
These guys haven't discovered baseball caps yet.
Candy stall.
As the elevation increased, the country changed to beautiful farmland.
Our hotel was a 1909 Victorian beauty which used to be the British Officer's Club. On 7 acres of garden.
View from the breakfast room
The town sights and market
Main Street
Typical side street with victorian architecture and typical horse and carriage transportation
I really liked this red and green one...
Looking for crafts shops, we found this one - Shan
Here's another - Pacific World curio shop
This one turned out to be a find - hundreds of old antiques and some new stuff, too. My kind of place...
We found something I had been searching for - a puppet war god with 10 arms, each of which holds a different type of weapon. This is a guardian god to protect you and your home. It is doing just that right now in our home in Port Ludlow.
And, here he is, keeping us safe at home.
Street vendors
The central market
Pyin Oo Lwin has a large central market located in a walled compound on the edge of the city. It appears that everyone uses this for their daily produce and goods, rather than traditional small mom and pop stores spread throughout the city.
Entrance through the wall to the market
The interior has several roads off of which are large areas of covered produce and dry goods tables and ground displays
Veggies
Dried fish - very pungent...
The old woman of the market
Wrapping something
Fresh fish and chicken
Baby sitting made easy
Waterfalls and Botanical Gardens
Some of the interesting sights near Pyin Oo Lwin are the Pwe Kauk Waterfalls and the the Botanical Gardens
The waterfalls are located about 8 kilometers out of town, and are a very popular picnic area for the locals as well as tourists.
The Botanical Gardens were founded in 1915 by an English botanist who collected local plants and trees and planted them on a 30 acre plot of land. Since then the gardens have expanded to 240 acres, including several lakes and a forest. The gardens are a must see for Burmese travelers from all over the country. A beautiful place.
We were recognized immediately as European and possibly english speaking by the locals. As english is taught as the second language in the schools, and there is little opportunity to practice it on a native english speaker, we were open targets for literally everyone in the park. All were extremely polite, eager to share stories, and full of enthusiasm.
More...
And more...
A wonderful crowd of charming and fun people.