Beautiful Inle Lake, 1,300 metres above sea level and 22km long is in a picture postcard setting encircled by wooded hills. Inle is home to the Intha people and is famous for its unique leg-rowing fishermen, floating gardens and villages built on wooden stilts over the water. The best way to see Inle is from a local wooden canoe. The lake’s Phaung Daw U Pagoda is one of Myanmar’s most important religious sites while the teakwood Nga Phe Kyaung Monastery is one of Myanmar’s most unusual religious sites with its hoop-jumping cats. Apart from fishing and growing flowers in the floating gardens the industrious Intha have established cottage industries in their stilt villages producing unique textiles, ceramics, lacquerware and cheroots. At In Dein, south of Inle, a covered stairway leads from the village to Alaung Sitthou, an area of ancient stupas and temple ruins partly covered by vegetation. From here there are magnificent views over the lake.

A three hour drive, or five hour trek through rice fields and Pa O villages, will take you from Nyaung Shwe to Kakku, passing the capital of Shan State, Taunggyi. Kakku is a hidden treasure, 46 kilometres south of Taunggyi, with an unusual collection of ancient Buddhist stupas. More than 2,000 stupas lie here in a small area of just one square kilometre, surrounded by mountains and forest. Inhabited by the colourful Pa-O tribes, this area was only recently opened to travellers.

Kalaw is another former British hill resort in the west of Shan State and about 70km from Inle Lake. Kalaw is a little higher than Pyin Oo Lwin at 1,320m but has a similar faded colonial atmosphere with its ramshackle country houses and other colonial buildings. The cool mountain air, pine forests and ethnic minority villages make for good trekking in and around the Kalaw area. A three day monastery trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake is the perfect way for the more adventurous traveller to experience the best of this beautiful region. The road from Kalaw to Pindaya is very scenic with panoramic mountain views. Pindaya is famous for its caves carved out of a limestone ridge overlooking a lake. The caves contain over 8,000 gold-covered Buddha images as well as some spectacular stalagmites and stalactites.

Kengtung, Myanmar’s gateway to the Golden Triangle, is a small town often compared to Chiang Mai fifty years ago. It is a treasure trove of traditional architecture with its old style houses featuring intricately designed wooden balconies so characteristic of Shan State. Kengtung is a great area to visit the different ethnic minority communities of the Golden Triangle like the red clothed Palaung tribe, the Akha people or the Lahu tribe. Kengtung market is the meeting place for many of the local hill tribes and the nearby Pin Tauk Waterfall is well worth a visit.