Arriving in Kalaw at 1.00 am at night to a very different climate than in Nay Pyi Taw, we managed to catch some sleep on the bus. The town of Kalaw is very nice and cozy. It is small enough to find everything you need with a couple of minutes walk, but large enough to spend some time exploring the town. Like any town in Myanmar, Kalaw has its own golden pagoda and a nice monastery you can visit. However the real attraction is just outside the town center, a hike up the mountain to a temple where you have a view of entire Kalaw town.
We were told by our hotel that the hike should take about one hour up and half an hour down. While you can see the temple from the town, it is not visible anymore once you start getting closer to the mountain, and there is no clear track to follow. We kept asking people on the way and they pointed the direction, so we thought we were on the right track.
At some point we had a fork in the road and no one to ask for directions, lucky us took the wrong turn and ended up climbing to the top of the wrong mountain next to the temple mountain. So we had to climb back down, when it started to rain a little, and go all the way back to that intersection to continue the hike to the temple. After about two and a half hours we reached the temple that overlooks Kalaw town. The view was definitely worth the hike! But we were quite tired and hungry already, that the walk down was not so pleasant anymore. When we arrived at the town again, we indulged on a Shan Noodle Soup – the typical meal for the region. If you are in Kalaw and hungry for lunch, we would definitely recommend you try the Shan noodle soup at Pyae Pyae! It’s a bargain with only 1000 Kyats and the best we had in whole Myanmar!
There is also a cave that is about half an hour walk from Kalaw town, however we did not have time to visit it.
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