It is so cold right now, for a woman who has lived in hot places for more than 4 decades, I still cannot cope with temperature less than 15 C. Right now, the temperature is only 9 C in Taunggyi, Southern part of Shan State. The coldest hours are from 10 pm to 6 am. I am shivering while I am typing this. However, this time is the best time to travel in Myanmar, no rain and the roads are not wet and flooded. You can see lots of flowers in Shan State. They are all wild and seasonal flowers.
Today, I went to the place where I really wanted to go for a long time. The place is called “ Ywar Ngan” , in Burmese , it means “ salty village”, I have no idea why it was named like that. Lately, the place has been having attention from all over the world because of its beautiful waterfalls, caves and the blue lake lagoon ( Yay-pyar Lake)
There are so many legends about that village and it will be a good story for the curious travelers who also can trace the history. A lot of villagers are afraid to venture inside the forests and the caves for the fear of spirits and usually, people even local do not know much about the history. The local are superstitious and even tried to stop the tourists from venturing into unknown places. One time, a tourist tried to go inside a cave in Ywar Ngan village but he had to come out finally because the cave did not end after a half day and he became worried of safety.
I will tell you how I go there from Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State. Taunggyi is in Southern part of Shan State. At first, we went to He’ Ho ( a place where there is an airport ), then Aung Ban and from there, you have to turn to right . It is the same way you go to Pin Daya. But once you reach the junction called Kyone, you need to turn left ( or go straight) , instead of turning to the right .
If you turn to the right, you will reach Pin daya. But don’t go that way because the road to Ywar Ngan from that way is very rough and only bicycle can manage well to go. May be the road will change in a few years as the villagers are repairing the road. For us, we had to turn back as we don’t want to damage our car by bumpy roads with full of rocks.
We are lucky because we came across lots of beautiful scenery on the way, the view is full of yellow, because it is the time for sunflowers and sesame flowers to blossom. To add that, there are also wild flowers which are all yellow. We can see yellow, light green , red ( the color of soil is red) , dark green and white. I was so fascinated by the view and also thankful to my friend for driving there for me.
Once you reach Kyone, you need to drive another 34 miles to reach Ywar Ngan. On the way, We see the road lined by Euclid trees. The view is beautiful because all the sunflower fields and sesame fields are surrounded by mountains. The cold breeze tickled my hair when I started to walk along the road. I even went inside the field and observed the sunflowers and cabbages carefully, I could also see some pagodas built at the summit of the mountains.
On the way to Waterfall and blue lagoon ( Mya-tha-bait lake), you can drop in at Main-ma-ye Mountain.
The mountain is called “ brave woman mountain” , in Brurmese “ Main-ma-ye-taung” ( Taung means mountain )
I did not climb the mountain because I recently had ankle sprain and didn’t want to get another injury. But I am going to post photos of my friends who hiked it. If you are patient, you can get the nice view at the summit.
After the mountain, we went to the blue water lagoon ( Mya-tha-bait-yay-pyar-aing). I believe the water is blue because of some chemical in the soil. But contrary to science, a lot of villagers believe there must be some treasure such as emerald bowl buried beneath the lake by angles. The legend is that the angels kept the emerald bowl for the purpose of donating it to New Buddha. They also believe there are a lot of spirits guarding the lake and are extremely cautious not to offend them. For that reason, they protested the idea of a tourist who came from Europe with the purpose of diving inside the lake and measuring the depth of the lake . They believe once you disturb the spirits, the villagers have to bear the wrath of super natural beings. The lake was carefully fenced and you cannot throw anything inside the water including the bread for the fish.
The water is amazingly transparent and we could see fishes swimming peacefully around the branches of trees inside the lake.
It was fascinating and I lingered at the fence without noticing that foreigners were trying to capture photos and I was obliterating their view.
Finally we moved on and went to the Forest star water fall , in Burmese ( Taw-kyal-waterfall). The waterfall as well as blue lake have been looked after by the monastery nearby and they try to clean the lanes and make sure tourists are safe. They also offer public toilets for the tourists and travelers. I would like to advice to donate for a few dollars for the monastery if you can. There is a donation box near by. We also saw a few Shan children playing on the way. They are very cute and kept on calling me ” sister”, in Burmese ” Mama”. When I approached them to have a chat, I found out that they don’t speak Burmese . They only know the word ” sister”.
I wanted to go to the caves , but it will take a lot of time and you need to go with the motor bike in the early morning . So we returned back and think of going there again. There are more photos of scenery along the way.
Thank you for reading.
Hninn
Hnin adventures 