My visit to Putao, Myanmar

Good day!
I am Sao from Myanmar. I am a new Hiver and this is my first post in Asean Hive Community.
First, let me start with some information about Myanmar, its people and some places I visited. You have already known Myanmar but may not know that it is a diverse country where 135 races reside (wikipedia source for list of ethnic races in Myanmar) and as for me, I belong to Tai race(wikipedia source for Tai people). Like other ASEAN countries, Myanmar has beautiful places to visit. And some places are not much accessed even by local tourists - like ice-capped mountains in northern Myanmar, some beaches and islands along the coast of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman sea. And I would like to share some places at Putao that I visited before COVID affected Myanmar. Putao is located in far northern part of Myanmar in Kachin state. And it is the closest town to some of the highest snow-capped mountain peaks in Southeast Asia also. You can watch the National Griograpic's "Asia’s Forgotten Mountain" documented about expert climbers' attempt in climbing the mountains in Kachin state. The following photos are some of the photos of the ice-capped mountains view taken by me from Putao. Putao is not visited by many people because it is located at the far northern part of the country (please see the map below) and the most convient way to travel there is by plane.

_{Ice-capped mountains in distance (a scene from Putao, Kachin state, Myanmar)}

_{location of Putao (click for zoom-in map)}

The first the places I visited near Putao are Mulashidi suspension bridge, where you can see the views of Malikha river with beautiful scenery. And I visited Malikha Lodge which is not far away from the Mulashidi bridge. Malikha Lodge (trip.com page)is a resort for visitors and tourists; those who want to visit inside have to pay 10,000 kyats entrance fee. It has bamboo forest inside and has captivating view over the Malikha river and mountain ranges. Below are some photos taken at the bridge and the resort.

_{under the Mulashidi bridge}

_{the Mulashidi suspension bridge}

_{Malihka Lodge (2)}

_{a church near Mulashidi bridge}

_{at Malikha Lodge with Malikha river behind}

_{traditional costumes of ethnic people living in the area}

_{a view from Malikha Lodge compound &
pebbles mosaic on the pathway}

Another places I visited are Rawang National Park(Rawang people at wikipedia) and Kaung Hmu Lon ancient historical pagoda on the Eastern bank of the Malihka river. The Rawang national park is just a few minutes drive from downtown and the pagoda is about forty-minute drive from Putao. It is said the original pagoda (the one inside this current one) dates back to BC300 and the outer pagoda was built around AD1818. Below are some photos taken there.

_{Kaung Hmu Lon Ancient Historical Pagoda}

_{the legend of the pagoda is connected with Lord Buddha whose previous life was a deer in this area}

_{photo taken on the bridge near the pagoda with Malikha river view behind}

_{at Rawang National Park}

There are some other places I missed visiting like Natt island. However, I found a photo blog about Putao here where you can see more beautiful scenery of Natt Island and Putao. All in all, Putao trip was an enjoyable one. The people were nice and the Kachin food were delicious to me, although some are quite spicy. You can look the places I visited in Putao on this google map I compiled.
Myanmar has beautiful places like other ASEAN countries; please visit it when you have a chance, I mean, when COVID subsides and democracy is restored. For me I am not a professional blogger or writer; I just want to share some of my trip experience like others. So, thank you for reading till end and let me stop here. Have a wonderful day.

Sao

Hive account@princekham
from Shan state, Myanmar
16^th Sep 2021