Hpa An: between Mount Hpan Pu, caves and bats at dusk

I have divided my articles on Hpa An into two, reflecting the two superb days we spent there (the other one is to be read here). And we start here with the west bank, where we started with a viewpoint from the Hpan Pu Mountain, then head towards Ya The Byan, the first cave of the day, before continuing with the impressive Kaw Goon Cave and its numerous Buddha statuettes.

Hpa An (pronounced "Pa-Ann") is a town surrounded by karst mountains, famous for its caves steeped in history and Buddhist sculptures. It is also the capital of Karen State — or Kayin in English — one of the many ethnic groups present in Burma. While the country is predominantly populated by Burmese (or Bama), it also has a great diversity of peoples spread across its regions and states: there are at least 30 officially recognized ethnic groups. And in this region, the Karen are the majority.

Mawlamyine – Hpa An route

So it is once again by bus that we make this journey to the last stage of our 2014 stay in Burma, Hpa An. For barely 1 kyats per person and after just 2 hours of driving, we arrived at the small Karen town of Hpa An (around 40 inhabitants all the same)

We arrived just as we could see a brightly colored sunset. The bus dropped us off right in the center, not far from a small roundabout, also not far from the city's "landmark", the clock tower.

Now we had to find somewhere to stay. Reading the descriptions of the suggestions provided by the LP guide, we headed towards the Parami Motel about 200m away.

Concretely, we wanted a room that was at least decent enough to end this stay peacefully. The rooms with bathroom, etc., were full for the first evening, so we settled for the basic rooms with shared bathroom at $15 per night. We will change the next day, for my part a little with regret, because it was very expensive for what we had ($45!), the description given by the LP being a little exaggerated.

Once settled in, we would first inquire about renting a motorbike to set off the next day to explore the surroundings of Hpa An.

Once our motorbike was booked, the evening's mission: find something to eat... And it's fair to say that Hpa An, it is not necessarily an easy thing. It is a small town in Burma, and here at past 19pm, most of the restaurants are already closed! At least in the vicinity of the hotel. We looked for one of the restaurants listed in the guide, the New Day, we found it with a bit of difficulty since it was already closed (although it is listed as open until 19pm and we found it around 18:45pm)…

We initially just wanted to have noodles at a small restaurant just opposite our hotel… but it took a long time to explain even just to have a noodle soup, the small ones young waitresses who don't speak a word of English and we weren't sure if they had taken our order into account since we waited for a while...

We'll eventually get our little bowl, 500 kyats per bowl… but in the end, we were still really hungry… so we said to ourselves that we would do some shopping in the small shopping mall (yes, what luxury for this provincial town!) not far from the roundabout and almost opposite the New Day.

Or how to eat cakes and instant noodles (Mama!) like deadbeats...

On the way to Hpan Pu Mountain

The next morning, we went straight to pick up our motorbike for the day, rented 6 kyats. Then head to New Day for breakfast.

Then, fresh as a daisy, I left in direction of Hpan Pu mountain, practically opposite Hpa An, it is also accessible via a boat which crosses the Thanlwin River next to the Shwey Inh Myaw temple (500 kyats, a boat every 30 minutes between 7 a.m. and 17 p.m.).

In our case, it is a route of approximately 19 km who awaits us for this first part of the day.

First stop just after the bridge spanning the river halfway, to admire the view, asking permission beforehand from the soldiers present in the area, because I was not sure (I have the example of the Howrah bridge in Calcutta, forbidden to be photographed for "strategic" reasons).

After a few kilometers, we turned off the main road (which joins Thaton) and took a dirt road. In a village where I stopped to get some water (it amused the girl who was selling it), I was curious to take a small path joining some fields and see the view of the Thanlwin River, practically opposite Hpa An, so this is where those arriving by boat disembark.

Further on, I park at the foot of Mount Hpan Pu, even here in the depths of Burma, the only tourists we come across, I'll give you a guess, are French... in this case 2 French women.

The climb is done by small steps. It is not particularly physical, but the rather heavy heat does not really help. My wife will be content with the climb to a sort of rest point, already offering a beautiful view.

I was determined to go higher. I would go a few more meters before realizing that the last few meters were almost pure climbing.

The path disappears to make way for rocks on the edge of a ravine, higher up we can see an old wooden ladder... well, I won't go any further, I'm not bold enough for that, the view is already quite satisfactory from where I am!

In the distance, however, I can see that an entire mountain is being scraped to recover the rock; modernization leaves its mark...

Yathaypyan Cave

Shortly before returning to the bridge, I turn right again, the main cave of Kawgun being indicated. Arriving there, he starts to get hungry (yes, I like this kind of expression sounding in bad French…). It seemed a bad start to find a restaurant with good toilets for the lady in this corner of the countryside…

And yet, just a few hundred meters further, you see a sign indicating a restaurant… A Mexican character… taking you to a restaurant… Thai… look for the logic.

The restaurant is new and has an unusual history. The owner is actually a Malaysian, married to a Thai woman. He explains that after about ten years working in his country and then in Singapore, he decided to completely change his life and settled here, in the middle of nowhere, in the countryside of Hpa An…

So we stayed for a while chatting (mainly in Thai) with this unusual couple, before deciding to get back on the road.

We arrived shortly after at the first cave of the day, that of Yathaypyan (Yathaypyan according to Lonely Planet). You will then be "greeted" by slightly aggressive monkeys, so be careful if you leave things lying around in your motorbike basket (if you have one).

A monkey even tried to steal the little bottle of emergency gasoline offered by the owner (in case we got stranded in the middle of nowhere and it was a very good idea... seeing as we were going to use it that very evening!), luckily the granny who was there with her little shop took it from us and kept it warm.

In addition to offering a pleasant view, this cave is a glimpse of what awaits you in the next one, as the latter has also been decorated with clay Buddha statues dotting the walls.

A brief historical aside : These caves have been built for centuries, according to versions, they were visited by the Queen of Mottama as early as the 7th century and she had images of Buddhas placed there. The current version is that it is the work of King Manuha, 59th and last king of the kingdom of Thaton, defeated by King Anawrahta of the growing kingdom of Bagan. Having come to take refuge here, he covered the walls with a multitude of clay Buddha statuettes.

Yathaypyan Cave can be crossed to an open space with a point of view. Some of the statues here date back to the 13th century and are very well preserved, as they are protected from the sun's rays. Many were donated by pilgrims in the 17th century.

Next stop: Kawgun Cave

After stopping at a small local temple to make a donation, it's on to Kawgun Cave – which is also found with the spelling Kaw-Gon – that I parked. And there, it's safe to say that we move up a category in terms of statuettes and Buddhas. The entrance to this cave is paying, 6 kyats for 000 but it's worth it (plus they removed the 500 kyat tax for cameras, it's 2014 after all! well it was, but this tax still applies in some places in Burma).

We find ourselves in front of a multitude of these small images of Buddhas, stuck on all the steep walls of the cliff, in addition to the other "conventional" Buddha statues, even if for many, also date from the 13th century as in the other cave.

I can't really explain it, but This place really fascinated me, I was amazed by the prowess of the guys who managed to stick these statuettes in really improbable places.

On the side, we see that they are in the process of developing an access to the top of the hill, which obviously offers a great view of the surrounding countryside (seen in particular on this site !)

In both caves, sections of statuettes are still missing, both for natural reasons, but also because of the dynamiting of the surrounding hills (the blown-up hills I mentioned above...)

Last stop at the bat cave

It's past 16:30 p.m., so it's time to head off to our last point of interest. In fact, our motorbike rental company, in addition to giving us a map of the region, had advised us on routes and visits.

Working in the fields.

And to end this day, he invited us to go to a small temple next to the river, not far from a village (itself very close to the bridge). Village in which we will spend a few minutes, having still a little time in front of us.

On our way to the temple, however, we will find a closed gate... Ah... and what do we do? And there, a young man from the village makes us understand that we can still go there, better, he opens the gate for us himself...

So we continue on our motorbikes and cross this temple that looks deserted… and I parked further into the forest, near the river. At this place there are some statues of Buddhas, a pagoda and above all, a cave inhabited by bats.

At nightfall, shortly before 18pm (around 17:45pm to be exact!), millions of bats start coming out to hunt and feed. There are so many that the cave takes about 3 hours to empty!

An old couple and some children are there, the old people are banging on empty cans all the time, apparently to stop the bats from hitting them...

In addition to this spectacle, if you arrive a little early, you can take the metal staircase and climb the wall to a small pagoda with a sublime view of Hpa An and its surroundings, including Mount Hpan Pu in the background and the bridge on the other side, with the sun setting at the corner of the mountain.

It's a well-known spot in the area, because you'll come across the largest concentration of tourists of the day there... Almost ten, some of them having come with a guide, and of course, there was also a French couple.

When Jitima shows them pictures.

On the way back, initially leaving to go straight back to the hotel, we said to ourselves, given the time, that we could, given the proximity, go back to have dinner at the Thai restaurant at lunchtime, seeing how we had struggled the day before to eat in the evening in Hpa An. They were happy to see us again and it gave us a good meal not too expensive.

For this first day around Hpa An, we covered a little over 50 km. On our way back to the hotel, it turns out that we ran out of gas shortly after crossing the bridge, because the needle on our bike was no longer working properly (the owner surely anticipated this by offering us that famous extra bottle!!).

Back at our hotel, we changed rooms to the large room. While large, it was still disappointing. But no matter, the next day was just as intense! Hpa An is already a favorite!

So, with that, does southern Burma tempt you?