6 Days Keng Tung Golden Tiangle Trekking Tour

Day 1: Keng Tung Arrival & S/S ( D )

Trekking Duration = 2 hours

Upon arrival at Keng Tung airport, after luggage collection, you will be welcome by the local tour guide. Then, drive to your hotel for check-in, and if the time permits, drive east of Keng Tung (approx: 30 minutes) to visit Akha Tribal Village. Shan Ethnic has altogether 33 Tribes and Akhe is one of them who live far off in eastern Myanmar. Take a walk to the village when your car arrives at the junction in the rice fields. Old Akhe ladies wearing their traditional costumes and kids will welcome you to their village by selling hand-made traditional ornaments; Rosaries, pipes made of bamboo, and so on. The tribe’s major means of living are farming and agriculture. Then drive back to Keng Tung.

Overnight in Keng Tung

Day 2: Keng Tung – Pin Tauk – Keng Tung (B/L/D)

Trekking Duration = Maximum 4 hours

After breakfast, drive to downtown Keng Tung to visit the market. You may buy some snacks, medicines, stationaries, and books to give as presents to the villagers and your picnic lunch should also be prepared in the market with the assistance of your Trekking Guide. Then, drive on the Chinese-Myanmar highway of Mai Yang approx; one hour to Pin Tauk where you can visit THREE tribal villages of Ann, Lahu, and Akha. On the way you can visit a Shan village called Wan Kam where they distill the Country Spirit, cheap and why not try a bit! But be sure to taste looking carefully at the froths! Then continue to Pin Tauk. The car will arrive firstly at Lahu village and wait for you there.

Once you enter the village you will see the Akha Ladies with their traditional dress selling their hand-made homemade souvenirs. After 20 minutes or so of easy trekking, you will arrive at the first Akha village where you may take a rest by visiting one of the village houses. Then, continue your ascending to reach the Ann village. Ann people live in higher places away from civilization and their ways of life seem to us a bit hard. The trekking is on an up-and-up basis, but the large green forest provides you ample shade to take occasional breaks. After more or less one hour, you will reach Ann village. Visit Sha Mine, the village’s spiritual leader’s house where you will experience the worshiping rituals and customs which is the old belief of Spiritualism mixed with Animism. Strict rules and disciplines reign over the traditional belief of remote place dwellers. Visit the village Spirit Shrine on the hill in the village while hearing the commentary and explanations of the Local Trekking Guide. Here the villagers speak their native language as well as the State language of Shan but no one in the village can speak Myanmar. After a picnic lunch arranged on your own, descend to another Ann village living on the base of the mountains. Afterward, the trekking trail slopes down crossing the rice fields and finally, you will arrive back at your car. Drive back to Keng Tung.

Overnight at Keng Tung

Day 3: Keng Tung- Hokyin – Keng Tung (B/L/D)

Trekking Duration = Maximum 5 hours

During your tribal tour in Keng Tung, you can visit one day to the Buffalo and Cow Market. It occurs 2 to 3 times a week on the outskirts of Keng Tung. How the dealers and traders work out the transactions at the market is interesting.

Then you may visit the Keng Tung market for presents for the villagers and a picnic lunch with Shan Food and Fruits! Afterward, drive to the mountain base to Trek and Hike up to the Mountainous Region of Hokyin on the Myanmar-Thailand highway. It takes about 50 minutes to reach the junction where you do the trekking ascending to the Akha villages. Start your trekking of about 4.5 hours at this junction. After a few minutes, you will reach a small primary school where you can pay a visit and maybe be offered some books and stationery. Then, continue your hiking up Hokyin Mountain passing on the way to the Tea Plantation, Mandarin Orange Plantations, and pine forest. Introduce yourself to the Akha people who you meet on your hiking trail.

After one hour or more, you will reach the mountain top where you can see the 4 Akha villages each sitting on the individual mountain top. The view is outstanding from above and you may take a break there. Then descend to the first Akha village. Here you will see three religious beliefs separated by the three different wards of the village. For Buddhist villagers at the entrance gate, you will see a small pagoda, for Animists in the quarter you will see the crucifix, for Christians a Cross at the entrance. The main source of villagers’ income comes from Agriculture and Schnapp Distillery. You can visit some houses to study how they brew the Rice Spirit using their version of yeast made of herbs collected in the jungle. Then proceed to another village, have your lunch there and in the afternoon, descend to your car waiting for you at another highway junction and then drive back to Keng Tung.

Overnight at Keng Tung

Day 4: Keng Tung-  Lahushi – Keng Tung (B/L/D)

Trekking Duration = Maximum 6 hours

After breakfast, drive along the Mong Yan Chinese-Myanmar highway road and just outside the town at the toll gate, turn left to the high mountains. The total driving hour is 50 minutes and you will arrive at the starting point at the base of the Mountain. From there ascend about 20 minutes and you will arrive at an Akha village. You may take some pictures of Akha women in their traditional dress. Akha Traditional Head-dress is very famous in the world made of old coins, animal skins, and so on. Then proceed up hiking for about 2 hours to get to the Lahushi Village which is on top of the mountain. You can see the village from a distance and the view is fantastic. To hike up to the village is a little hard but it is worth wearing out your energy. Very few tourists can reach them as it is remote from society.

Visit the village head, which presides over 40 or so households and you may enjoy your lunch there at the house of the Village Head. You can request the head to play their traditional musical instruments which they perform for their New Year festival that falls in December. Enjoy the tea prepared by them from the fireplace that they use for cooking inside the house. After making friends with some curious villagers who come to see you at the village head’s house, you may continue to another village that can be seen at a distance on another hillock. Here the villagers shift from one place to another depending on the soil condition. If they live in one place for a certain time and the soil that they cultivate for agriculture has worn out and the whole village moves to another Rich-Soil Terrain. However, they choose only the site in the high mountains. Then, walk down back to your car in the afternoon and drive back to Keng Tung.

Overnight in Keng Tung

Day 5: Keng Tung-  Wun Nyat – Wun San – Keng Tung (B/L/D)

After breakfast, visit the Keng Tung morning market for purchasing lunch and other presents for the villagers. Or you may bring along with you the small gifts that you think are suitable! Then drive to Wun Nat and Wun Sen villages for about two hours along the Mai Lar Highway to the Chinese Border. The first driving hour is on the very rough part of disappearing asphalt country road and the second is rather a smooth asphalt ascending road. The views of the mountains during your drive come up very scenic and beautiful, and you can make a few stops for Pees and Pictures. After checking in at the check-point control you drive for about 20 minutes and you will reach a spot where you stop and start your hiking. After nearly one and a half-hour of trekking under the shady mountain ridges, you will arrive at the first village called Wun Nyat.

The colorful and well-built Shan Style monastery will welcome you to the peaceful village. Visit the monastery and relax there for a while in it. Take the picture of the murals on the wall of the monastery and hear the explanations of the guide. Some antique Buddha Images Drums and gongs can still be seen inside well-preserved by the Buddhist Monks. Then walk to the village just at the back and you can visit one of the houses, the traditional Tribal house made of wood, bamboo, and thatch. Enjoy your picnic lunch there and introduce the villages to yourself. Situated in a remote place and the language barrier makes the visit difficult and you are one of the few tourists of the year to that village. After a short break, you can continue to Wun San village. It just takes 20 minutes or so to get to that village. Walk around inside the village and you may distribute your peasants. Then walk back to your car and drive back to Keng Tung.

Overnight at Keng Tung

Day 6: Keng Tung City visit and Departure (B/-/-)

After breakfast, explore Keng Tung town starting with Lonely Tree Hill. Overlooking the town from the hilltop, Thitapin Taung, One-tree Hill serves as a place for relaxing, photographing, and for the families, a picnic spot. You will see on the hill the Old Keng Tung Palace Wall and Fort built of red bricks. Originally founded by the Old Hermit, the town is named after that hermit and is called Keng Tung. The word is a combination of the name of the hermit ‘Keng’ and the lake ‘Tung’. The legendary Lake is in the center of the city and you can take a walk around the lake where you can make beautiful pictures of the Last Shan King’s Palace and pagoda across the lake. You can also visit the Rice Noodle Making Factory and Lacquer Ware Factory inside the town. Then drive to Keng Tung airport for the flight to your onward destination.