The journey from Monywa to Mandalay takes around 3 hours, and we stopped by the road side to buy some rattan handicrafts. And then sent our friends back to Mandalay airport for their flight back to Yangon, and then we proceeded to Pyin Oo Lyin by car which took about 1 hour 45 minutes direct to the hotel. The scenery along the journey to the hotel is very nice, and it is basically on highland, air quality is good, cooling and very green. When we arrived to the hotel, it is already slowly getting darker, but the impression on the hotel was good, a kind of mansion, very much of colonial style, sitting on Kandawgyi highland, hence the hotel name, Kandawgyi Hill Resort.

The entrance of the hotel

The lobby of the hotel

The compound of the hotel

The compound of the hotel
The interesting part staying at this hotel is, it reminds me of the English breakfast. They serve you your breakfast set, with bread, butter, fruits, fruit juice and tea...which I liked a lot.

Then the exploration starts and we were lucky with the local guides that were willing to bring us around with their motorbikes and showing around the cities. The first stop was to the famous Maha Ant Htoo Kan Thar Pagoda. It is basically gold plated, and inside the temple, they have lots of gold jewelries found from the ground of the old temple nearby.

Maha Ant Htoo Kan Thar Pagoda

After this, we moved to a cave, it is called Peik Chin Myaung Cave, and inside you have stream/spring running through out the cave, stupas and Buddha statues. It was believed to be built by the Nepalese migrants according to what I was informed.

Peik Chin Myaung Cave

And if you follow the path towards the end of the cave, another side opposite the entrance, you will find a waterfall and it is cooling here. However, no swimming is allowed and you must not wear your shoes even in this compound as it is considered a holy place and very disrespectful if you wear your shoes inside.

After this waterfall, we stopped by a restaurant and had our lunch and I have specifically requested a Shan State food, please refer to some of the pictures below. It is mostly made of wild vegetables around the vicinity.

Right after lunch, we visited a Chinese temple (there is a Chinese community here, mainly migrated from Yunnan many years ago, and they speak on Mandarin and no other Chinese dialects. They are Burmese now, but forefathers migrated to Myanmar many years ago.

On the way back to the Pyin Oo Lyin town centre, we passed by their army camp here and in front of this army base is the 3 statues of their past heros, I was informed these were statues of their former kings. Hope I got it right.

Then we were brought to another location, the Anisakan waterfall view area (we did not go to the waterfall, but another location where we can have a view of the waterfall and at the same time, enjoy our afternoon tea here. And it was very nice, as we were treated with the drinks made by their barista.

With our guides, at the view point area.

And then, our final destination for the day, that is the Botanical garden, that is known as National Kandawgyi Botanical Garden. This is my favorite place and one must visit. For foreigners you need to buy your ticket, if I am not wrong, it is about 7500 Kyat. It is beautiful and mesmerizing. And if possible, do walk until the tower area, and climb up the stairway, so that you have a full air view of the garden. It's worth the efforts.

The tower

View from the tower

The motorcycles that took us around

Sunset around the botanical lake area

And the final part of our visit here is the full course dinner, a traditional Burmese meal,...very impressive and the price is rather reasonable. This leaves a lasting impression on me, for the time to come....just amazing.