The area around Putao in Kachin State offers plentiful beauty for visitors to admire.

NOT all travellers are alike. While some are happy to spend a week relaxing on the beach at Ngapali or Ngwe Saung, others prefer to get off the beaten track and out of their comfort zones. Adventure tourism is now offered by tour operators around the world and Myanmar is no different. With such a variety of cultures on display and vast areas of wilderness to explore, the country is in a prime position to benefit from this new travel trend.

A handful of local tour operators now offer adventure tourism packages in the most remote and undeveloped areas of the country – the mountainous north and the Myeik Archipelago.

In northern Kachin State, the area around Putao is sometimes referred to as the Switzerland of Myanmar, with its snow-capped peaks and exotic flora and fauna. It’s an enchanting land of snow and unspoiled environments – green temperate forests and heaving rivers that make it a favoured place for trekking and rafting.

Mount Hkakaborazi, at 5889 metres the highest mountain in South East Asia, and Mt Phonganrazi, 3506m above sea level, are both popular places for trekking trips, says U Yungngai Yin, a tour guide from Putao.

“The trip to Hkakaborazi National park was launched in 1998,” he says. “To get to the Mt Hkakaborazi base camp you have to cross almost 40 suspension bridges and walk along rugged, narrow trails. It’s more than just walking, it’s tough and exciting, perfect for the adventurous traveller.”

U Yungngai Yin, who works for Snowland Travel and Tours and is a member of the local Rawang ethnic group, says travellers aren’t just interested in adventure that pushes them to their physical limits.

“Our customers also enjoy seeing local peoples’ day-to-day life, for example the activity in the rice fields, including the harvesting and collecting of grain and rice.”

This is reinforced by the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s definition of adventure travel, which it defines as any tourist activity that includes two of the three following components: a physical activity, a cultural exchange or interaction, and engagement with nature.

According to this definition, tourists could undertake adventure tourism at Ngapali beach if they went snorkelling – a physical activity that engages with nature. But for many, the concept of adventure tourism has an element of the extreme – which can easily be found in the area around Hkakaborazi National Park.

Snowland Travel and Tours specialises in trekking tours to northern destinations in Myanmar, including 33-day tours to Hkakaborazi base camp, 12-day trips to Mt Ponganrazi, five-day treks around Putao and 26-day trips to Dahondam – a village close to Hkakaborazi.

All of these treks depart from Ratbaw, 130 kilometres from Putao.
U Lin Htein, managing director of Myanmar Tourism Services Company, said that when trekking to Hkakaborazi base camp or Phonganrazi, travellers usually stay overnight in houses in local villages but some travellers choose to bring their own tents. The company provides a tour guide, local guide, and porters for trek travellers, who are mainly German, French and Japanese.

U Yungngai Yin says a highlight for many trekkers is visiting a Krong village about 14 days from Putao en route to Mt Hkakaborazi. “The village is inhabited by 250 Tarong people and six village elders, who are only three and a half feet tall and known as Myanmar Pigmies.”

U Yungngai Yin said an American botanist he accompanied on a 26-day trek to Hkakaborazi base camp in 2005, commented on the abundance of flora along the way, some of which he’d never seen them before despite previously conducting research Bhutan, Nepal, China and Afghanistan.

Snowland Travel and Tours also conduct rafting trips in the north beginning at Dazungdam, a village at the confluence of two major rivers, where rafters can continue towards Diphulakha near the Indian border or Hkakaborazi and the Chinese border.

“We explored the Maykha river from Dazungdam to Chipwi for the first time in 2003 – the first trip took 10 days,” says U Yungngai. “The group successfully completed the trip with river guide Mr David, a rafting expert from New Zealand.”

Trekking to Natmataung (Mt Victoria) in Chin State is another popular trip, says Ma Ngu Wah Aung, operations manager for Pacific Asia Tour Company.

“The national park at Mindat in Chin State is one of our major sites. Visitors who make the journey have the opportunity to observe the lifestyle of the hill tribe people along the way,” says Ma Ngu Wah Aung.

For these treks travellers fly from Yangon to Bagan and then travel by car to Mindat.

She said there are numerous trekking options within the national park, depending on the customer’s budget and the guides available, but she advised at least 10 days were necessary, with prices averaging between US$1000-2000.

“We also arrange tours to Kalaw in Shan State and sometimes proceed to Inle Lake, depending on what the traveller wants,” she added.

Admittedly, trekking in Myanmar for foreigners can sometimes be limited because many of the best destinations are in areas that require permission from various government ministries.

U Aung Din, chairman of Nature Lovers Travels & Tours Company, said foreign independent travellers (FIT) are generally not permitted to go trekking “for their own security”. Trekkers instead have to purchase a package tour offered by a local company to destinations approved by the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism.

Perhaps less extreme but no less beautiful, the Myeik Archipelago, in Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi Division, is made up of some 800 islands in the Andaman Sea and covers about 36,000 square kilometres.

The archipelago is a major destination for diving, snorkelling, sea kayaking and fishing and several local travel firms offer those kinds of packages.

The isolated islands offer pristine dive sites and are teeming with wildlife including stingrays, sharks and colourful fish. Visitors can also explore the fantastic networks of caves and many limestone lagoons with sheer cliffs where high above birds make their nests.

Myanmar Andaman Resort at Macleod Island operates eight different diving courses and the price is dependent on the level of the course and the number of people that make the trip.

The resort can arrange diving packages to 24 different dive sites around the island, many of which are just five or 10 minutes from the resort by chartered boat. The resort also arranges sea kayaking tours for either a half-day or two days.

U Aye Min Oo, managing director of Tourism Myanmar Cooperative Ltd, says another destination is the island of Pan Lon Orr, about 136 kilometres from the mainland town of Myeik. He describes the island as “for the adventurous traveller who wants to go swimming, sun bathing and trekking in the jungle”.

“Kayak trips to Yae Aye birds nest cave give visitors the opportunity to marvel at the beautiful nests and the lagoon inside the cave,” he added.

It’s just one of the Myanmar’s many hidden natural treasures waiting for adventurous travellers.