KengtungPersonal travel impressions in stories and pictures from Kengtung, Myanmar (Burma). Click on the pictures to enlarge, send as a free e-card, or download for personal use. You can locate Kengtung and navigate the world using Google Earth Show on map
N 21° 17.436
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After having travelled in Myanmar, Kengtung was the last stop on the way out, to Thailand. Directly after arriving, it was clear that this was a different town. It has a large majority of Khün people, but you can also see that China and Thailand are close by in the population. Kengtung has several lakes, the biggest one of which is is central and surrounded by buildings you do not often see elsewhere in Myanmar. Lying at an altitude of 1200m above sea level, and with mountains surrounding, Kengtung has a feel of a mountain town. 
In the morning, I went to the buffalo market on the outskirts of Kengtung. A motorbike taxi took me up the hill, and when I arrived, I was a little disappointed. Either the market was already over at 8, or the market was pretty slow that particular day. Anyway, there were only a few buffaloes waiting for new owners, and those Burmese men present, seemed to be more interesting in talking than in making deals for buying a buffalo. The impressive beasts looked a little lost on this bare piece of terrain.
The buffalo market is situated on the ridge of a hill, and the view on the other side was so attractive, I decided to go for a short hike. I passed almost bare rice terraces, people working hard on the land, crossed some of the ricefields, before climbing up to the market again and back to Kengtung. A little later, it was time for a real bath, and the best place to do so, are the hot springs a little out of town. You can hire a room or even a double room, and have probably the best bath of your entire stay in Myanmar. Utterly clean, the fields around the hot springs make for another good hiking place.
