What's on in Hsipaw, Myanmar through the year

Busy — school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it, one of its best months for weather

Nothing new starts in January.

Still on: Trekking season (1 Nov – 28 Feb (usually))

Busy — Bawgyo Pagoda festival, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

• Hazard

  Burning season haze

  15 Feb – 30 Apr · usuallySmoke season

  Fields and hillsides across the Shan uplands are burned off before the rains and the smoke sits in the valleys for weeks. The views from the ridges go first, then the air does. Source ↗

• Festival

  Bawgyo Pagoda festival

  20 Feb – 25 Mar · usuallyReligious feastCrowded

  The most important Shan pilgrimage in the north runs for about a week up to the Tabaung full moon at the pagoda just west of town. Pilgrims arrive by the truckload, a fairground grows around the stupa and rooms in Hsipaw fill. Source ↗

Still on: Trekking season (1 Nov – 28 Feb (usually))

Busy — Bawgyo Pagoda festival, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in March.

Still on: Burning season haze (15 Feb – 30 Apr (usually)), Bawgyo Pagoda festival (20 Feb – 25 Mar (usually))

Busy — Thingyan water festival, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

• Holiday

  Thingyan water festival

  13–17 AprWater-festival New YearClosures

  Four days of water thrown from the roadside and almost everything shut with it — trains, banks, the guesthouse kitchen. Move in or out of town before it starts, not during. Source ↗

Still on: Burning season haze (15 Feb – 30 Apr (usually))

Quiet — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in May.

Quiet — travelers describe it as quiet, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in June.

Shoulder season — school holidays in 5 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

• Festival

  Waso full moon

  1 Jul – 5 Aug · usuallyReligious feast

  The Waso full moon opens Buddhist Lent: monasteries take in novices, families present robes and candles, and for three months weddings are put off. It falls deep in the wet season, when the trekking trails are at their muddiest. Source ↗

Quiet — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in August.

Still on: Waso full moon (1 Jul – 5 Aug (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in September.

Busy — Thadingyut festival of lights, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Thadingyut festival of lights

  1–31 Oct · usuallyLights & fireCrowded

  The end of Lent is marked with oil lamps and paper lanterns on houses and pagodas for three nights, and it is a public holiday. The rains ease soon after and trekkers start coming back. Source ↗

Shoulder season — an ordinary month

• Season

  Trekking season

  1 Nov – 28 Feb · usuallyTrail season

  The months the tracks up to the Shan and Palaung villages are dry underfoot and a night on a village floor is cold rather than close. Guides work out of town two days at a time. Source ↗

Busy — school holidays in 5 of the markets that fill it, one of its best months for weather

Nothing new starts in December.

Still on: Trekking season (1 Nov – 28 Feb (usually))