What's on in Kalaw (Kalaw trek), 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: Kalaw to Inle trekking season (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually))

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

• Hazard

  Burning season haze

  15 Feb – 30 Apr · usuallySmoke season

  Hillsides around the town are burned off before the rains and the smoke sits in the valleys below the ridge. It is the one time of year the walk down to Inle has nothing to look at. Source ↗

Still on: Kalaw to Inle trekking season (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually))

Quiet — travelers describe it as quiet, 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)), Kalaw to Inle trekking season (15 Oct – 15 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 when the buses stop, the trekking guides go home to their villages and the market shuts. A slow place becomes a stopped one. Source ↗

• Festival

  Kason full moon

  25 Apr – 25 May · usuallyReligious feast

  On the full moon of Kason, at the end of the hot season, people carry pots of water in procession to pour on the bodhi trees at the monasteries. A quiet, local morning rather than a spectacle. Source ↗

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

Shoulder season — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in May.

Still on: Kason full moon (25 Apr – 25 May (usually))

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

Nothing new starts in June.

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

• Festival

  Waso full moon

  1 Jul – 5 Aug · usuallyReligious feast

  The Waso full moon opens the three-month Buddhist Lent: families offer new robes to the monasteries and young men are ordained as novices. Traditionally no weddings are held until Lent ends at Thadingyut in October. 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))

Busy — Phaung Daw Oo festival, Inle Lake, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Phaung Daw Oo festival, Inle Lake

  15 Sep – 31 Oct · usuallyReligious feastCrowdedBook early

  For eighteen days around Thadingyut the Buddha images of Inle's main pagoda tour the lake villages on a golden barge, with leg-rowing boat races. Treks from Kalaw end at the lake, so rooms in Nyaungshwe go early. Source ↗

Peak crowds — Phaung Daw Oo festival, Inle Lake, Taunggyi fire balloon festival

• Season

  Kalaw to Inle trekking season

  15 Oct – 15 Mar · usuallyTrail season

  The months the two- and three-day walk down to the lake is dry underfoot and the nights in a Danu or Palaung village are cold rather than wet. Guides go daily from the market in season.

• Festival

  Taunggyi fire balloon festival

  25 Oct – 30 Nov · usuallyLights & fireCrowdedBook early

  Shan State's capital, a couple of hours east, spends the week before the Tazaungmon full moon launching hot-air balloons, many strung with fireworks. Spectacular and genuinely dangerous: stand well back from the launch field. Source ↗

Still on: Phaung Daw Oo festival, Inle Lake (15 Sep – 31 Oct (usually))

Busy — Taunggyi fire balloon festival

Nothing new starts in November.

Still on: Kalaw to Inle trekking season (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually)), Taunggyi fire balloon festival (25 Oct – 30 Nov (usually))

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: Kalaw to Inle trekking season (15 Oct – 15 Mar (usually))