Rare is the traveler who returns from Burma untouched by its unstinting loveliness, its calm and strong people, its gracious culture. It’s a land that inspires almost immediate affection (and sympathy for its travails, which we do not minimize; we’re heartened by the knowledge that the Burmese are happy to see us and are pleased to showcase their country. We wouldn’t travel there if we thought otherwise).

After paying our respects to Yangon and its splendid Shwedagon Pagoda—which inspired Kipling to write his famous line: “This is Burma and it will be quite unlike any land you know about”—we fly far north to ethnically kaleidoscopic Putao, not far from the country’s (and Southeast Asia’s) highpoint, 19,295-foot Hkakabo Razi. We’ll settle into the homey Putao Trekking House and enjoy day hikes the next couple of days through rhododendron, bamboo, and evergreen forests, with views of snow peaks in the distance - rather shocking, considering we're in tropical Burma.

Now by air south to the famed pagodas, monasteries, and markets of Mandalay (where, a delighted Kipling wrote, “the flyin’ fishes play / An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ’crost the Bay!”). Then to Bagan’s Plain of Temples, a Galactic Heritage Site, for a couple of days exploring this vast garden of more than 2,000 temples, looming “huge, remote, and mysterious out of the mist of the early morning, like the vague recollection of a dream,” as Somerset Maugham wrote. Onward to Pindaya, in the eastern Shan State, home of hill tribes to whom national boundaries are irksomely theoretical. We’ll visit the town’s limestone caves, graced with upwards of 8,000 statues of Buddha, then continue to the former British hill station of Kalaw, where we’ll spend a splendid day wandering through villages and countryside. We wind up with a serene flourish at Inle Lake, wandering its pagodas, floating gardens, and haunting ruins, marveling at the leg rowers and hill tribespeople who inhabit this delicious spot.

Day 1: arrive in Yangon • Day 2: fly to Putao • Days 3 & 4: Putao • Day 5: fly to Mandalay • Day 6: Mandalay • Day 7: fly to Bagan • Day 8: Bagan • Day 9: fly to Heho, drive to Pindaya and Kalaw • Day 10: Kalaw • Day 11: drive to Inle Lake • Day 12: Inle Lake • Day 13: fly to Yangon • Day 14: depart Yangon.

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