Walking/Biking Around Pyin Oo Lwin (Myanmar)

Pyin Oo Lwin or Pyin U Lwin / ပြင်ဦးလွင်‌, formerly and colloquially referred to as Maymyo, is a scenic hill town in Mandalay Division, Myanmar, located in the Shan Highland, some 67 kilometers (42 mi) east of Mandalay, and at an altitude of 1,070 meters (3510 ft). The town was estimated to have a population of around 255,000 in 2014. Once the summer capital of the Raj in Burma, Pyin U Lwin retains some of the 'hill station' look that cities like Darjeeling and Simla in India used to have in the 1960s and 1970s. The town began as a military outpost established near a small Shan village with two dozen households situated on the Lashio-Mandalay trail between Nawnghkio and Mandalay. In 1896, a permanent military post was established in the town and later, because of its climate, it became a hill station and the summer capital of British Burma. The establishment in Burma (civil, commercial and military) would move to Maymyo during the hot season to escape from the high heat and humidity of Rangoon. During British rule and through the 1970s, Maymyo had a large Anglo-Burmese population, but this steadily declined. During the Japanese occupation, as many Anglos were concentrated in and around Maymyo, the Japanese incarcerated many of them for fear of their loyalty to the British very close to Maymyo. Today though, Maymyo still has one of the larger hold over populations of Anglo-Burmese in the country. The British named the location Maymyo, literally May's Town in Burmese, after Colonel May, a veteran of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and commander of the Bengal Regiment temporarily stationed at the location of the town in 1887. The military government of Burma renamed the town Pyin U Lwin. Pyin U Lwin is relatively free of the ubiquitous pagodas. Some colonial Tudor style houses still stand (mostly around the National Kandawgyi Gardens), albeit in poor condition, and walking around is an interesting way to see how the Raj lived. There are many churches as well, the oldest dating back to about 1910. On the main intersection in Pyin U Lwin is the Purcell Tower - reported to copy the chimes of Big Ben (or so says Lonely Planet).