My Visit to Mong Hsu, a town with beautiful and interesting places

Dear friends,

Mong Hsu is a town in southern Shan state and is reputed for its ruby deposits and Haipa waterfall in its township. Both of them are in the proximity of 15 km from the town. Mong Hsu ruby deposits is the second of the two ruby deposits in Myanmar (The first on is near Mogok.) while Haipa waterfall is one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the country.

While I was staying there for two days, I explored some parts of the town by walking early in the morning.It's a charming town with few vehicles, which makes it convenient for walking. I visited some monasteries on the way. I found most of the monasteries I visited were huge and beautiful.

(above photo) At the entrance to a monastery. There are long drums and Hamsa birds. Long drum is the symbol of Shan people and Hamsa bird is the symbol of the town.

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(above photo) The ceiling of the monastery are decorated with beautiful copper embellishments.

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(above photos) Another monastery I visited the next day. The morning was cold and was covered with fog.

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(above photos) This Buddha image in a monastery I visited was made with rubies from the ruby deposits near the town. I think small rubies were glued together to form this Buddha image.

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(Above photos) Beautiful embellishments of Buddha images in a monastery in Mong Hsu.

(above photo) The welcoming post of Mong Hsu (the name is written in Shan, Burmese and English) -it is above 2309 feet above sea level. The long drum is the symbol Shan people and Hamsa bird is the symbol of the town.

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I stayed in Mong Hsu for two days and on the first day, I visited the ruby mine of my cousin brother and the second day, the beautiful Haipa waterfall.

My first time visit to a ruby mine

The mountain where ruby deposits are located is situated on the South-East of Mong Hsu and is about 20 km, which is around one hour drive from the town. Because it is on the high mountain on the west of Thanlwin river, the river is visible from above the mountains when there is no clouds below. The mountain is two thousand feet higher than Mong Hsu so there is much temperature difference. The weather on the mountain is quite colder than that of Mong Hsu. The mountain is mostly covered with fog and clouds; many people visit to enjoy the cloud sea on those mountains. After driving for about forty five minutes from Mong Hsu, I saw the welcoming post of the ruby land first with some fog behind. The elevation described was 5300 ft above sea level.

(photo above) The welcoming post at the entrance to the ruby land. The road ahead is covered with fog and the ruby mines are just a few kilometers from this place.

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Then, after about fifteen minutes drive, we began to enter a town next to the ruby deposits. Although it appeared to be a small exclusive town, I discovered that it had a small market, shops, and other services that could provide more than just necessary amenities. The ruby mine I visited was on one of the mountain peaks; I could see the town I had passed below on one side and on the other side, mountain ranges with some clouds below. My brother said, when there was no cloud, I would see the Thanlwin river flowing between those mountain ranges in distance. Below is the photos and videos taken on both sides. It was raining at that time; it would have been more beautiful with some sunshine.

(above photo) This is the eastern side of the mountain where one can see Thanlwin river in distance if there is no cloud below.

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(above photo) This is the other side view from my brother ruby mine. There are many other ruby mines below (those housings with corrugated sheets). One ruby mine plot is at least one acre wide. And the town in distance is the one I have passed.

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(above photos) The town that we have passed through with a little zooming in.

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(above video) I took a video of both sides from the mountain peak from the ruby mine

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I found that the ruby mining took place completely underground. Below is the shelter housing the entrance to the underground ruby mine.

(above photos) The entrance to the underground mining with the company name in the second photo.

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My brother invited me to the underground mining and led me to the elevator in which only two persons could ride in a sitting position. The elevator was attached to a huge winch operated by a diesel engine.

(above photos) The elevator and the huge winch.

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We got into the elevator with our helmets on. The elevator was slowly released down into the underground pit. It took a while to reach to the bottom, which was said to be 700 feet from the surface.

After getting out of the elevator, I had to walk a little in a tunnel until we got to the work place where workers were excavating in search of rubies. There were a few other tunnels down below, which had been excavated before and abandoned - some were quite huge. It was said they were dug with drilling machinery and explosives first and rubies were searched out of the stones and from the debris by washing them as can be seen in the video below.

You can see some workers were digging inside the cave above while some were washing the pieces of stones down at machine searching for rubies .I learnt that rubies could be found in wall crevices like fissure linings in white stone wall. I could see those linings in different colour. And I explored other abandoned tunnels as well. One thing I noticed was that although I was 700 feet under the ground, I didn't feel suffocated. However, I got the smell from the fume emitted from the engine. It was said there was some other wind inlet besides the elevator opening. After staying in the underground mine for about half an hour, we returned to the surface and I took a fifteen minutes clip with my phone. There were a few other layers of tunnels above the one I visited, which had been dug and abandoned. Below in my short video, you can see there are some tunnels that I passed by.

And below is the photo of my cousin brother and me in the ruby mine, and me from above the mountain.

The time I visited there was in raining season. It was quite cold there. It would be much colder in winter, I think.

My next visit : Haipa waterfall

Another place I visited was Haipa waterfall, which is about 15 miles from Mong Hsu. It is not a deep high waterfall but a cascaded ones and the waterfall is regarded as one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Myanmar. Because I visited there during raining season, the water had a yellowish muddy colour. In winter and summer, the water is clearer and more beautiful.

The waterfall is located on Pang River and because the river is wide, there are many islands in that area. Now, there are resorts for visitors near the waterfalls and on those islands.

Below are the photos I took in front of the waterfall. I took a video of the waterfall taken with a little zooming in (It was more beautiful with a closer look), while I rode a boat and while I visited the forest at the side of the main waterfall.

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There are some more waterfalls at the side of the bigger one. The followings are the photos of some of them. It is a beautiful and pleasant place.

And there are some resorts near the waterfall and on the islands in the river, and they have their own restaurants. We had lunch at one of the restaurants on the island with the fish and prawns from the river.

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And I found some paddy fields and some more resort cottages on the small island also.

And while I was visiting Mong Hsu, I had a chance to have tofu noodle and fried tofu in town. They were really delicious. You should definitely try those local traditional food when you visit the town.

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If you want to watch the Haipa waterfalls from the bird eye view, you can view it at this Youtube link. It was shot with a drone I think.

Mong Hsu is a pleasant town and it should be included in your itinerary when you visit Shan State, Myanmar. It is about 200 miles (about 7 hours drive) from Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State.
Below is the link of the location map of Mong Hsu, the ruby mine I visited and Haipa waterfall on google map.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1g-RHeiIOCgTSzogyeWwaN2hPsGOTWwI&ll=21.86110332838449%2C98.38575386533229&z=12

I visited Mong Hsu in Oct 2023 and hope to visit it again in summer when I can see the Thanlwin river from the mountain peak of the ruby mine and when the water from the Haipa waterfall is not yellowish with mud. And I took a photo with my cousin brother and sister before my departure; let me record the memory here on the Hive blockchain.

Happy New Year to you all!

@princekham
Myanmar
31st Dec 2023