PING LONG - Myanmar Travel and Tour Agent Information

ORGANIZERS have welcomed an increase in the number of foreign tourists at the fourth annual Naga festival held in the picturesque mountain country of northern Sagaing Division earlier this month.

The festival was held this year at Layshe, about 480 kilometres northwest of Sagaing, from January 12 to 16.

A feature of the festival is a series of spectacular dance performances by hundreds of chanting Naga tribesmen wearing traditional clothing and head-dresses made of hornbill feathers.

There were 178 foreign and 40 Myanmar tourists at the festival, said Phoenix Travel and Tours Company, which has organized the event for the past three years.

To reach the site for this year, visitors traveled by plane from Mandalay to Homalin, where they boarded boats for a journey up the Chindwin River to Htamanthi.

At Htamanthi they transferred to trucks for a six-hour journey along winding mountain roads to Layshe.

The visitors are accommodated in temporary bamboo huts built in the traditional style. All meals provided free of charge.