Pyin Oo Lwin botanical garden: what time of the year is it best?

Hello! I live near Pyin Oo Lwin and would like to visit the botanical garden but probably only once because of the prohibitive entry fee they charge foreigners (who are not all rich!).
What are the months of the year when it has the most flowers?
Thanks a lot in advance for your answers...
Alexandre

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The replies to your other post on TA seems to have answered your question.
I think if you had included here that you were a long term vipasana yogy in a small monastery near POL that would have made more sense of your question, and explained your reluctance to pay an entrance fee.
SS

Dear Sillerswimmer,
Please note that I have no reluctance to pay a fee, on the contrary I am happy to do so and even a higher one than the locals. It is just that in some cases the intention to cheat on foreigners because they are foreigners (rich or poor) is so obvious! This happens in every country... Otherwise being on a travel forum, I just kept my post to the point, a legitimate travel-related question. I found it weird to get a derogative reaction (for another member) for not telling my life...
Have a nice day,
A.

I went in August and it was beautiful... I had a nice day so that helped. Avoid the weekend and holidays as the place gets mobbed with people, and particularly small gangs of "cool' kids that are quite annoying. There was a gang destroying the flower beds when I was there, which is a sad sight in such a peaceful place. Ohhh and be ready to walk, I found it a nightmare to get transport back from the gardens.

Thank you Ranger 22 for you helpful and informative answer!

Hello!

So I visited the Pyin Oo Lwin Botanical Garden (official name: National Kandawgyi Gardens) on March 22, 2016 and here is what I saw…

First, the entry price is 5 USD/6000 K for foreigners (children pay half price), which is reasonable (even if 6 times the price paid by locals!) and not “prohibitive” as I wrote in my first post. In fact I mistook the price with the entry price of the National Landmarks Garden just opposite the road (last year they asked 9 USD for foreigners, which seems indeed prohibitive, we were a party of 10 foreigners and we renounced to visit it), so I wish to apologise for my mistake and for the offence. The entry price includes an explanatory leaflet with a very clear map in English.

Then, as I suspected, in the dry and “cold” season, you don’t get so many flowers, the only ones I saw were quite common cultivated flowers in the area near the entrance, so it felt like being in a very beautiful park or garden anywhere in the world… I suppose in the rainy season many wild flowers blossom in the forest areas as well. However, the visit was really worthwhile because the main attractions are the vast tree areas. There are hundreds of different species and they are well and clearly labelled in Burmese and also with their complete Latin name (no English, they should seriously consider adding this as they are targeting international ecotourists). Here again, due to the time of the year a number of trees had no or not many leaves and the grass was yellowish, but that was OK, the place is still very green, you don’t feel like in the Gobi…

It is really a nice, calming and very pleasant experience to walk around these huge gardens and forest areas, that include a large lake. I went on a week day at 10 AM, and there were very few visitors so it was very quite (and I was the only foreigner, so some local took photographs of themselves by my side and a child even came to touch me probably to see if I was real and not some new attraction). More people were arriving when I left around 1 PM. The place and the alleys are very well maintained and signposted and you can walk through various biotops including a large swamp area (if you do, make sure to walk back a little on the main alley when you get back on it, otherwise you will miss several remarkable trees). You can also visit a fosile and petrified wood museum. A vast orchid garden boasts over 300 species but again, at the time of my visit very few were in flower so if you are an orchid fan, you should definitely go in the rainy season. There is also a vast walk-in aviary reproducing the natural forest/pond environment, so the birds, although captive, are kept in decent conditions (with the exception of some unfortunate parrots in smaller cages at the entrance). You can see some amazing and beautiful birds (but not so many). However there is no information provided on their identity, origin, which is really a shame as it would be very easy to do it. Like me until march 22, you probably don’t know what are takins, but don’t miss them… What I didn’t like: the butterfly museum… The concept of killing hundred, if not thousands, of those animals because we find them beautiful so that butterfly “lovers” can admire them pinned down on a board is beyond me, so I did not visit it, and I saw really splendid butterflies alive outside.

If you do an extensive tour of the park confortably you should count three good hours. You can buy drinks and visit a cafe (also serving some snacks it seems, but I did not check) near the entrance, but bring a bottle of water with you in case it is hot because you might need it when you are quite far from the shops. It is a nice idea to bring your picnic and spend more time there. There are toilets in several places, but you have to pay extra to use them, which is a bit exaggerated. The park also offers a large playground for children (but this is not really the reason to come here) and also, surprise!, a swimming pool (included in the entrance fee). So bring your swimming suits in case… The pool is neither very large nor too small, and there are showers too. Unfortunately, the water is not dirty, but it doesn’t look clean either (somewhat troubled). Although I was craving for a splash, the water was really not appealing and I did not wish to dip in it, so I did not… In fact nobody was at the pool when I visited it. It is a real shame that the water is not clean enough considering that swimming pools are such rarities around here (but it is the first swimming pool I see in Myanmar, so perhaps it is quite "normal" by local standards).

All in all I really enjoyed the place and I can recommend the visit if you have time and interest for such attractions…

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