Pai or Yangon?

Neither city is anywhere near a usable beach, so plan sea and sand for another leg of the trip. What differs is what you get instead.

In Pai you can float down the river on an inner tube in the hot season or splash under Mo Paeng waterfall. In Yangon the brown river is not for swimming. Chaung Tha and Ngwe Saung are a separate trip of several nights, so a swim in the city means a hotel pool.

Yangon is the far better place to eat. Burmese cooking can be had at its source: mohinga and palata in tea shops, slow-cooked curries with their spread of side dishes, laphet thoke, and Indian and Chinese quarters that add biryani, dosa and dim sum. The barbecue and draught beer on 19th Street round off the evening.

Pai's night market is cheap and pleasant, with khao soi and Shan dishes, and Santichon adds Yunnanese noodles. Much of the rest is smoothie bowls, pizza and vegan cafés aimed at long-staying travellers. It is easy food rather than a cuisine to explore.

Here the gap is wide. Yangon has the Shwedagon, a gilded stupa nearly 100m tall that is best seen barefoot on the terrace at dusk. It also has the mirrored interior of Botataung, the reclining Buddha at Chaukhtatgyi and a downtown of crumbling colonial landmarks such as the Secretariat and the Strand.

In Pai, culture is a pleasant extra rather than the point. You can climb to the white Buddha at Wat Phra That Mae Yen, see the wartime iron bridge, a few Shan temples and the mud-brick houses of Santichon, and you will be done within the day.

Pai has the livelier evenings, though they are modest by any wider standard. Reggae bars and fairy-lit garden bars fill with young backpackers after the night market, and the odd party runs out of town. Most of it winds down around midnight.

Yangon's nights are quieter and more local. You can watch football over draught beer in a beer station, eat skewers on 19th Street or have a drink at a hotel rooftop, and most of the city is asleep before midnight.

Pai wins easily, because the landscape is the whole reason to go. Misty valley viewpoints at Yun Lai, sunset on the canyon ridges, waterfalls, hill-tribe treks, rafting in the wet season and the swiftlet cave at Tham Lod all lie within reach.

Yangon sits on flat delta land with no hills or trails. Its outdoors means a walk on the Kandawgyi boardwalk, an evening by Inya Lake or the park at Hlawga, and the heat cuts even those short.

Yangon gives you more to do beyond the city. Bago, a former royal capital with the Shwemawdaw Pagoda and the Shwethalyaung reclining Buddha, is a comfortable day out by road or train. Twante's pottery kilns and the island pagoda at Kyauktan are closer still.

Pai is too remote for that. Apart from the Lahu and Lisu villages around Soppong, the nearby towns sit hours away along winding mountain roads. It works better as one stop on a loop through the northern hills.

Neither city is built for children, and both suit older children better than toddlers. The difficulties differ in kind.

In Pai, the trouble is getting there: the road from Chiang Mai is notorious for making passengers sick, and the sights are spread across the valley. Once there, waterfalls, hot springs, farm visits and river tubing give outdoorsy children plenty to do. Yangon's problems are relentless heat, broken pavements and heavy traffic, softened only by an old-fashioned zoo, a small amusement park and the lakeside lawns.

Yangon is the easier of the two, mainly because cheap taxis and ride-hailing cover the spread-out city, even if they get stuck in traffic. The downtown grid can be walked with care, and the slow Circular Railway is worth riding for the views.

Pai's centre takes minutes on foot, but everything worth seeing lies out in the valley with no public transport. That leaves a rented scooter, risky for beginners on the hill roads, or hired songthaews and tours.

Yangon has more to buy and it is more interesting. Bogyoke Aung San Market is a colonial market hall full of lacquerware, puppets, longyi and gemstones, though gems call for caution. The spice and street markets of Chinatown and the Indian quarter add to it.

In Pai, shopping is an evening browse along the walking street for cotton trousers, woven bags, hill-tribe textiles and jewellery. It is enjoyable and mostly locally made, but the same goods repeat from stall to stall.

Both are cheap, and Pai is a little gentler on a long stay. Simple bungalows, night-market dinners and scooter hire cost so little that travellers stay for weeks, and most sights are free or nearly so.

Yangon's street food, tea shops and taxis are just as cheap. The difference is in comfortable hotels, which cost noticeably more there, and in the Shwedagon, which charges foreigners an entry fee that the other pagodas mostly don't.

Pai has more on most nights, in a casual way: acoustic sets, blues and jazz jams in bars, played by local and travelling musicians. The quality is uneven, but it comes free with a drink.

Yangon's stage life is scarcer but more distinctly Burmese. Marionette shows, classical dance at the barge-shaped Karaweik Palace and, if you are lucky, an all-night zat pwe at a pagoda festival are the occasions to look for.

Pai is built for unwinding. You can soak in the Tha Pai hot springs in the cool morning air, then find cheap Thai massage, yoga and detox retreats, and the slow pace of the valley does the rest, at least outside the hazy burning season.

Yangon's offer is narrower but serious. Firm Burmese massage and hotel spas are easy to find, and the long-established Mahasi centre takes foreigners for vipassana retreats. Outside quiet moments at the Shwedagon or Inya Lake, though, the city is not restful.