Linno Cave, also known as the Bat Cave, is a limestone cave about 5 kilometres southwest of Hpa-an town, home to over 500,000 bats representing more than 10 species. The cave is not a pagoda — there are no Buddha images inside — but it is a significant natural site and the bat emergence each evening is spectacular.
The cave mouth is accessible by a short walk from the road. Inside, the cave is dark, and the smell and sound of half a million roosting bats is vivid. The dusk emergence is the main event: the stream of bats pouring out of the cave mouth and spreading across the evening sky can last 20 minutes or more. Local people gather with fine-mesh nets on bamboo poles to catch bats; this is an old tradition and the interaction between the cave's natural spectacle and the human activity around it is itself interesting to observe.