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 Traveller's Tales: Getting around in Myanmar
Know the most popular landmarks in Myanmar. You may read about best transportation, recommended travel itinerary, suggested routes and directions. Also, you might want to read our
Bagan city guide,
Inle Lake city guide,
Mandalay city guide,
and Yangon(Rangoon) city guide.
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| F Wong |
24 May 2005 |
Stayed at Savoy Hotel Yangon - Yangon, Myanmar.
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Prices escalate at an unbelievable rate! Things are cheap, but not quite as cheap as guidebooks make them out to be, being somewhat out of date. Take taxis anywhere and everywhere, they're affordable.
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| R Paik |
12 April 2005 |
Stayed at Thamada Hotel - Yangon, Myanmar.
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Myanmar is a challenging yet unspoiled country to travel through. Train and air schedules frequently change. Rebooking air flights is a necessity, not a courtesy. Long distance buses are cheap, about US$7, for the 10 hour ride from Yangon to Mandalay. But air flights are worth the money for the time savings. In Yangon the Zawgyi House restaurant just east of Scott's Market serves good western and Burmese food. They offer outside and air-conditioned(!) dining. Mandalay's Green Elephant serves upscale interprerations of Burmese cuisine. In the evening there's often a haze of burning mosquito puncks in the outdoor dining area to fend off these pesky insects. Try 'mohinga', the rich-tasting Burmese noodle soup only served at breakfast. I'd recommend a 1-2 day trip to Pyin Uu Win outside of Mandalay to esscape the heat. The local 5-hour train makes every station stop as it snakes up the 3,000 ascent overlooking the plains. Bench seats, no interior lighting, people sitting on baggage in the aisle. In other words a great way to glimpse Burmese life.
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| L Rogers |
14 March 2005 |
Stayed at Thande Hotel Old Bagan - Bagan, Myanmar.
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On arrival into Bagan airport have USD$10 readily available, in order to pay for the Temple sight's entry fee. Flight time from Mandalay to Bagan 20mins. Bagan to Yangon 1hr 10mins. There are several ways to explore the temples of Bagan either by taxi, horse cart (4 pax) motorbike or bicycle, all readily available for hire. The scale of the city with 2,000 temples is just amazing, I would quite happiy have stayed for 3-4 nights in order to pace my temple experience with a round a golf, bike ride, shopping for laqueur ware, swim etc. Next time!
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| L Riley |
29 January 2005 |
Stayed at Golden Rock Hotel - Kyaikhtiyo, Myanmar.
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The view is worth the trek and this hotel is situated about half way up. If you stay here overnight you can watch the sunset and walk back up to watch the sunrise in the morn. The main base town is a nightmare and no one speaks English! You have to climb on board the back of a truck to get to the next section of the climb (the truck has several thin planks of timber to sit on and there is very little space between for your legs) - as you are a foreigner they think you want to sit in front with the driver so they charge 1000 kyat whereas the back is 500. We paid to sit in the front but was shoved behind the seats on a bench three deep with more in the front seats. Beware, we sat like this for two and a half hours until the truck finally left so we missed sunset! Trucks generally won't leave until they have a min of 45 people on them. If you do jump in the back with everyone else, it's worth being a part of thier day to day life and they appreciate you doing it. Going up sit as far to the front as possible so you don't get sqashed and the reverse for the trip down. It's very squashy in these! The hotel is only about 10 mins walk up the 45 deg road from stage two. To get to the top it's another 45min and the road doesn't change. Take water, good shoes and it does get cold at night early morn. Would only be around 10 tourists there. Bus from Yangon bus station takes around 5hrs and pre-book to get onboard - you can book the return once you get there.
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| M Smith |
25 January 2005 |
Stayed at Thamada Hotel - Yangon, Myanmar.
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Started our independent tour of Burma (Myanmar) in Rangoon (Yangon), using the historic Burmese train system - a real adventure! Train info at www.seat61.com/Burma.htm. Rangoon is a fascinating city - the Shwedagon pagoda, lots of colonial architecture. Taxis about 1,000 - 1,500 kyatt (about 67p - £1) a ride.
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| R Martin |
24 January 2005 |
Stayed at Hotel Nikko Royal Lake Yangon - Yangon, Myanmar.
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For travelers with the spirit of adventure, Myanmar is a very interesting destination. If you love places like India, you will love Myanmar. The people are friendly and welcoming; the Temples and Pagodas are amazing, and the food...well the food isn't so good. But food aside, Myanmar has a high WOW factor. If you go, you can't miss the Temples of Bagon. Bagon is about as spectacular as Angkor Wat...it is quite stunning and relaxing. I traveled to Yangon, Mandalay, and Bagon. Yangon was great for sightseeing and shopping. Mandalay is overrated and deserves only two days. I didn't run into anyone who liked it. Bagon, like I said earlier, is not to be missed.
Bring only US cash as they don't accept credit cards anywhere in the country, even in five star hotels. There are no ATM's in Myanmar either...which means that you need to plan ahead with your cash management. One hundred dollar bills will get you the best exchange rates while smaller bills will net you up to 7% less in exchange. Almost everywhere people will come up to you and say "change money"? If you try to cash traveler's checks, banks only accept a select few and even then, they will take a 20% commission on cashing them. Bottom line...bring Dollars. Euro's are almost impossible to exchange.
Internet service in Myanmar is a joke. Remember back to your 14.4 modem? Myanmar is slower than that! It took me 38 minutes to send one email. Also, the govenrment blocks MSN Hotmail and Yahoo mail so you will need to pay for a service that latches onto the government's server (draw your own conclusions on the reasons for this). I fortunately use a lesser known web-based mail and it wasn't blocked at all but because it was so slow, I hardly ever used it. Traveling throughout Myanmar can be trying at times but you will be well rewarded for your efforts.
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| E Blundell |
22 January 2005 |
Stayed at Sedona Hotel Mandalay - Mandalay, Myanmar.
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Mandalay and the nearby mountains (about 2 hours drive) have many interesting sights to visit. We would recommend using a private (tour) taxi as you can get to places that are not accessible by tour coach. The drivers also are very knowledgible and can provide a lot of information and help, e.g places to eat. You can usually hire by the day and cost ranges between about US$30 to US$50.
We found the modern Mandalay airport a refreshing change from the outdated and poor condition Yangon airport.
When arriving make sure to purchase a ticket that allows foreign tourist entry for most of the attractions/sights in the Mandalay area. The cost is US$10 per person but can save a lot of money over paying at each individual sight. Be prepared for additional charges for the use of still cameras and video cameras. These vary from place to place and are usually paid in local currency.
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| H Dilbeck |
22 January 2005 |
Stayed at Sedona Hotel Yangon - Yangon, Myanmar.
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We went to Myanmar for 10 days on our first trip to the country: Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay and Inle Lake. We would consider returning to Yangon and Bagan; we would return to Mandalay only as a base for exploring farther north. Inle Lake does not inspire us to revisit; it seems to us long on hype, but we admit the boat trip to the village of Nyuang Shwe and the walk along the road near our hotel provided insights into local life we did not get at other places. Overall, based on our experiences and comments from others who traveled there earlier, Myanmar seems to be taking steps to make travel to the country a more agreeable and less bureaucratic experience. We appreciated the ability to acquire a visa over the internet. Perhaps the country will improve internet service within its borders, which is the worst we have witnessed. We did not observe, thankfully, a bevy of beggars we expected based on writings of earlier travelers and our experiences in India.
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| K Thompson |
17 January 2005 |
Stayed at Savoy Hotel Yangon - Yangon, Myanmar.
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Yangon is a great city and should be high on anyone's list for a weekend break in Asia! The people are open and friendly and very keen to chat with foreigners and make you welcome. A number of great restaurants serving Burmese cuisine offer sensational value, especially Aung Thukka, near the Savoy hotel at which a meal for two costs 5USD and is fantastic. The Shwe Dagan Pagoda is breath-taking; investing in a guided tour is well worth it. For about 5USD a charming and knowledgeable guide will spend as long as you want wandering the temples and answering, in my case, a myriad of daft questions! Lastly, Bogyoke Aung San market is unmissable. Along with Chatuchuk and Saigon, the best market in Asia! One salutary lesson was learned though; not to change money in the airport fx booth. The rate is around half what you will get on the black market and there is no longer a requirement to enter the country with local currency.
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| G Aydt |
04 January 2005 |
Stayed at Mandalay Hill Resort - Mandalay, Myanmar.
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Mandalay city itself isn't a real beauty. But you should absolutely walk all the 1.400 or so steps up to the hill and start about 4 p.m., so you'll be there before sunset. While walking you will meet a lot of Myanmar people, who like to talk to foreigners and who love to practise english. Mahamuni pagoda is also a must. There is a view point for sunset somewhere at the Irawady (I don't know exactly where, you should ask for good places apart Mandalay Hill to watch the sunset). This place isn't yet touristic at all - people are living on their houseboats...great ambiance!!! The surroundings of Mandalay are very nice, very green. Amarapura, Sagaing, Inwa are nice. and there are more places. I've been twice to Myanmar and in both cases I took a taxi with driver from the Inle Lake (Nyaungshwe) to Mandalay (it has to take the old road) and the route is SO nice. You first go a long way through the mountains and then it's green and there are canals. Even if the trip by car lasts about 7 hours - it's worth while!!!
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