Myanmar Trip Highlights

(Him: Charlie)

Yangon: The centre of commerce and culture in Myanmar. Most travelers only stay long here, but you can easily spend 3-4 days if you venture out to the nearby towns and villages.

 Architecture from the colonial era

 Yangon cityscape 

 The holiest place in Myanmar - Shwedagon Pagoda

 The love for Aung San Suu Kyi and her father is ubiquitous

 Yangon seen from across the river at Dalah village

 Rustic wooden house built from colourful planks (possibly from old boats)

 Yangon public bus (notice the wooden floor)

Street food

Bagan: Thousands of pagoda and temples scattered on this sacred land really do make the view spectacular, especially during sunrise and sunset. Temperature soared to above 40 degree during the day. We had to rely on electric bike to get around - biking on unpaved roads can be treacherous and would have been lethal under the scorching sun!

 Ananda Temple

 Sunset view from atop a Bagan pagoda

 Pagoda and temples relics

 More pagoda and temple relics

 Temple in dire need of repair with dozens more pagodas in the backdrop

Pagodas in nostalgia 

Picture on top of the famous Shwesandaw Temple

View from Shwesandaw Temple

Inle Lake: We left the arid Bagan behind and went on to Inle Lake (Nyuangshwe). The scenery that greeted us, unlike the brownish desert in Bagan, was lush green mountains and endless rice paddy fields! The lake makes the air cooler and the ambience more relaxing.

 View from one of the two wineries in Myanmar overlooking the Inle Lake valley

 Boats lining up to take tourists out to the lake

 Leg-rowing Intha fisherman

 Fishermen and their villages in the backdrop

 Close-up of leg-rowing Intha fisherman

 Monastery on Inle Lake 

 Classic Burmese houses on stilts

 Stups and ruins at Indein

Villager's life by the lake

Bridge connecting a floating garden and a monastery

Mandalay: Bustling city in central Myanmar. Instead of visiting the tourist attraction, we simply rented a scooter to check out local life. i.e., markets, river-side slums, etc. Of course, we managed to make it to the famous U-Bain bridge in sunset view.

 Bustling produce market in Mandalay

 Fruit vendor and local men in traditional changyi

 Myanmar spices with pungent smell

 Monks crossing the market toward the padoga

 Slum by the Ayeyarwade River

 The famous U-bain bridge on Taung Tha Man Lake

 Scenery seen from U-bain bridge

 U-bain bridge under twilight

 Serene scene from U-bain bridge

Monastery under twilight

April 2014 Myanmar (Burma) Travel Tips - Yangon, Bagan, Inle Lake & Mandalay

(Her:  Joanna)

Myanmar is changing rapidly.  Last year, we heard that there was no ATM at all outside of Yangon.  This year, you can find ATM everywhere.  A year and a half ago, cell phone was rare.  People use "paid phone", which is just landline that you pay to use.  This year, we see at least 50% of people we saw on the street in big town such as Mandalay and Yangon using a smartphone.  It is difficult for us when we planned this trip to find the most updated info so we are sharing the info we gathered from this trip when we travel.

Our Itinerary

Day 1 - Arrive Yangon at 11:30 PM

Day 2 - @ Yangon

Day 3 - @ Yangon; Took night bus to Nyaung-U (Bagan)

Day 4 - Arrived Nyaung-U at 4:30 AM; @ Bagan (explored temples)

Day 5 - @ Bagan (explored temples)

Day 6 - Flew to Heho (Inle Lake) from Bagan departed 7ish AM and arrived Heho at 9ish; @ Nyaung Shwe (biked to Winery) 

Day 7 - @ Inle Lake (7:30-15:00) / Nyaung Shwe (biked around town)

Day 8 - Flew to Mandalay at noon; @ Mandalay (walked around town & explored night market)

Day 9 - @ Mandalay (explored market and town; rode to U-bein bridge)

Day 10 - Took day bus to Yangon; Flew out Myanmar back to HK

We felt that we did have sufficient time to explore each city we went but wish we had 4-5 more days to do a trekking trip from Kalaw to Inle Lake, and an opportunity to take a train.  If we had an additional 10 more days, we would love to venture off to the South or North to places with fewer tourists.

General For Myanmar

• Take a jacket with you to long haul buses.  They blast the AC.
• You would have no problem being a vegetarian in Myanmar.  They have a wide variety of salad with the option to add meat or not.  Also, the traditional Burmese meal involve 1 meat dish and a couple of side vegetable dishes (it is quite like Korean in that sense) served with unlimited rice.
• If you travel during the Water Festival (about 7 days) or Burmese New Year (about 4 days), do plan ahead.   We booked our bus and plane ticket ahead through the agency below.  Travellers we met who didn't cannot get any seats trying to arrange it last minute because public transportation don't run for most part during these 2 festivals and on days that they do run around these 2 festivals, the locals also travel through these holidays.  
• Expect to pay 15-30% more for transportation when you travel through these 2 holidays.  We paid 25,000 Kyats for a bus from Yangon to Bagan that other people paid 10-15,000 Kyats at other times.  
• Trains aren't very punctual.  We were to take a train from Mandalay to Yangon supposedly depart at 6 AM arriving at 9:30 PM so we can catch our flight back home departing at 1:10 AM.  The train ended up arriving to Mandalay 1.5 hours late to start with so we ended up given up and took a bus instead.  

·      Yangon

• Joy and Peace (Kay, sandar.joypeace@gmail.com/joyce@mptmail.net.mm, tel: (095-1) 664-442/706-959; 25, Ubaoh street, Quarter(2), Mayangone Township, Yangon, Myanmar: reliable travel agency base in Yangon.  We arrived during Burmese New Year, which is one of the busiest times for locals or international travelers.  They went out of their ways to book tickets/hotels we need and dropped it off at our hostel. Very responsive and reliable when we tried to make the booking via email.  Some stuff you get is cheaper from the agency, some stuff you have to pay more booking through them.
• We stayed at Humble Footprint Hostel for $16 USD per night per person in a 6 people dorm room.  Hostel was clean.  Electricity and wi-fi were stable.  Nice common room with AC to chill but no kitchen.  Don't buy drinks from the hostel.  They cost 2-3 times more than what you can get from the convenient store just at the corner of the street outside of the hostel.  "Finger" is a restaurant <1 min away with good and clean Burmese and Western food for very reasonable price.
• If you want to take buses at Myanmar, it is a great investment to learn to recognize the numbers and how to pronounce them in Burmese.  They use Burmese numerical numbers vs. Roman numerical numbers.  It was quite an adventure for us to take the bus to downtown Yangon from our hostels. Even though the hostel manager wrote us the bus numbers in Burmese, we were unable to recognize the Burmese numbers on the buses.  You have a better bet, if you don’t know Burmese, to ask the bus ticketing guy on the bus who usually hangs out from the back and the front door of the bus.  The public buses cost 200 Kyats per person.
• Long haul bus ride from Yangon we took was 45 minutes away from Shwedagon Paya (close to Humble Footprint Hostel). The bus terminal is relatively close to the airport.  Per travel agent and the manager at our hostel, we can take a bus but it would take 2-3 hours as there are many stops in between (however, we heard from another backpacker that it took her 1 hr to take the bus to the bus terminal).  We took a taxi and it cost us 8000 Kyats.   Thank God we took the taxi as the bus terminal was a huge area full of long haul bus companies and buses.  We would probably get lost trying to find the bus company.
• Though the quality of food is almost always guaranteed at the restaurants recommended in Lonely Planet, they are charging tourist prices relative to what locals are paying for a meal in Myanmar.  Try out some local places.  We usually ate where the local ate (even tried out a salad from a local market, which normally is a big no no), we and a few other backpackers we spoke to didn’t experience any diarrhea.  Of course, use your common sense when picking a restaurant.  A bowl of noodle from street vendor is about 300-500 Kyats; a dish from a restaurant is 1000-3500Kyats; a meal from Feel at Yangon recommended by the Lonely Planet cost 9000 Kyats. 
• Bus ride from Yangon to Bagan cost 15,000 Kyats to 25,000 Kyats.  Long haul buses stopped every 3 hours where you can find food and toilet.  Food at these stops ain’t cheap but toilets are usually free.
• Is Myanmar for solo backpacker?  No, if you have a tight budget.  It is atypical South East Asia countries, transportation and accommodation are not cheap.  There aren’t hostels outside of Yangon that we’ve found at the time of our travel nor there are public transportation between city and airport or long haul bus terminals, so, yes, you have to taxi your way and it ain’t no Bangkok.

Mandalay

• We stayed at Royal City Hotel for $40USD per night.  It was a clean hotel with dated decor but the staff are really sweet and nice.  It is also just 15 minutes walk from the train station so quite convenient if you are traveling by the train. The breakfast cooked in-house was very basic egg and toast western breakfast.  If you want local breakfast, they just buy take out for you at their cost (at the restaurant discussed below).
• It should be noted that the government has lowered the train prices for tourists. Now everyone pays the same price (the local price). Well, this makes every sense as it is almost impossible for the aging train to compete with the modern buses, which are 2 times faster.
• We rented a scooter from Mr. Jerey's on 83rd Street across 26th street for 14,000 Kyats  per day to get around town and to visit U-Bein bridge that is about 11 km out of Mandalay town.  Gas cost 1000 Kyats per litre.  A motorbike is more common if you know how to ride it and it just cost 10,000 Kyats per day.  Helmets included.  It is a bit hectic to drive around town like any other SE Asia big city.  Once you are out of downtown, it gets easier and less nerve racking.  Fill your tank up before you head out of town.  2L was plenty for us to do a round trip to U-Bein and drive around town the whole day.
• With a little negotiation, our back-of-a-truck taxi ride cost 4,500 Kyats from train station to bus station and it took about 20 minutes.  There are plenty just outside of the train station.  If you are traveling solo, consider taking the motorbike taxi.
• If you stay around the Royal City Hotel, definitely try the breakfast from Mohammed on 28th St. between 75th and 74th Street.  You can't miss it.  There are loads of locals there. 

Bagan

• We stayed at Ruby True Hotel booked through Agoda.com for $50 USD per night. The hotel is on the edge of New Bagan. The hotel is a trek away from the town centre, but the bungalow-style room was clean and comfortable. The staff, especially the manager Wawa, are very attentive and friendly.  
• Bike, ebike, and motorbike are all readily available for rent.  If you go during the hottest months between Mar – May, I highly recommend you go with the ebike and motorbike options.  It is quite tough to bike around when you can feel the heat creeping up on you by 9ish and it doesn’t subsides until after 3 PM. The rental shop may tell you the battery lasts for 6 hours, it actually runs out in 3-4 hours.  Have it changed in mid-night when you have lunch and before the night ends/in the morning. 
• Most overnight buses departing from Yangon will get you to Bagan at Nyaung U before the sun raises.  There are plenty (too many) of taxi and horse cart men waiting for arriving tourists, and a tea shop that seems to open 24/7.  You can get tea, coffee, rice with egg and Monhinga (thick fish broth with rice noodle).  Since we needed to go to New Bagan, which is 14km away, we waited out at the tea shop until after sunrise to weigh our transportation options. The taxi drivers and horse cart men asked for 12,000 Kyats for the trip. There are pick-up trucks that the local take.  I approached a few but they can’t really speak English nor they want to take us in because the taxi drivers kept them from picking us up, which is awfully annoying.  We ended up taking a horse cart for the experience for 8000 Kyats after some negotiation (or perhaps all the buses had arrived and the horse cart man just settled with the only business he could get). 
• Surprisingly, in this touristy area, we found some pretty decently priced food.  Like this restaurant packed with locals.
  

Inle Lake & Nyaung Shwe

• There are 5 Markets in the Inle Lake area that they take turns in a 5-day cycle. Here's the most updated market schedule given to us by Aquarius Inn where we stayed. 

• Nyaung Shwe is not a big town.  Here's a town map Aquarius Inn gave us along with some bike routes that are quite enjoyable to explore.

• We stayed at Aquarius Inn booked through Agoda.com for $40 USD per night. Aquarius Inn just added a new building June 2013.  We lucked out getting a room with windows on 3 sides and a private balcony.  Staff doesn't speak much English except for the owner but they were all super friendly.  Breakfast was included, and tea and fruits were served as snack everyday.  Plus, the owner give a small gift at the end of our stay.  

• Bike rental is everywhere asking for 1500 Kyats per day but you can negotiate down to 1000 kyats per day
• We took a flight from Bagan to get to Inle Lake.  The airport closest to Inle Lake is at a town call Heho, which is an hour car ride to Nyaung Shwe (the tourist hub for Inle Lake). All flight stop by Mandalay even if your travel agent didn't say so.  There's no public transportation from the airport to Nyaung Shwe (or anywhere) from what we've been told.  Taxi driver charges 25,000 Kyats (and 30,000 Kyats during high season) if you ask within the airport area.  If arranged with hotel, taxi cost 15,000 Kyats.  The cheap option would be to talk 20min to the main road and flag down a bus or pick-up truck. We could not justify paying 25,000 Kyats, so we told the taxi driver we would only pay 15,000 Kyats or we would walk. Lucky, the taxi driver gave in and agreed to take us for 15,000 Kyats.  
• Beverage price varies a lot from place to place at Inle Lake and Nyaung Shwe.  If you are at or close by touristy places (e.g. on the lake, close by the boat dock, main road by the market at Nyaung Shwe), asking price for a can of coke is 1000 Kyats.  You can find convenient stores who charges 500 Kyats but we haven’t seen lower than that.  If you are on the boat ride at Inle Lake, find a store that is tucked away from the main road for better bargaining power – give them 500 Kyats for a can of coke vs. asking them how much it is was a strategy that worked for us.
• You can find cheap eats in the Market at Nyaung Shwe (but not so great sanitation usually) during the day time or the Night Market just besides the Market with decent sanitation at a few stalls.  You are looking at 4000-6000 Kyats for 2 people for a bbq fish, a salad, a noodle and a bottle of beer vs. restaurants where you'd pay 10,000-15,000 Kyats for 2 people each with an entry and a drink. 
•  @ the Nyang Shwe Market, I highly recommend the only noodle stall in the Market to have a taste of the local Shan Noodle in soup of the Shan State.  It is quite different from Mohinga (rice noodle in thick fish broth) in Yangon and Central Myanmar.  Shan noodle in soup reminds me of Vietnamese Pho.  The texture of the noodle is slightly more chewy than the Vietnamese Pho.  The soup base may not be beef bone but it reminds me of the taste of it.  The soup with chicken tastes better than without it for me but don’t expect big pieces of chicken.

•  @ the Night Market, you can definitely get a taste of the local food.  The food stall we went to was run by a family of 5 and was the cleanest based on how they handled and washed the food.  The cook (the Mom) even wore a new pair of disposable gloves when she prepared the salad dish.

Is it a good or bad thing to be modernized?

(Her: Joanna)

Seeing supermarket for the first time, I shout in excitement as it has been really painful and close to impossible in our experience to haggle with the locals for a fair price local pays (we have the impression that we’ve always got charge the tourist price).  A sad feeling creeps up shortly after.  Is supermarket really good for the locals? 

Scenes of convenient stores and local produce market closing down pops into my head.  That’s inevitable fate as supermarkets come in.  We saw many electronic brands in Mandalay, Huawei, ZTE, Samsung, Changhong, Apple.  Soon after all other brands in other categories will flourish.  In a couple of years, longyis will replaced by jeans, skirts, dress of different brands. The lives of people in Myanmar will change or what we so call ‘modernized’. 

Myanmar is one of the few places in this world still lives in the traditional way.  It is a valuable thing like an extinct species.  I’m afraid, not for long, this will become extinct like many other countries.  Is it a good or bad thing to be modernized? 

Mixed feeling towards Myanmar...

(Him: Charlie)

Myanmar had been a much anticipated country on JoCharvel's travel list and we have not been disappointed. The 10-day trip to the "golden land" has been fascinating, but as Jo and I had discussed, our recommendation of Myanmar being a tourist destination would only be given to those who value culture over savory and shopping experience.

Having been run by the notoriously corrupted military government and isolated for decades, Myanmar is at a very primitive state. However, this is not the reason for the "mixed feeling".

What we love the most in Myanmar are the people. They are some of the most sincere and honest people we have seen. It is a humble experience to visit a country where majority of the population are devoted Buddhists, and that monks are highly revered. At dawn every day, monks in red robes are seen on their alms-round (food collection) in bare feet across cities and villages. Some people would contribute money, but more would share food. I saw a street vendor scooped a portion of her lunch into the young monk's alms bowl. I could spot her joyful smile when sharing her food. From a later research, alms-giving is not charity apparently; instead, it is closer to "a symbolic connection to the spiritual realm".

What turned us off in Myanmar was how the tourists were specifically targeted for unfair profiting! And the government is leading by example on this issue! Not only do foreigners have to pay various "tourists only" entrance fees, the public transit systems are so poorly planned that taxis, whose prices are disproportionately high, are often the only option. So one thing we dreaded in Myanmar was having to deal with taxi drivers on a daily basis.

Overall, we feel that Myanmar at its current state is not for everyone. It's not cheap for what the country can offer in terms of sights and scenery, but for those who are determined to see Myanmar before it is overly westernized, authenticity in the people and culture are definitely a compelling draw!

Why do I think Burmese are super friendly people?

No matter where you travel to, how beautiful the country is and what delicious cuisine this place has to offer, it does not beat the people.  After having been to so many places, what makes a place special to me is definitely the people.  Burmese are definitely one of the most loveable people I ever came across.  Why?

Here's why:

• At Mandalay train station, we stood around and were reading our Lonely Planet looking into where to go next and how to get there, perhaps looking lost.  A Burmese man came over asking whether we need help.

• Everywhere you go, you nod your head and smile at the people, they will return with a huge smile.

• At the ferry dock going from Yangon to Dalah, after a fail attempt to sell us to be our tour guide at Dalah, the Burmese girl personally took us to the ticket office when we don’t’ know where to go get our ticket without asking for anything.

• At Dalah, it started to rain as we walk through the villages.  A group of ladies clear up a bench and invited us into their ‘house’ to wait the rain off.  We said thank-you and they returned with a nod and a gentle smile.

                                     

•       Again, at Dalah, we got rained on while getting snacks at a stall.  The family invited us into their house to wait off the rain.

• It was Burmese New Year, we can’t find anything to eat at reasonable price after walking over an hour.  We finally found a tea house.  Sat down and had a wonderful cup of tea.  I was being nosy walking around, checking out how the tea was made in their ‘kitchen area’, I saw a guy (perhaps, he is a staff) having lunch so I asked the staff whether they are serving food.  We had a hard time communicating so I gave up and just sat down to enjoy the wonder tea.  Shortly after, the staff came to our table with a cheese sandwich and a fried egg!  I guess ‘we have not had lunch and are very hungry’ came across in my combination of hand rubbing my tummy and words.  

What makes or breaks a great traveling experience?

(Him: Charlie)

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been thinking what would be a suitable tag line for Myanmar if its government wants to promote its tourism (think “Malaysia, truly Asia” or “Incredible India” kind of slogans)? Not that the military government would want to do this in the near future, as their hands are quite full with loads of other problems, but even if they do, I really can’t think of a good one. Why? Because Myanmar is physically not ready to take in large scale tourism yet. Beside the potholed roads, aging railway systems, and sporadic power supply, tourists would also need to deal with the special treatment imposed by the military government. For instance, for locals to take ferry from Yangon to the small village, Dallah, across the Yangon River, it costs only 200 kyats (20 US cents). But for foreigners, not only do they charge 10 times higher, the government also monopolizes the business by prohibiting local boats to take foreigners!

On the bright side though, for those who could endure the roughness and overpriced facilities, the reward is enormous – genuine authenticity from the welcoming and sweet Burmese. Our trip has been fantastic so far, and it has everything to do with Myanmar’s friendly people. From restaurant waiters to ferry dock staff, from shop owners to strangers on Yangon streets, all of them have this genuine curiosity about travelers, yet they are always courteous and polite. Often times when your eye sights meet with the locals, a nod and a smile would always guarantee a smile in return. And those kids in the villages, they are just angels with innocent faces and adorable giggles! They would run over to you, stop a couple of feet before you and say “hello, how are you? Where are you from?”

So what makes and breaks a great traveling experience? It is always people, people and people!! Here are some of them.

Restaurant owner gives out food to people from all walks of life on the first day of Myanmar New Year

Curious kids at an apartment building in suburb Yangon

Bustling restaurant always filled with hungry locals in Bagan (the staff are super friendly and attentive)

Young monks at Thatbyinnyu Temple, Bagan

Young monks receiving food donation from local merchant (see how happy the donor is!!)

Villagers processing sun-dried fish

Villager in Dallah Village

Sweet and shy children in Dallah village

Finally Myanmar is here!

(Him: Charlie)

Happy Myanmar New Year from Yangon!! 

OK finally, JoCharvel's no. 1 country in Southeast Asia is happening! 

We have forgotten why exactly the country is on top of our list. We didn't even know what's there to see before we started doing trip planning. I guess what made it so compelling is the fact that we don't know anything about it, yet it has all of a sudden become accessible to the outside world. I think that's what really drew JoCharvel's interest! And for me, this is the best place to hit on serendipity! On a side note, I think Monocle made have planted the seed in my mind when they wrote about Myanmar emerging from isolation.

So, we just arrived at the hostel (the only one in Myanmar), settled in and took a refreshing shower. Let me pour out the pre-perception to this country before it gets eroded away!

Let's see... So I really don't know much about Burma except that it just emerged from decades of military ruling and there's the world-coveted Aung San Suu Kyi, who is probably going to lead this fast-growing democratic country in the years to come. Other than that I heard there are scattered religious conflicts and even genocides in isolated areas, and that's about it.

From a backpackers perspective, I would be very interested to see the people and the culture before they are heavily influenced by the outside world. I heard people are friendly and genuinely welcoming here, but unfortunately, after a few years of opening up, I heard people in the touristy places have become more commercialized. I am not holding a false expectation about seeing totally unspoiled local life, especially we are visiting the most popular 4 destinations - Yangon, Bagan, Inle Lake and Mandalay, but I am confident that I would still be indulged in a high degree of authenticity. After all, we have come through hurdles to see this country, with a visa and an entire trip-worth of crisps USD notes for meticulous exchange requirements (this country has only recently been introduced to ATM so bank cards are being used as back up). So exactly where we will end up between total authenticity and total tourist trap would be what we will find out in the next 9 days! Time to sleep and then have a blast tomorrow!!!

By the way, walking with my hiking shoes, airy MEC traveling pants, hooded jacket and my deuter backpack really reminded me of JoCharvel's long trip back then. It just felt so good!