Myanmar - A Visit to a Country in Transition
 

Gottravel and I spent 18 days of our 6 week SEASia trip in Myanmar. We were in Myanmar from late January into February. As always I want to thank the wonderful posters on the Asia Board who give their time and expertise so generously. I read thru numerous TRs which also helped in deciding where to go and where to eliminate. I thank all of you who took the time to answer a question or write a TR for us to use as a blueprint for our trip.

The necessary planning and planning and planning seemed to take forever.
I started in the spring working with Santa Maria Travels, http://www.myanmartravels.net/index.htm. Santa Maria had been recommended on this board and on TA. I was happy with their services. In the planning stages they were efficient and responsive answering my emails the next day. All arrangements went smoothly and they were easy to contact the couple times we needed to during our time in Myanmar. The major frustration was that prices for airfare and hotels don’t get set until closer in and I was having a difficult time getting an idea of what the trip might cost and what we might add or would need to delete due to costs. This, of course, is not the fault of SM. Since prices had escalated these last couple years, I couldn’t even go by what others had spent a year or two ago. It was early fall by the time I got estimates for rates and airfare. Planning and traveling in Myanmar may take patience, be prepared. I normally don’t use TA’s, so I am certainly not an expert on rating them, but I would rate Santa Maria 5* and highly recommend them.

In the end the itinerary we worked out was pretty much the typical tourist circuit which follows: (Note: full reviews of hotels are on TA under dl. Also our general preference is to stay in small BnB’s or real boutique hotels so these hotels were very different than our usual digs when we travel).

Flew roundtrip on Air Asia from BKK to Yangon. I booked these flights. We had to stop at Yangon first on the way to Mandalay to pay Santa Maria. We then went from Yangon International airport to the Domestic airport to fly Mandalay that same day. I had asked about getting the vouchers in Mandalay & paying, but they said it had to be done in Yangon. That’s something I would certainly check on if you don’t want Yangon to be your first stop.

3 nights in Mandalay @ the Rupar Mandalar Resort which we loved. This was a smallish place, but they were building a rather large addition near the pool area - 5*
http://www.ruparmandalar.com

1 night in Pyin OO Lwin @ Hotel Pyin OO Lyin which was a new hotel that was barely okay, our room was dark & COLD. Maybe a room that got sun would have made a difference - 3*
http://hotelpyinoolwin.com/index.php

3 nights in Hsipaw @ Mr. Charles Guest House, which is a basic guest house and it was fine for what it was – 3*
http://www.mrcharleshotel.com

1 night back in Mandalay @Rupar Mandalar

Boat to Bagan - 10-11 hours, but to my surprise I enjoyed all of them

4 nights in Bagan The Hotel @ Tharber Gate in Old Bagan which has a perfect location. Hotel could do with some sprucing up. It was fine - 4*
http://www.tharabargate.com
Flew to Heho and drove to Inle Lake where we spent 4 nights @ Pristine Lotus Spa Resort which is a lovely property with some lake views - 5* (http://www.pristinelotus.com)

Flew from HeHo to Yangon where we spent 2 nights at Traders Hotel. Big business hotel with typical hotel comforts and was being refurbished. At long last we had great Internet connectivity & it gets extra for that - 4*.
http://www.shangri-la.com/yangon/traders/

Santa Maria made all hotel reservations and flight reservations with the exception of the roundtrip to and from Myanmar that I booked online. All flights were on Yangon Air and were fine. I did research to try and avoid patronizing properties currently directly connected to the corrupt regime & its cronies. Severl hotels Santa Maria suggested we did not stay at due to the regime connections, but I realize it’s hard to know who owns a stake in what and where the money really goes.

We took pristine US$, but we did find ATMs available and had no trouble using them. We had one ATM that was out of order’ and someone directed us right around the corner to a working ATM. Our bank reimburses any fees so we didn’t need to worry about ATM fees. The fees were about $5. Hotels had signs that they accepted credit cards with varying fees attached ranging from 3% - 5%.

Myanmar grew on me – it was not love at first sight by any stretch perhaps because we started in Mandalay, a very hard place to love let alone like. I found the people open, curious & friendly. Food was generally good with some very good dishes thrown in. Some of the sites are jaw dropping. I’m very glad I went, learned a lot and understand a bit more about a country with a very tragic, turbulent history.

The issue of going now or waiting is vexing to me. Myanmar is not ready or equipped for the number of tourists it is experiencing. I have read articles on this and talked with locals about it. In a few years it will have a better tourist infrastructure that might make it easier or more pleasurable to visit. Myanmar is past what it was say even 2-3 years ago, but it is definitely not what it will be in 3- 5 years. Myanmar is in transition from the old to whatever it will become. I know there are way more tourists now than a couple years ago, but with a very few exceptions I never felt the presence of too many tourists like one may experience at Ankor Wat or other places I have visited.

Details of what we did will follow…eventually.

I've been awaiting your report! Great start.

You made me think about how I might have felt starting in Mandalay rather than Yangon... Our first trip we skipped Mandalay all together and that was a good decision. On our second trip, we stayed there (glad you liked Rupar Mandalar) and found it so different from the rest of the country. I think it would have been hard for me to start in Mandalay. I will take this into consideration as I offer info and advice to others.

Kathie, your TR's were what got me going on getting to Myanmar sooner than later. Thank you again for all the help you provided.
On the one hand, it can only go up from Mandalay and from some TR's it seems some people like Mandalay. I knew I wouldn't like it, just wasn't prepared for how much I didn't like it. Plus the driver we had spoke minimal English and then the guide we had for the one day wasn't the greatest. I think a good guide can really make a huge difference on my impression of a place. But yes, Rupar Madalar is so nice, so that helped to be able to escape to its serenity.

Yestravel,

Wonderful start, but I knew it would be! I've also been looking forward to reading your TR, especially your impressions of Myanmar. It's one of several places I'm considering for the next Asian trip, and, having already followed in your footsteps on my recent trip, I'm especially intrigued to read your thoughts about Myanmar.

Looking forward to more..

Paule

Yestravel, I've been waiting patiently for your TR. I share your frustration about the pricing. We're going in November, have our itinerary booked (I hope), but until we know the pricing and pay our deposit, I still feel in limbo. After some missteps (and a change of agent to Zaw) we are using Santa Maria, and have also lined up Minthu for Bagan.

@progol - doubt we'll get thru our writing up our 18 days as quickly as you did you TR. I was impressed with how quickly you got your TR posted. Well done!

@internetwiz (BTW are you an internet wiz?) where did you end up reserving? I remember your posts about Bagan and Inle Lake that I read as we were traveling. Beautiful weekend in DC, huh?

Also interested, I went 4 years ago for a short trip with my friend now considering going next autumn with you partner and he is worried we may have left it " too late" .......
My friend went 2 years ago and said it had really changed since we went in 2010!

Glad to see you've started your report! Very much looking forward to reading it, though you've already answered so many of my planning questions in other posts (thanks!!).

Regarding going now, or waiting, or if it's even "too late", I say go when you can, to just about anywhere.

I would never tell anyone not to go to Cambodia for example, though it has changed dramatically since I was first there in 2002, then 2007, then 2010. I am going back this summer and expect more change. It would be like telling someone it was too late to see the Pyramids in Egypt or Machu Picchu. Some things must be seen at least once. Am I glad I saw Angkor Wat in 2002? Of course. But I still think it's worth the trip today, and I hope Burma will be the same.

i absolutely agree with you, Kristina. I think Burma is a "go as soon as you can" but I would never say it is too late. I'd add Bagan to your list of must-sees.

At the Yangon Airport:

Our flight from Bangkok to Yangon was short and uneventful. We had hoped to start our Myanmar trip in Mandalay. However, Santa Maria Travel & Tours had insisted that we settle our bill and receive our vouchers by meeting a Santa Maria representative in the nice Yangon International Airport terminal. At any rate, we cleared immigration and customs without difficulty, quickly found the Santa Maria representative and were soon huddled together on a bench counting out crisp new $100 bills and comparing hotel vouchers against our itinerary. I also took advantage of a nearby moneychanger to convert $300 into kyat, the national currency. I watched with some amazement as she pushed back a small stack of 10,000 kyat notes in exchange for $300. The dollar to kyat exchange rate is approximately one dollar to a thousand kyat; this does have the advantage of making mental conversion of prices easy – just drop three zeroes. This was, as it turned out, the only time we were to exchange money during our travels in Myanmar; on every subsequent occasion, we used ATMs, which can now be found in larger towns, at least those on the tourist circuit.

After we’d received our vouchers, we headed to the domestic terminal. The responses to our question regarding directions seemed a tad on the vague side, a half-dismissive hand gesture indicating that the domestic terminal was to the left as we were facing the outside doors. As we soon found out, the domestic terminal was indeed to our left. However it was also outside the doors and in a separate building a quarter mile (400 meters) down a dilapidated sidewalk along a busy street. We made our way through a scrum of taxi drivers and started rolling (or carrying, in my case) our luggage down the uneven and oddly interrupted sidewalk. It was our first introduction to Yangon’s heat, infamous sidewalks and high curbs.

The domestic terminal turned out to be near-abandoned, down at the heels and almost completely devoid of anything resembling facilities. Check-in consisted of walking up to a stand, showing our names and being given a colored sticky to affix to our clothes. We sat on a tilted plastic bench, eyed an unattended and derelict-looking X-ray machine, and attempted to read our books. We had a three hour wait. I finally managed to buy a couple tiny bags of cashews and a bottle of warm water from a woman tending a small stand. Lunch was served! After some other passengers filtered in and milled around the X-ray machine, we approached and were told that we could enter the gate area. Our luggage was cranked through the X-ray machine, we received cursory scans and were then in the post-screening gate area. There was absolutely nothing there, just some rows of plastic seats and an immense old-fashioned scale that looked like it dated from the 1920s. The room slowly filled up with a mix of foreign travelers and folks from Myanmar. (I’m not sure what you call people from Myanmar – Myanmartians, perhaps?)

Then - a flight was announced! Some ancient speakers made scratchy noises incomprehensible in any language and a gentleman wearing a Yangon Air shirt and a longhi walked back and forth in front of the crowd with a small hand-held sign with the airline and flight number printed on it. Half the waiting crowd lined up and filtered out. Forty-five minutes later it was our turn; more scratchy noises heralded a gentleman with a sign that had our flight number and airline name. We grabbed our luggage and headed for the door to the runway. We were on our way to Mandalay!

Ah, yes, the lovely domestic terminal!

yestravel....WOW, Maybe I am glad we are staring in Mandalay....I think??! DH would have taken one look at the walk to the domestic terminal and dragged me back inside to book a return flight to Bangkok!

I went with Myanmar Shalom mainly because with Santa Maria we had to add at least that extra flight and possibly another night, so we could start in Mandalay....we are doing a short river cruise from Mandalay to Bagan first. Fortunately, we will be half way through our trip before he encounters a domestic terminal!

Please continue with your report, I am taking notes, thanks

Kristina, I totally agree with you.....just go.

Cambodia, in 2009, was full of tourist at the major sites, but I am so glad we went. At the time my husband thought I was crazy, but agrees he is glad we went. After I got him to India last spring, he loved it and wants to go back.

Kristina, I also agree with you. everything changes so go when you can.

Either we got used to the domestic terminals or the one in Yangon really was very bad. After awhile I saw the terminals as quaint...a look back at a long time ago in air travel. In Thailand when we flew out of Nan all the lights were off in the terminal, and I use that word loosely, when we arrived there to take our flight. We had to knock on the door to get let in. That walk to the domestic terminal in Yangon was not a good start to our time in Myanmar. To top it off we had gotten up at 4am for our flight from BKK to Yangon so were pretty tired.

Cwn - By the time I realized we had to go first to Yangon to pay, I really didn't feel like redoing the trip. I tend to get planned out working on these long trips. What is the short river cruise between Mandalay and Bagan?

Enjoying your report Dona!

It is a two night cruise on the 1947 Pandow..a restored traditional Burmese river boat that four Australia friends did and loved. It is right up my DH ally, really the reason that we are going to Myanmar while we are in SE Asia...I understand about planning for a long trip...we will be gone almost five months if all the parts will fit.

Hi Yestravel

Thanks for your report. It's great to get another's perspective on places, and I did use your previous report on Thailand and Laos with fantastic results (especially Morodoke in Chiang Rai).

I also stayed at Hotel Pyin oo Lwin, the room was light, and it being March, I was pleased it was cool. The place was pretty sterile though.

Funny at Heho airport this morning, I couldn't find anyone with my type of sticker, so just hung around at the back of the waiting area. Couldn't believe the check in lady came and found me ! The sticker was not visible, under a scarf.
There was not a single westerner on the flight. Plane full (except the seat next to me) with Chinese tourists. Guess that's why the check in lady remembered me.

To cwn, I've done a couple of Pandaw cruises, will post on your thread later.

Looking forward to more YT !

Me and OH had 3 weeks in Myanmar in Feb/Mar 2010.

Apart from having our visas, plenty of pristine US$100 notes, and our first 3 nights in Yangon booked, I'd left the rest of our itinerary unplanned and fill it in as we go.

On our way from Yangon Airport to our hotel (Summit Parkside) the driver asked us how long we planned to be in the country, and how we intended getting around.

To cut a long story short we booked the taxi for a full day out in the countryside around Yangon, to assess the driver and vehicle. And if we liked the day, then we'd hire him for the next two weeks to show us his beautiful country.

We liked him, and at the end of our local countryside tour he took us to the taxi company office downtown. We worked out a rough itinerary and agreed a price.

Two weeks hire of the vehicle, all fuel, road tolls, drivers meals and his accommodation, plus his knowledge of Burma came to a staggeringly low US$800.

We had an awesome trip, drove up the spine of Burma to the Temples of Bagan, Mandalay, Pwin oo Lyin, Kalaw, Inle Lake, and back to Yangon.

Whenever we visit any county in SE Asia we refuse to even consider flying between points as there is so much to see on the ground, and Myanmar certainly didn't disappoint on that score.

Nearly all the roads are orange dust, and every morning we started off freshly showered, but by the end of the day we were an orange colour from head to toe!

Thanks, Hanuman

cwn - cruise sounds interesting. Wow! 5 months, now that's a lot of planning.

sartoric - sterile is a good description of Pyin OO Lwin Resort. Glad we were there for just 1 night. had we stayed longer I would have asked to be moved to a room that got the sun And yes, the coolness of the town was welcome after the heat in Mandalay.

LancasterLad - sounds like a great way to travel & certainly inexpensive. Agree that there was a lot to see on the ground. And you must have seen a lot. How long were your drives from place to place? The dust most of the places we went was unreal.

sartoric - we had dinner at Morodoke this trip also and it was just as good. for accuracy sakes, it's in Chiang Mai.

Yestravel, of course, Chiang Mai is right.
I'm at the point of exhaustion I think, so tired that my attention to detail is flagging.
Will be going home on Thursday after six weeks in SE Asia, three of them travelling solo. Looking forward to getting home in a way, although not the 20 + hours in transit.

Thanks for the pick up, and I look forward to hearing the rest of your story.

Cheers
Caroline

Three days in Mandalay

The Mandalay airport is new and some distance from town. We’d arranged for an airport transfer with Santa Maria. Our Santa Maria driver was Thet Now, a nice soft-spoken man who spoke minimal English, but usually chose to remain silent. It was a long (and silent) drive on a near-empty expressway through a desiccated landscape to arrive at the seemingly endless city. At first impression, Mandalay is a hard city to like, hot, noisy, hazy and dusty with air redolent of diesel fumes and wood smoke. We were arriving mid-afternoon and hadn’t planned any sightseeing that day, so Thet Now took us directly to our hotel, the Rupar Mandalay Resort.

The Rupar Mandalay was spectacular – luxurious, relatively new teak buildings, beautiful grounds, a nice pool, spacious rooms and superb, helpful staff. We were exhausted – we’d gotten up at 4:00 a.m. for our initial flight from Bangkok to Yangon – and I promptly threw myself into our wonderful king-size bed for a long nap. YT hit the spa to take advantage of the free foot massage and to explore other spa possibilities. Later, we availed ourselves of the free happy hour cocktail, eavesdropped on fellow travelers’ conversations and had dinner in. Our meal, from a mixed western/Asian menu, was delicious, as was the sumptuous breakfast buffet the following morning. (I had slowly developed affection for papaya, particular papaya with a little lime juice squeezed on it.) Indeed, we were destined to eat at the Rupar Mandalay every night we stayed there, due to both inertia and the fact that the Rupar Mandalar is in a suburb of Mandalay, with no other restaurants within walking distance.

A little before nine the next morning, Thet Now arrived to take us on our scheduled tour of Mandalay sights. We began with the teak monastery (Shwe In Bin Kyaung). [Note: When we arrived at the Teak Monastery, we bought two 10 U$D Mandalay Archeological Zone tickets, which are good for a week. If one is so inclined, Lonely Planet’s Myanmar book has a section advising how to visit Mandalay sights without paying the ticket price; given Myanmar’s poverty, I personally consider that kind of cost-cutting churlish.] The Teak Monastery is about 120 years old. The exterior, both the roof and parts of the walls, is covered with sometimes elaborate teak carvings. The interior is beautiful and high-ceilinged, with much of the wood covered with a faded gold paint that gives it a subdued feeling. I particularly enjoyed some of the simpler carvings on the exterior walls and doors, which depicted scenes from everyday life. Out of everything we saw in Mandalay city, this monastery was our favorite.

Next up was “The World’s Largest Book,” the grounds of the 19th Century Kuthodaw Paya and the adjacent Sandamuni Paya. The Kuthodaw Paya is a large white and gold temple surrounded by small stupas covering engraved marble tablets of Buddhist scripture. The Sandamuni Paya contains more stupas containing more slabs offering commentary on the Kuthodaw Paya scripture. I must be spiritually deficit as I found the “Book” part dull and repetitive. However, the central golden stupa was gorgeous and I was fascinated by the shifting neon halo behind a Buddha statue. The grounds of both temples (aside from the repetitive book stupas) were beautiful, golden and tiled. Next we went to Mahamuni Paya, home of a bulbous Buddha where the faithful apply layers gold leaf to statue, resulting in a somewhat lumpy, misshapen appearance. Fortunately for the Buddha’s princely good looks, the gold leaf was applied only to the statue’s torso. Women aren’t allowed to apply gold leaf, but instead view its application remotely via what we dubbed a Buddha-cam.

After that, perhaps sensing that we had overdosed on Buddha-related stuff (“stupa-fied”), Thet Now took us to a craft shop – mostly selling puppets and wood-carvings - that we were in and out of in ten minutes. Then we went to a silk weaving outlet where we arrived immediately after a French tour bus. The store was impassable; we couldn’t even approach the scarf displays. We had earlier passed on a gold-pounding atelier altogether. After a brief shopping excursion, we were on to the Mandalay Palace. The Mandalay Palace is inside the moated and walled Mandalay Fort. The notorious army of Myanmar occupies most of the fort. Entry to the old fort is through a bridge and gate on the east-facing side. After a checkpoint (“no camera, no camera” advised Thet Now in one his longer orations), Thet Now drove us to the Palace, which is the only area within the fort open to foreigners. The Palace is a series of teak buildings and pagodas that had been completely – and poorly – restored in the 1990s. Other than one oddly shaped building and the external ladders on the upper stories of some pagodas, we found the Palace uninteresting.

By now it was early afternoon. As is our habit, we’d filled up at breakfast and had skipped lunch. Thet Now took us down to the river once known as the Irrawaddy and now renamed the “Ayeyarwady.” We caught a riverboat upstream to Mingun while Thet Now went off, presumably to a late lunch. It was cool and pleasant on the river; we lounged in two chairs as the boat struggled against the current. It deposited us on the steep bank near Mingun and we pulled ourselves up to the riverside town. Most of the tourists had come in the morning on the public ferry and we now had the town pretty much to ourselves. We acquired a self-appointed guide, Ton Ton (pronounced “tawn tawn”) who spoke excellent English. He took us around the various sites: A large Buddha footprint, the world’s largest stupa base (Mingun Paya) and the world’s largest working bell (the Mingun Bell). (Mingun does big.) The stupa base was made of brick and had suffered extensive earthquake damage, but its sheer immensity was stunning. It would have been the world’s largest stupa if completed, but work had been discontinued after thirty years. I cannot find any definitive estimate of its size, but I’d guess it is about 40 meters in height and perhaps 120 meters in length. A larger area, surrounded by a low wall, adds to its apparent size. We circled the entire building, stunned by its size.

The bell was fascinating. One can stand inside the bell while someone rings it from outside with a large wooden stave. Contrary to expectation, it’s not particularly loud inside when the big bell is rung. From the Mingun Bell we walked to the Hsinbyume Paya, which, in my opinion, was the single most beautiful temple we saw in Burma. It’s all white and surrounded by seven terraces that are supposed to represent mountain ranges; however, the waviness on the terraces reminded me more of ocean than of mountains. YT thought it looked like a giant wedding cake. Overall, we preferred Mingun to anything else we saw in the Mandalay area. Perhaps this was due to the fact that it was empty and we enjoyed a very relaxing boat ride and stroll around the village. We also saw our first Aung San Suu Kyi portrait in the Mingun market – her face was to reappear on photographs and on t-shirts for the remainder of our trip to Myanmar.

We had a minor contremps while returning to the boat. I was planning to tip Ton Ton 5000 kyat – about $5 US, the equivalent of day’s wages in Myanmar – for his hour of help, when he demanded $10 US, which we viewed as excessive. He insisted he needed that much money to “buy a textbook.” Moreover, I was only carrying kyat, not dollars. Ton Ton refused kyat in any amount and demanded dollars. This started some back and forth, with the end result that that YT ended up giving him 300 baht – Ton Ton accepted Thai currency in a pinch – and he stalked off proclaiming that he had to find some other travelers. Usually, we try to negotiate stuff like this in advance, but he had been so solicitous and friendly that we hadn’t this time. Our mistake.

We managed to find our boat – I’d taken a photograph when we left it – and proceeded back down river. The trip back with the current was speedy; it only took about half an hour. We found Thet Now without difficulty and returned to our hotel. We were beat. We again ate at our hotel – it made sense given our exhaustion, the Rupar Mandalay’s relative remoteness, the hassle of getting into town and, perhaps above all, the coupons for a tasty free cocktail. The food was again excellent although it was probably more Thai than Burmese.

The next morning, per our agreement with Santa Maria, Thet Now showed up with a guide – a lovely young woman whose name sounded something like “Eat Mo.” We were scheduled to visit Saigang and Amarapura. Unfortunately, EM’s English was only a little better than Thet Now’s. She was, however, more given to explanation since she was a guide – Thet Now’s approach had been to pull up to a sight, tersely announce its name and indicate where he’d be waiting. (He’s a driver though, not a guide.) We began with a visit to the Maha Ganayon Kyaung monastery in Amarapura, pausing along the way to watch a line of tricked-out trucks with immense sound systems. EM explained this an offering to Buddha that took place on a monthly basis. The items affixed to the trucks (brooms, bowls, pillows, baskets, no clothing but pretty much any other household items) were festively arranged.

Maha Ganayon Kyaung was crowded with young monks and foreign tourists. The young monks were playfully assembling into a long line that would receive alms (food) from the devout and then terminate in a large food station outside a dining hall where they would have their second and final meal of the day. The tourists photographed the assembly of the monastic line; some also positioned themselves to give alms. I took some nice photographs of monastic laundry drying, the monastery buildings, the tourists and the assembling novice monks before the procession started.

After the procession, we stopped briefly by a beautiful white lakeside temple (I didn’t note down the name) and then proceeded to the U Bein Bridge, a long teak bridge that spans Taungthaman Lake. Since we were visiting in the January dry season and the lake was low, much of the bridge was currently spanning vegetable plots. It had an oddly elevated appearance since the wood (I assume teak) flooring attached to the teak supporting pillars was five or more meters above the fields. Perhaps the most intriguing element about the bridge was its sheer immensity; it’s about a kilometer and a half long. We walked out a ways. Despite a large number of tourists, it’s a working bridge. People were going both ways, many carrying baskets of produce. There was a colorful boat rental section near the foot of the bridge on a muddy section of the western shore of the lake. Some tourists had hired boats and boatmen and were floating serenely on the lake. In other boats, the owners were napping. It was a memorable scene.

Next we crossed the Ayeyarwady River on a motor bridge and proceeded to Sagaing and the temples on Sagaing Hill, Soon U Ponya Shin Paya and Umin Thounzeh. Soon U Ponya Shin Paya is a large temple complex with a huge gilded stupa, superb colorful tilework and fantastic views of the Ayeyarwady. Umin Thounzeh (the “thirty caves” pagoda) was equally impressive, a curved green and gold colonnade containing 45 images of a seated Buddha. (We didn’t see any caves.) Both Soon U Ponya Shin Paya and Umin Thounzeh are highly recommended; they are nothing short of fabulous. For lunch we stopped at what looked like a traditional stop for all tourists. We didn’t note the name of the place. After lunch, we returned to our hotel mid-afternoon, napped and then packed. We were going on the road with Thet Now the next day.

[A note regarding Buddhist temples: Custom requires the removal of one’s shoes and socks before entering temple grounds. If you’re planning on doing a lot of temple visiting, bring and wear a pair of flip-flops! I’d brought a pair of sandals with Velcro fasteners and found myself increasingly frustrated by the unfasten/fasten routine at each temple. YT, on the other hand, had flip-flops and easily slipped them on and off.]

2010 was back when it was easy to "wing it" in Burma. Now not so much.

Ground transport makes sense only if you have a lot of time, otherwise it can eat up all of your time in SE Asia.

Oops - the above note is for Lancaster lad.

Interesting report of Mandalay. We didn't bother with the in-Mandalay sights other than the Mahamuni Buddha and a gold-leaf workshop. You've affirmed for me that was a good decision. The gold-leaf workshop was fascinating, as it is all done as it has been done for hundreds of years. The "timer" for the pounding is a half a coconut shell with a hole in it!

Sorry to hear of your encounter with the man demanding $10. For me, it's a sign of how much things have changed in Burma.

BTW, it isn't that the palace is badly restored - what sit on the ground now is entirely a recent fabrication. The old palace was burned to the ground.

"Stupa-fied" -- love it!

Great report, once again, from the 2 of you. Wonderful details - I almost feel as if I'm there with you.

Looking forward to more.

Paule

Me too..."Stupa-fied" is priceless!

sartoric- Thanks, look forward to what you have to say about Pawdaw....DH is charmed by the looks and history of the 1947 boat. I like the idea of just watching the world go by.

gotravel- Love your report on Madalay. Thanks so much! Those are the places I have zeroed in on. We will go to Sagaing and the Bridge the afternoon we arrive. Then do the city sights the next morning before we board the river cruise at noon. Mingun is the first stop for the river cruise.

Glad to know you did some things with out a guide...we plan to also. We have been told our driver will have very little English..so that is why I am obsessing over which sites to see. We will see how it works.

Thanks all! Appreciate the clarification, Kathie.
cwn -- you can do fine without guides I think. A good guide can enhance what you are seeing, but without a guide, its easy to get a general, but maybe not in-depth, understanding. And then there is following up or researching in advance on the internet. Plus all the great stuff posted here helps too. Hope your cruise stops at Mingun at a less busy time. I think part of the charm for us was it was totally empty of tourists and very quiet. And actually our adopted guide was pretty good except for his capitalist way with the demanded payment at the end.

Well, I do research everything to death according to DH and can tell him all he wants to know. I/we do sometimes hire a local guide for a special site...just really don't like one with us all day...would rather move at our own speed.

We will be at Mingun late in the afternoon...hopefully the tour groups will be gone and it will be peaceful. Thanks for the information.

@kathie<<<Ground transport makes sense only if you have a lot of time, otherwise it can eat up all of your time in SE Asia.>>>

I agree. But the secret is don't try and cover too much ground on any particular trip. And tbh getting to and hanging round airports eats up a lot of time too. And if you can travel overnight by sleeper train, no time wasted, save on a night's hotel, and wake up in a new destination. Bangkok to Chiang Mai, or Bangkok to Nong Khai/Vientiane are good examples.

Too many people tick off boxes, but don't really experience the country they've paid a lot on money to visit because they're stuck in a tin can 30,000 feet above it all.

For every must-see place that're often crowded with tour groups, stalls selling tat, and hasslers, and the like, there are half-a-dozen much more interesting places often only slightly off the beaten track, which you can have more-or-less to yourself.

@yestravel<<<How long were your drives from place to place? The dust most of the places we went was unreal.>>>

Yep, we spent a lot of time sat in the back of the not too comfortable taxi. We did the Yangon to Bagan leg over two days, with an overnight in Tauntoo, having also visited Bago. We also stopped overnight at Tauntoo on our way back to Yangon.

The drive from Pwin oo Lwin to Kalaw, and Kalaw to Inle were as rough as drives can be. But photo opportunities were round every bend (lots of bends!), and if we wanted to stop, then the driver stopped for us to take in whatever it was we'd seen. I think if you ask a aircraft pilot to stop to take a photo, then the plane falls out of the sky!

Yestravel and gottravel,
I am really enjoying your Myanmar report! Thanks so much for writing such a detailed and informative account. Great fun reading it!

Thanks YT and GT, you really do make the journey come alive.

LL. Okay, I can't get the pilot to stop for a photo, but cruising at 11,500 ft, I could see amazing rugged mountains, and I still can't figure out why a 20 minute flight takes 8 hours by road.

All - Thank you for the kind comments. The next segment will be up in a day or two.

BTW…there were at least two comments that were "removed by Fodor's moderators" that I never saw. Does anyone know what they were about? Just curious…

GT

They were spam.

YT and GT, supposedly we're booked at the Trader's Yangon, the Hotel @ Tharabar Gate and Inle View Resort. Until we get our official confirmation from Santa Maria, I'm still holding on to the (more expensive) reservations I made myself. As for being an internetwiz, not so much, maybe very early on, but not now.

I'm looking forward to your reports on Bagan and Inle Lake. I know it's a lot of work, so thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with everyone.

Santa Maria came thru with our reservations and some even dropped in price closer to the time. They dropped in price because we could get a lower priced room, not because the hotel rates dropped.

Yea, the technology changes so fast hard to keep up with it.

Enjoying your report and hope to get to Myanmar myself one of these days.

I am a bit dissappointed to hear that your driver did not speak English. We had a nice driver in India, but his English was limited and I felt we missed out in being able to converse over the lengthy car rides.

Thanks, wkw & dgunbug. Dgunbug, Your VN report was very helpful when we planned that trip. Actually I was very disappointed the driver didn't speak English. I enjoy chatting with drivers and have learned quite a lot from them. As you said, you spend quite a lot of time with them. Just hearing their thoughts about the country and their life is always interesting. I didn't expect a guide, but had hoped for a bit more English.

What a different world! It will take us a while to work our way to Burma. Fun to read about in the meantime.

Based on my review of my previous post, I'd like to correct two errors. Our hotel in Mandalay was called the "Rupar Mandalar," not the "Rupar Mandalay." And our driver's name was "Phet Naung," not Thet Now. GT