Heading for a 7 night visit to Myanmar at the end of Feb. The only Pandaw cruise that fits our itinerary is the 2 night one. (The one night cruise is fully booked when we are there.) My travel partner is worried that we might be wasting two of our precious nights there by spending them on the river.
Our itinerary looks like this:

Day 1 Yangon
Days 2 and 3 Inle Lake
Days 4 and 5 cruise from Mandalay to Bagan
Days 6 and 7 Bagan
Day 8 depart for home from Yangon

Are we better off not taking the cruise and adding a night to Bagan and a night to Yangon at the end to finish up the shopping at Scott's Market? (We will only have time to do Schwedegon (sp?)on the inbound part of the trip.)
While we are talking about Myanmar, does anyone have comments on the Savoy Hotel in Yangon, the Inle Lake View or Thirpysitsa Sakura in Bagan?
Thanks for any and all advice.

Haven't personally been on the Pandaw, but a few years ago, while on one of my Bangkok vacations, I met a married couple whom I struck up a conversation with. We found out we were from the same city and have been in contact ever since.They had taken the Pandaw through Myanmar and absolutely loved it. I think they were on the river for about 5 days if I remember correctly.They had no gripes about it. They have been to Myanmar before having first gone there many years before tourists were really going and they travel extensively in that part of the world so have taken all types of boats and cruises, but rated the Pandaw at the top. They said there weren't that many people on their boat...I think about 15. Happy Travels!

I can't really give advice about the itinerary, but I went on a Pandaw cruise up the Mekong this past November and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a little apprehensive about spending so much time on the boat, but found I really enjoyed watching the scenery as we were cruising. We did stop at least once a day for excursions. The staff of the boat couldn't have been nicer or more attentive and the decor of the boat was sort of "old fashioned" and just lovely.

Hi,

Amazingly I just made the same itinerary for our trip in December.

Can you share your experience with me.

In Yangon, we are staying in the strand.

In Inle Lake, right now we are have a booking at the Golden Island Cottages but having second thoughts. We have an option at the inle lake princess resort but there is also the Lake View Resort.

Then onto Bagan and at the Sakura. Would you recommend that but upgrade to a suite? 2 nights in Bagan. Is that enough? Did you book the hot air balloon ride?

Then we are doing the cruise in the RV Pandaw instead of the E&O. Any thoughts about this or accomodations. Would you skip the cruise entirely?

The cruise goes from Bagan to Mandalay but we are not staying in Mandalay but directly back to Bangkok.



Any advice you can provide is much appreciated.

Is there anything you would omit?

I just went last December, so here are my comments. Just my personal opinion, but I would say skip the cruise. It's good for a second trip to Myanmar, but you'll be missing a lot if you do it this time.

I think you need an absolute minimum of three nights at Inle Lake, four would be even better. It's so wonderful, you may not want to leave. I would add another day to Yangon. It's a very interesting city and you would need at least two or three nights. Lots of good restaurants, shopping, and just soaking up the atmosphere. Scott's Market is not the best place to shop, by the way. Schwedagon is amazing and you'll probabaly want to spend hours there. Best to go in the late afternoon and stay for a few hours.

This may not be your only trip to Myanmar. As soon as you come back, you may feel the need to return again as soon as possible. That's how I felt. I'm planning a second trip in the next couple of years.