Hi everyone,
My boyfriend and I are going to Myanmar for 2 weeks at the end of March.
He is Italian, and does not believe in tipping everyone. I am American, and we tip.
This is always a source of contention on our travels together.
The LP guide said that tipping is not customary. Is this still true?
We would just like to do the right thing.
Please tell me who to tip, and how much to tip.
Any replies will be greatly appreciated.

Tipping is not part of the culture in Myanmar. However, by now they have had enough exposure to visitors who do tip that some may have come to expect it. These people are very poor, and we felt that tipping was a way to distribute what we were spending.

People are friendly. We stayed here for a week. It was a wonderful experience

Tipping is always an interesting proposition. We were just in Myanmar and typically we did tip. In restaurants we rounded up for the tip. Getting off the boat from Mandalay to Bagan the guys who took our luggage told us it was about $1.00. We gave guides and drivers tips also. We did have a couple people who didn't accept a tip, but most people seemed genuinely pleased.

"Tipping is not part of the culture in Myanmar. However, by now they have had enough exposure to visitors who do tip that some may have come to expect it."

In other words, Americans who can't stop tipping are messing things up again.

Spoken like a true Brit, Thursdays!

Lol!

I admit, I'm one of those bad Americans.

I tipped most everyone in our trip in January. Our operator gave us guidelines, and we generally followed them except we gave more to guides and the best drivers. One thousand kyat if they touched our bags, a couple or three dollars for meals, 5,000 kyat for just about anyone else (that was primarily due to the fact that we had mostly 5,000 notes), at least 10,000 kyat for a driver/boatman etc. when a half/full day, and more than double that for guides. We had no one refuse and all were quite thankful. The only place I resisted was the guys at the airport who wanted to get your luggage tag so they could retrieve your suitcase and get a tip. I still retrieved my own suitcase in the airport pandemonium.

As stated above, the people are very poor and it is a way to make sure money gets into the hands of very nice hard working people.

I felt tipping was more commonplace in Myanmar than elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

I was especially happy to tip the guys who got our luggage at the airport. They were probably the poorest of the various service people we encountered.

Tipping is not compulsory indeed but you should reward your guide(s) and driver(s) if they do their jobs excellently. Normally, it is $5/day for guide and $2/day for driver.

Why wouldn't you tip relative to what you paid for the service as in 15% to 20%? Seems like some people are tipping more than the service cost, although I don't know the current exchange rate.