When to go to Myanmar?
 

Hi everyone.

I was planning to go to Myanmar by the end of May or June. For what I've seen it seems that it is not the best time of the year.
Is it really a bad season to go there?
Thanks

The best time is Novenber to February

Of course, the very best time to go is when the junta is overthrown, but unfortunately we are unable to predict when that will be.

I second Kathie - the time for going to Burma ended with the brutality against the monks a year ago and the final chapter of "Stay out of Burma" has been written in death, misery, meanness and incompetence in that past few weeks.

I disagree with you, anatoleschadenfreude, and thing now is the very time to go. Since posting a message asking about Burma a week ago, I have had a number of emails from Burmese drivers and guides all desperate for my business. I agree that the junta is brutal, but that hardly means no-one should go. That's rather like putting your head in the sand.

You can go and not stay in Government run hotels, you can buy from streetside vendors..and the money goes to the people - not a cut to the junta.

I'm doing a Pandaw cruise along the Upper Irrawaddy (you should read the website at www.pandaw.com and check out Paul's blog and the relief work Pandaw is doing during the off-season), and then I'm spending some time in Rangoon. I'm actually looking forward to it.

There is never a bad time to travel if you ask me. The best time of year for Burma is November-February if you can manage it; but if you are determined and energetic, and not affected by high humidity and rainy weather, go when you can.
The military junta is unspeakably horrendous BUT the people are kind, gentle and peaceful, its hard not to fall in love with them. I can't wait to go back

Mitch,

You have a great cruise coming up. Some beautiful scenery, particularly passing through the Second Defile. We were blessed with a magical morning of mist and sunlight.

We just failed to reach Bhamo due to falling water levels; we ran aground once as we approached but that is part of the Pandaw experience.

We have done three cruises with Pandaw and enjoyed them all, although the Chindwin was special.

I have been following Paul's blog with interest, we had the pleasure of meeting him in Phnom Penh in 2005.

Tangata, did you ever write any kind of trip report about the cruises you took? I would love to read them if you posted them here..

Thanks, Tangata. I have done one Pandaw trip (along the Mekong) and it was wonderful. I have photos at http://jmprphotography.com plus other photos of a cruise I did with the Assam Bengal Navigation Company along the Brahmaputra in India. It's a far more remote cruise and is fashioned on the Pandaw cruises, although the boat only carries 24 people.

Mitch,

We have done both those trips; very enjoyable both of them.

Ekscrunchy,

I haven't posted a trip report but I have my diary for all of our cruises. If you would like a copy email me at [email protected]

So have I, Tangata, so have I! Just back from 14 days down the Brahmaputra. I met Mitch on the Mekong. But I'll bet that you and I are the only ones on this board that have been up the Chindwin - and I agree with you - special.

It seems like we have the same river cruise addiction. I'm trying to sail every navigable inch of all the rivers in S.E. Asia. It's a massive project. Next - the Hoogli.

Hi - unless you are Asian or a missionary, I would never go to Myanmar - they don't like farangs and give them a very hard time about almost everything. This is a tough dictatorship who live off of the meager earnings of their oppressed people - you might just disappear there - forever.

What an odd first post, farangfellow. Of course, travelers are quite safe in Burma. Journalists and photographers are not so safe if they are taking photos of civil disturbances - but they don't disappear, they are shot by soldiers.

You are really only in danger in Burma if you are a local and demonstrating against the junta. Or a monk in the aftermath of the protests. Or if you are a member of one of the northern ethnic groups the junta has been systematically killing off.

I know of no reports of travelers disappearing in Burma.

As Kathie says, a very odd post and very ill informed about some aspects of touring Burma.

Dogster,

We have the Hoogli in our sights as well, probably for next year. This year we are cruising in France.

Our first cruise in Burma (1998) was on the Road to Manderlay. I understand from Paul Strachan's blog that it was sunk in the typhoon.

Mitch, I look forward to your report. Last time I had planned to go to Burma, I had all but booked a Pandaw cruise. Then the Junta ambushed ASSK's entourage, killing many and I cancelled my trip. One day I will get to Burma and do one of the Pandaw cruises.

Yup, I seem to have made it thru my three trips to Burma, a month each time, and returned unscathed.

At least I think it was me that came back.

Like you I went first on the [now dead] Road to Mandalay from Mandalay to Bagan and back - 7 days, then, also with them, on the next visit Mandalay to Bhamo and back to Bagan - 10 days...

Then, back to back, I headed off up the Chindwin from Bagan [with Pandaw this time - much more to my taste] getting off in Kalewa on the way down.

Next trip I spent 20 days on the river from Bagan to Prome [Pye] and back again. - again with Pandaw.

All I have to do now, to finish Burma off, [riverwise] is to sail from Yangon to Prome. I have the feeling that trip may be cancelled this year while the boats are in the Delta doing relief work.

So, having got so close to the Indian border on the Chindwin cruise, the next logical step was to jump the border and sail down the full length of the Brahmaputra in Assam...

The Bangladeshi Government won't allow passengers thru their country so I have to pick up the flow on the Hoogli - maybe this July.

Funnily enough, I met one of the dreaded generals in Taunggi, outside Lake Inle, during the water festival on my first trip. He beckoned me over and invited me to breakfast - in the midst of many fierce looking soldiers - all 'off-duty' watching the dancing on a stage set up over the road. He was obviously making some kind of public demonstration about how important tourists were. Pictures were taken.

My guide went white and was terrified, even lost the ability to speak English in his funk. But, as I hadn't the faintest idea who this important guy was, I was calm, charming and respectful. The general even invited me to throw water over him, as is the custom - which I respectfully did. Just a splash...

After an hour it was time to go.

I saw this guy just the other day on the television. There was General Tang Shwe, the U.N. Secretary General [whose name, to my shame, I've just forgotten] and there, standing beside them both was my general.

No wonder the guide was scared.

Quite a story, dogster!