Myanmar Hotel Reviews
Yangon, Myanmar. The city is off the beaten path (for example, no cell/mobile phones that I saw) and therefore highly interesting. The Shwedagon pagoda just up the road from Summit Parkview Hotel is best visited for the first time at night, about 8pm. It positively exudes an aura of holiness. Took taxi from taxi stand at airport (6000 kyat = about 6US$) and made arrangements for them to take me around the next day. Can supply name of good taxi driver and guide upon request. Airport is simple, but mercifully free of duty free shops. Don''t forget the $10 US departure tax.
Myanmar - Take plenty of USD or Thai Bahts. As your credit card is not welcomed anywhere. There are no ATM machines. Cash is King! Taxi from Traders to Yangon airport - about K3,000 - K4,000 (USD3 - USD4). Taxi from Old Bagan - Bagan airport K3,500. Taxi from Mandalay Airport - Mandaly centre K9,000. All prices are approximate and will change depending upon your taxi driver. Airlines: Yangon Airways, Bagan Air, Air Mandalay. If you are planning a trip to Myanmar, I would definitely recommend "Bagan" as it is magnificent! Stay around 4-5 days for a pleasureable experience.
Prices escalate at an unbelievable rate! Things are cheap, but not quite as cheap as guidebooks make them out to be, being somewhat out of date. Take taxis anywhere and everywhere, they''re affordable.
We were there in May when it was incredibly hot. Questioned our own sanity once or twice when we were cycling around, but that freedom (as opposed to car or horsecart) is quite priceless.
I was in Yangon during the May bombings. Still, I felt terribly safe as a single female over 50 traveller. By all means take your camera and walk through People''s Park to the Pagoda, go to the Bogyoke Aung San Museum and have Ma Thin Thin give you a tour. If you need something luxurious, go for tea at the Strand. The Sabai Sabai is excellent for lunch although the quality decreases on a busy weekend evening. If you are interested in traditional pottery, take the ferry to Twande. Go the Gar San Glass Factory where lovely pieces can be purchased for as little as 50 cents US. They do a really good job packing. Be careful and shop around before buying anything in the Aung San Market and if you need glasses check out Academy Optical at 140/141 Bogyoke Aung San Market. Progressive lens in flexible frames including eye exam were $63 US!
Myanmar is a challenging yet unspoiled country to travel through. Train and air schedules frequently change. Rebooking air flights is a necessity, not a courtesy. Long distance buses are cheap, about US$7, for the 10 hour ride from Yangon to Mandalay. But air flights are worth the money for the time savings. In Yangon the Zawgyi House restaurant just east of Scott''s Market serves good western and Burmese food. They offer outside and air-conditioned(!) dining. Mandalay''s Green Elephant serves upscale interprerations of Burmese cuisine. In the evening there''s often a haze of burning mosquito puncks in the outdoor dining area to fend off these pesky insects. Try ''mohinga'', the rich-tasting Burmese noodle soup only served at breakfast. I''d recommend a 1-2 day trip to Pyin Uu Win outside of Mandalay to esscape the heat. The local 5-hour train makes every station stop as it snakes up the 3,000 ascent overlooking the plains. Bench seats, no interior lighting, people sitting on baggage in the aisle. In other words a great way to glimpse Burmese life.
I would recommend the Mi San restaurant at Bu Paya Junction, Old Bagan. The restaurant has good Burmese, vegetarian, and Chinese food, and the staff fan you the entire time as you eat! The owner is extremely friendly. I would recommend that visitors make an attempt to visit some of the more distant ruins. The area of the Kandawgyi and other shrines in the far north of Nyaung U, for example, has some of the finest mural paintings in all Bagan. The view from Thetkyamuni and other temples in the area over the Ayeyarwadi is the best of all sites, since the ruins are situated on rather high hills very close to the riverbank.
Recommended places: Sabai Phui guesthouse - Mandalay. Aircon and bathroom for $5 a night, (you don''t need luxury every night!), $16 boat trip to Mandalay (9hrs - more fun tan flying), Bagan Hotel (exclusive), Balloons over Bagan, expensive $225, but worth it, Royal Beach Resort - Ngapali Beach (family run and cheap). NOT RECOMMENDED - JIMMY''S TOURS AT INLE LAKE. A taxi driver dropped me off there from Heyo Airport, pretending it was the ''Boat Station'', before I knew it he''d worked out an itinerary for 1 1/2 days at $120. About 5 times what I needed to pay, if I''d avoided him. He was then unconcerned that his boat ran out of fuel and we drifted for an hour and there was no floating market where he sent me at great expense at 6.30am, due to a full moon holiday. Avoid the slippery little git at all costs. BE AFRAID, IF YOU WIND UP IN HIS OFFICE.
Inle Lake and its surrounding area felt like stepping back to a bygone era. The beauty of the lake is a compelling enough reason to visit, but the sight of traditional crafts such as cigar rolling, boat making & steel hammering are fascinating for both adults and children alike. If you are a photographer bring lots and lots of film/digital cards! As with most places though in South East Asia today, however, you feel that its only a matter of time, before traditional methods succumb to drive of the tourist dollar.
Wholeheartedly recommend the Balloons over Bagan experience. Although its not cheap it is a fantastic experience. Avoid the Green Elephant restaurant in New Bagan, particularly if paying in dollars. We went to both and the food is far superior and cheaper at the Si Thu restaurant next door, and the exchange rate quoted by the Green Elephant was an appalling 750 to the $ compared to the market rate at the time of 880.
On arrival into Bagan airport have USD$10 readily available, in order to pay for the Temple sight''s entry fee. Flight time from Mandalay to Bagan 20mins. Bagan to Yangon 1hr 10mins. There are several ways to explore the temples of Bagan either by taxi, horse cart (4 pax) motorbike or bicycle, all readily available for hire. The scale of the city with 2,000 temples is just amazing, I would quite happiy have stayed for 3-4 nights in order to pace my temple experience with a round a golf, bike ride, shopping for laqueur ware, swim etc. Next time!
Having just completed a tour of Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar, the latter was our favourite and Yangon our favourite city in it. Wandering around Chinatown, the old market (not Aung San, which is a tourist trap at its worst), around Sule Paya and Shwedagon were just awesome and we found the people more genuine than other places visited.
Augustines near Green Elephant Restaurant is still the best for antiques. Ask for Mark!
This maybe relatively new info: we entered Myanmar during the Chinese New Year (Rooster) without being required to exchange their worthless Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs) with USD! We are avid Lonely Planet readers and I also have some acquaintances who go there quite often and as far as we have expected and were told before going there, all tourists are expected to buy FECs. So it was something good. However, we also found out that since about late fall 2004, Myanmar has forbidden any transactions using any credit cards. If you are going to Myanmar in near future, bring enough cash since you won''t be able to get cash anywhere. We are very grateful that our hotel was booked thru asiahotels.com at a prepaid basis...otherwise, we would have less disposable money to spend while vacationing there.
The Inle Lake area turned out to be one of the highlights of my visit to Myanmar. Because the ecosystem is so unusual, boating on the lake is a unique experience, and highly recommended. I also enjoyed the half-day hike I took into the hill country, and can recommend Soe Naing Oo as a trekking guide. When he''s not trekking, Soe pedals trishaw #44 in Nyaungshwe village.
Restaurant to recommend: "Million Coins" is near the airport. Serves Chinese-style food. My Asian friend ate a meat and vegetable noodle dish called "Jaeo" (pronounced jay-o), which was about 900 khats (US$1) and promptly declared, "This is the most delicious noodle dish I have ever eaten!"
The view is worth the trek and this hotel is situated about half way up. If you stay here overnight you can watch the sunset and walk back up to watch the sunrise in the morn. The main base town is a nightmare and no one speaks English! You have to climb on board the back of a truck to get to the next section of the climb (the truck has several thin planks of timber to sit on and there is very little space between for your legs) - as you are a foreigner they think you want to sit in front with the driver so they charge 1000 kyat whereas the back is 500. We paid to sit in the front but was shoved behind the seats on a bench three deep with more in the front seats. Beware, we sat like this for two and a half hours until the truck finally left so we missed sunset! Trucks generally won''t leave until they have a min of 45 people on them. If you do jump in the back with everyone else, it''s worth being a part of thier day to day life and they appreciate you doing it. Going up sit as far to the front as possible so you don''t get sqashed and the reverse for the trip down. It''s very squashy in these! The hotel is only about 10 mins walk up the 45 deg road from stage two. To get to the top it''s another 45min and the road doesn''t change. Take water, good shoes and it does get cold at night early morn. Would only be around 10 tourists there. Bus from Yangon bus station takes around 5hrs and pre-book to get onboard - you can book the return once you get there.
Started our independent tour of Burma (Myanmar) in Rangoon (Yangon), using the historic Burmese train system - a real adventure! Train info at www.seat61.com/Burma.htm. Rangoon is a fascinating city - the Shwedagon pagoda, lots of colonial architecture. Taxis about 1,000 - 1,500 kyatt (about 67p - £1) a ride.
For travelers with the spirit of adventure, Myanmar is a very interesting destination. If you love places like India, you will love Myanmar. The people are friendly and welcoming; the Temples and Pagodas are amazing, and the food...well the food isn''t so good. But food aside, Myanmar has a high WOW factor. If you go, you can''t miss the Temples of Bagon. Bagon is about as spectacular as Angkor Wat...it is quite stunning and relaxing. I traveled to Yangon, Mandalay, and Bagon. Yangon was great for sightseeing and shopping. Mandalay is overrated and deserves only two days. I didn''t run into anyone who liked it. Bagon, like I said earlier, is not to be missed.<br> <br> Bring only US cash as they don''t accept credit cards anywhere in the country, even in five star hotels. There are no ATM''s in Myanmar either...which means that you need to plan ahead with your cash management. One hundred dollar bills will get you the best exchange rates while smaller bills will net you up to 7% less in exchange. Almost everywhere people will come up to you and say "change money"? If you try to cash traveler''s checks, banks only accept a select few and even then, they will take a 20% commission on cashing them. Bottom line...bring Dollars. Euro''s are almost impossible to exchange.<br> <br> Internet service in Myanmar is a joke. Remember back to your 14.4 modem? Myanmar is slower than that! It took me 38 minutes to send one email. Also, the govenrment blocks MSN Hotmail and Yahoo mail so you will need to pay for a service that latches onto the government''s server (draw your own conclusions on the reasons for this). I fortunately use a lesser known web-based mail and it wasn''t blocked at all but because it was so slow, I hardly ever used it. Traveling throughout Myanmar can be trying at times but you will be well rewarded for your efforts.
We went to Myanmar for 10 days on our first trip to the country: Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay and Inle Lake. We would consider returning to Yangon and Bagan; we would return to Mandalay only as a base for exploring farther north. Inle Lake does not inspire us to revisit; it seems to us long on hype, but we admit the boat trip to the village of Nyuang Shwe and the walk along the road near our hotel provided insights into local life we did not get at other places. Overall, based on our experiences and comments from others who traveled there earlier, Myanmar seems to be taking steps to make travel to the country a more agreeable and less bureaucratic experience. We appreciated the ability to acquire a visa over the internet. Perhaps the country will improve internet service within its borders, which is the worst we have witnessed. We did not observe, thankfully, a bevy of beggars we expected based on writings of earlier travelers and our experiences in India.