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 Traveller's Tales: Getting around in Yangon, Myanmar
Know the most popular landmarks in Yangon, Myanmar. You may read about best transportation, recommended travel itinerary, suggested routes and directions. Also, you might want to read our
Bagan city guide,
Inle Lake city guide,
Mandalay city guide,
and Yangon(Rangoon) city guide.
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| F Wong |
24 May 2005 |
Stayed at Savoy Hotel Yangon - Yangon, Myanmar.
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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 Things are cheap, but not quite as cheap as guidebooks make them out to be, being somewhat out of date.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.
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| R Paik |
12 April 2005 |
Stayed at Thamada Hotel - Yangon, Myanmar.
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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.
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| M Smith |
25 January 2005 |
Stayed at Thamada Hotel - Yangon, Myanmar.
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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.
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| R Martin |
24 January 2005 |
Stayed at Hotel Nikko Royal Lake Yangon - Yangon, Myanmar.
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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.
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.
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.
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| H Dilbeck |
22 January 2005 |
Stayed at Sedona Hotel Yangon - Yangon, Myanmar.
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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.
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| K Thompson |
17 January 2005 |
Stayed at Savoy Hotel Yangon - Yangon, Myanmar.
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Yangon is a great city and should be high on anyone's list for a weekend break in Asia! The people are open and friendly and very keen to chat with foreigners and make you welcome. A number of great restaurants serving Burmese cuisine offer sensational value, especially Aung Thukka, near the Savoy hotel at which a meal for two costs 5USD and is fantastic. The Shwe Dagan Pagoda is breath-taking; investing in a guided tour is well worth it. For about 5USD a charming and knowledgeable guide will spend as long as you want wandering the temples and answering, in my case, a myriad of daft questions! Lastly, Bogyoke Aung San market is unmissable. Along with Chatuchuk and Saigon, the best market in Asia! One salutary lesson was learned though; not to change money in the airport fx booth. The rate is around half what you will get on the black market and there is no longer a requirement to enter the country with local currency.
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| P Chaimankong |
01 January 2005 |
Stayed at Thamada Hotel - Yangon, Myanmar.
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This is our first visit to Rangon and we have heard many bad things about Myanmar under the military ruling but the atmosphere was really relaxing unlike what we were told by the news on TV and people are very friendly and enthusiastic to help out. Golden Duck restaurant (Chinese) is highly recommended for good chinese food/service at a very reasonable price - almost comparable to Yaolad district (China town in Bangkok) and taxi cost us only 1 USD and 200 Kyats (Mixed currency because of no change in USD). How good? We went there three times during the three days stay! Walking around the city at night is quite safe. We walked leisurely from the Thamada hotel to Sule round-about and china town to feel the local atmosphere and there were many people eating and shopping on the sides of streets. For your information, there is no fast food restaurants ie. KFC/Pizza
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| M Durnnian |
03 January 2004 |
Stayed at Summit Parkview Hotel - Yangon, Myanmar.
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The easiest way to travel around was by taxi but ask at the hotel before you venture out so you have an idea the cost between places. It was also a great idea to have the locations translated into Burmese with the address. This was invaluable in finding places like the glass factory.
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| P Verdnik |
01 December 2003 |
Stayed at Grand Plaza Parkroyal Yangon - Yangon, Myanmar.
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MUST-SEE PLACES IN YANGON: Shwedagon Pagoda, The Strand Hotel, Bogyoke Aung Sang Market. MUST-SEE PLACES IN MYANMAR: Inle Lake, Bagan, Mandalay. Recommended restaurant: "Dolphin Seafood Restaurant" (at the Royal Lake - in front of the aquarium - very good food, friendly staff, nice athmosphere and live music every night from 8 pm).
Getting around: TAXI (average 1000 kyats for a ride). Travel agent: Adventure Myanmar, Botahtaung Condominium - 6th floor, phone: (95-1) 203500.
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| H Prince |
06 July 2003 |
Stayed at Grand Plaza Parkroyal Yangon - Yangon, Myanmar.
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Don't convert hard currency to Kyat, the local currency, other than the $200 US one must convert to Foreign Exchange Currency (FEC) on arrival at the airport.
Use the FEC to pay part of your hotel bill to get rid of the money which cannnot be converted back to hard currency. The dollar is accepted, even preferred, everywhere in a country that is in hard economic times. Find out what the street conversion rate is, you will be approached by money changers, and try to get people like taxi drivers to convert hard currency at the street rate rather than the official rate, which will be about 40% lower than the street rate. Always negotiate the taxi rate before you begin the trip, there are no meters. The hotel will take you back to the airport in an air conditioned private car for $5 which is less than the taxi from the airport on arrival at $6, use the booking agents you will see as you leave the baggage claim area on arrival. Be prepared for a slow arrival process, baggage is slow to be returned, the immigration is bureacratic, and people don't understand the FEC conversion requirement and take time to complete all these steps.
Be prepared for everyone to demand higher prices as a foreigner for entrance fees, for example, the fee is $5 to enter the She Dagon pagoda-a must see, breath-taking, world class experience, hire a guide, takes about two hours and will be worth it, guide fee is also $5, map is $1.
Pace yourself for the heat/humidity combination in Myanmar, probably the most debilitating in SE Asia, worse than Vietnam and Thailand by far, places I also visited on this trip.
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