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Figured I might bump this thread again since I've just come back from three weeks travelling around Myanmar, our last stop on a 6 month tour of SEA. Feel free to ask any questions you might have, following is just a semi-random collection of thoughts. - The people are amazing. I've felt in Thailand a couple of times that the whole "land of smiles" thing was just a complete facade or performance, but here in Myanmar everyone seems genuinely happy to see you and acts with real warmth and hospitality. On the train between Mandalay and Tsipaw, the people out working in the fields would wave at the train just because, which I found really sweet. If you smiled at someone they would smile back, and if you say "mingalabar" (hello in Burmese) it almost makes their day. - Bagan is unbelieveable, and one of the highlights of our entire trip across SEA, not just Myanmar. I would 100% recommend going, and when you do grab an e-bike (electric moped). They're perfect for just putting around the plains, avoiding the busloads of geriatric French tourists and finding those hidden temples where it's just you, a kid selling postcards and a guy deep in prayer/meditation. - Inle Lake I think is seriously overrated, probably the most touristy place we visited. It felt like the only place we went that was entirely based around tourism - even Bagan felt like a local village in large parts. The boat trip around the lake was nice, but the "workshops" were awful tourist traps - yes I'm sure this old man in the corner makes the hundreds of "silver" necklaces by himself, strange that every shop has the same ones!! There's a surprisingly decent winery on the hill east of town that you can cycle out to in about 30 minutes. The Jumping Cat Monastery is no more - the monk who was training them passed away earlier this year, and nobody has picked up the hoop since. You can still go there (it'll be scheduled on the tour), but there's nothing hugely interesting to see unless you've never visited a Buddhist monastery before. - The hike from Kalaw to Inle was great (we did the 2D/1N option), especially the first day winding up and down through fields and hills. Very bucolic, especially in late November when the harvests are all being done. - We went way up north in Shan state to a town called Lashio, which is well off the tourist trail. Great little spot here as well where we did a local homestay at a Shan village (lucky enough to be there for their New Year celebrations!), as well as some stand-up paddleboarding and a waterfall trek as well. There's a great company run by a Canadian guy called Myanmar Adventure Outfitters that's trying to create local jobs and investment by bringing tourists there. Would recommend. - After the comments here about Myanmar food, I was quite pleasantly surprised with the food. Sure it's not distinctive or incredible like Chinese/Indian/Thai, but the curries we had were quite nice, and all the Shan food was really good too. Very cheap too unless you're going for the Western options every time. I liked their cafeteria style as well where you just pick a couple of dishes, they serve it too you with rice, some soup and a dessert. - Accommodation tended towards expensive, though almost everything else (except taxis) was cheap. As far as I can tell, there's generally no "budget backpacker" option like there is in most SEA countries - it just starts with the "crappy business hotel" at around $20 USD per night. We managed to find some okay ones though. - Getting around between cities takes loving forever - longer than you think. Coaches are your best option, though they still generally take ages. Overnight buses apparently aren't too bad, and crash a lot less than you might expect given the driving conditions and so on. And they're always goddamn freezing for who knows what reason! It's 15 degrees outside and everyone is rugged up in beanies, parkas and scarves purely because the air conditioning is set to "Siberian winter". And they hand out blankets  - ATMs are everywhere, like absolutely everywhere now. Bring some USD if you're really concerned (we had $40 as a just-in-case stash), but the ATMs at the airport all worked and we had no problems anywhere else. Note that all of them charge 5000 kyat ($5 USD) for foreign cards which is kinda outrageous - except for the bank with the curved rainbow logo, who charge 6500 kyat!! - Mobile coverage is really good now. Aside from the ultra-rural homestay villages, my Ooreedoo SIM gave me 3G coverage basically the whole time. They have a desk at the airport right after customs where you can buy a SIM - it cost 7000 kyat (about $7 USD) for 2GB of data, valid for a month. Plus you get free calls to anyone else on Ooreedoo, so your travelling companions can buy the same one and be able to call you. They have slightly more expensive ones too if you need a bit more data, or you can just buy pre-paid data packs at any shop anywhere in the country (usually about 3000 kyat per GB). Oftentimes your 3G will be faster than the hotel wifi because the hotel wifi is probably a 3G connection shared between 30 rooms  - My only real annoyance was that since literally everyone has bought a mobile phone in the past 3 years, a sense of etiquette hasn't really developed around it. So almost everyone has their conversations on speakerphone because it's easier to hear I guess? Everyone constantly plays music or watches TV shows on their phones using the speaker. Time for a quick round of Clash of Clans on a quiet bus? Max that volume, bro. - Outside of Yangon and Mandalay, it's desperately poor (though I don't think this is news to anyone). I hope there's more foreign investment and better opportunities, because the people are so nice they deserve much better. - A lot more western supermarket brands than I expected to find, though still not that many. Coke and it's properties (Fanta etc) are ubiquitous, you can usually find Oreos, and several brands of personal hygiene stuff like Head & Shoulders, Colgate etc. But outside of those, yeah it's just weird Chinese brands you've never heard of. Cars are almost uniformly Toyotas, mobile phones are mostly Oppo, Vivo, Huawei and a few other Chinese brands I've never heard of. No official Apple presence (though you can find guys selling older iPhones on the street), and only a few Samsung stores. Happy to answer any specific questions anyone has, if they're going or thinking about going. If you're not - I would definitely recommend going!! Particularly since although there are way more tourists there now than there used to be, it's still not that touristy. It's probably what Cambodia was like 10 years ago, when westerners first started going in earnest. One thing that makes a difference (and I realise how this sounds, but hear me out) is that large Chinese tour groups aren't allowed in. We encountered a few Chinese tourists (mostly immediate family unit sized groups), so they do have ways of getting in, but the enormous swarming bus hordes like you get in many parts of SEA haven't made it to Bagan yet. Oh and one interesting thing about Bagan - there was an earthquake in August this year which damaged a lot of the temples - way more than we expected. Most of the larger ones had scaffolding on them as a result. But apparently it's a blessing in disguise - there was a serious earthquake in 1975 which heavily damaged a whole lot of the temples, but the junta did a hilariously poo poo job at repairing them (eg modern styles, modern materials etc). It's why Bagan isn't a UNESCO World Heritage Site when it's probably even more impressive than Angkor Wat. But with this most recent earthquake, apparently most of the damage was to the lovely repairs from the 70s and 80s, and the ancient stuff is still standing no problem.
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Dec 10, 2016 14:50
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You can still eat pretty well on that sort of budget, particularly if you eat the local food - western food is more expensive as you'd expect. Beer is very cheap - usually about 1500 kyat / $1.50 USD for a tall bottle of Myanmar beer. Aung Sun Sui Kyi is an interesting one, as although she's very respected and so on, I think a lot of people are disappointed in her rule so far. From what locals told us, she hasn't done much to end the ethnic violence in the north and the east, and has just been a bit underwhelming in general. Though someone else mentioned that 8 of the 15 members in her Cabinet are military appointees and she has no control over them, so her hands are a bit tied still. Similar situation to Obama maybe.
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Dec 13, 2016 23:14
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Pilsner posted:Thanks for the trip report webmeister, I'm keeping Myanmar on my list of places to visit. Yeah, Yangon is definitely the best place for getting in and out - I'm not even sure if international flights even go to other cities. The airport at Yangon is brand new and very shiny, comparable to most other airports in SEA though a good deal smaller. Naypyidaw is still a punchline as far as I know. We didn't visit but there's nothing there by all accounts.
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Dec 16, 2016 01:03
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