After our few week visit back home in the U.S., we decided to use the extra time we gained by leaving South America early to pay a visit to Myanmar (Burma). When discussing travel through Southeast Asia we had tossed around the idea of visiting the country but it had been pretty low on the list of countries to see in the area. The low placement wasn’t really based on much, because we honestly knew little about Myanmar. But what we did know wasn’t very good.
Myanmar flag flown in Yangon, the old capital city.
Myanmar, or Burma as it’s officially called by the U.S. government, has a pretty bad rap sheet for human rights violations over the past few decades and has only recently opened up to tourism. Don’t quote me on this, but I think it has the record for the longest consecutive years ruled by a military government, something around 50 years or so. Because of sanctions placed against the country for the government’s human rights violations it has been shut off from the rest of the world in a lot of ways. The guidebook we used (Lonely Planet) described it as not having changed much since its days as a British colony. It gained independence from England in 1947.
So we were pretty curious to see a place that supposedly hadn’t changed much in over 50 years and hasn’t seen tourism on a large scale for some time, if ever. We didn’t know what to expect. We did a little research online about Myanmar’s history and the logistics of entering and traveling the country and then we were off.
Through our research we found out pretty quickly that traveling in Myanmar wasn’t going to be as easy as we’d experienced in Central and South America, or what we knew about other parts of Southeast Asia. For example, there are no ATM’s so you have to carry all cash that you expect to need for your entire trip. The only place to exchange for Myanmar money (Kyat) is in Myanmar. One or two hotels in the major cities give cash advances on a credit card, but with a hefty percentage charged per transaction. No businesses excepts credit cards, save the aforementioned hotels, again, with the hefty fee. All U.S. cash that you bring to Myanmar has to be pristine and no older than 2006, and if it’s not, then you get a lower exchange rate or can’t exchange it at all. The bottom line is that there isn’t much in the way of infrastructure. All of this just added to our curiosity and desire to visit the country.
First things first, we needed a visa to enter the country. During our visit home we applied for and received our India visas in about a weeks time. That’s speedy. Not the case with Myanmar. We read that we should expect a visa for Myanmar to take up to 3 weeks. That’s a long time. So we searched and found a faster route. You can get a visa for Myanmar in as little as 1 day in Bangkok, Thailand. So that’s what we opted for. We flew to Bangkok, arrived at 6 am, applied for our visas at 9 am the same day, and then picked them up the next day. Done.
Cash was the other major challenge. Before leaving the U.S. we had to withdraw all of the cash we thought we’d need for our travels in Myanmar. Our plan was to travel for the entire length of the 28 day tourist visa. We roughly estimated what we’d need and then threw in a little extra for a buffer. Remember, there are no ATM’s. Unfortunately, we made one major mistake. We assumed that all banks carried crisp new bills all of the time. Nope. Wrong. They actually don’t like crisp new bills because they stick together and every once in a while a teller gives away free money. The only chance we had at new bills were the $20 bills in ATM’s. ATM’s like new bills because they don’t jam the machine. So we spent several hours visiting about 6 banks on our last day in the U.S. trying to get the prettiest bills we could find in $100, $20, $10, $5, and $1 denominations. The only new bills we got were the twenties. Tellers at several of the banks were nice enough to look through there cash and pull out the best bills they could find. In the future it’d be best to inform our bank ahead of time so that they can order new bills. Whoops!
That’s not even close to all of the cash we had to carry.
This is where we stored U.S. dollars that we planned to use during our day trips to keep it flat and in good shape.
The pristine bill thing turned out not to be a huge problem. We only had a bill rejected twice. Other times we slipped in the ugliest bills we had with a shiny, spanking new $20 and had no issues. We figure they’d be distracted by the $20 bill. You may be wondering why we needed smaller denomination bills if we were only exchanging for Myanmar money. Our research told us that some places only take U.S. money or at a minimum prefer it. I think this may be changing. Many places seemed to take U.S. dollars or Kyat. In the end the cash thing wasn’t a big issue. Though, it was a little unsettling carrying that much cash around. We got a taste of what it must have been like to travel in the “old days”.
As I mentioned, we planned to travel the entire length of the 28 day tourist visa. I mean, it’s a once in a lifetime experience to travel in a place like Myanmar at a time when it’s just opening up. While that’s true, we ran into a reoccurring issue that led us to decide to leave the country earlier than planned. One thing we didn’t expect, and hadn’t come across in our research, at least not until the last minute, was the trouble we’d have finding accommodations. While in Bangkok we decided to read some online reviews about hotels listed in our guidebook. In some of the recent Trip Advisor postings reviewers mentioned the trouble they had finding a hotel. Many of the hotels were either all booked up or charging an exorbitant amount of money for very basic accommodations. So we scrambled in our last day and a half in Bangkok to email several hotels to try to reserve a room before our arrival. Luckily, we found a place. They were charging $22 a night—the cheapest we could find and much more that we wanted to pay—for a room with a window and a fan. This price was about double of what was shown in the guidebook.
We stayed a couple of nights at the “White House” hotel in Yangon. Pretty pricey at $22/night for a hot box room on the 8th floor with a sliver of a window and small fan. They had an amazing breakfast though.
We found out right away that this was the case for much of Myanmar. Unlike with our travels in Central and South America, we had to book our rooms in advance. This was a challenge because nearly all of the hotels throughout Myanmar were fully booked. We spent hours making dozens of phone calls in every city we stayed in prior to moving on to the next city to try to reserve a room. To do this we had to use local pay phones (costly) with some dropped calls and some people simply hanging up on us because we couldn’t understand one another. When we couldn’t find a room we spent even more time changing our itinerary in a way that we thought might give us time to reserve a room in the next town. We heard of other travelers arriving in a town expecting to find a room, finding nothing, and having to sleep at a bus station.
The local phone booth. The people who run them are very helpful and patient. They dial the number for you and make sure it connects. It cost anywhere from 50 to 100 Kyat per minute. That’s about $.06 to $.12 per minute.
At one point we stumbled upon the “free” services offered by the Myanmar Travel and Tourism association. They called dozens of hotels for us in the next town and found us a room. We found out later that they tacked a $7 commission onto the cost of the room without telling us. Which led to us having to convince the owner to give us a room at the $25 value that we had paid. Needless to say, we found ourselves wasting a lot of time trying to find a place to sleep instead of experiencing all that Myanmar had to offer. In addition to time, we spent way more money for the rooms than we allotted in our budget. In the end we saw about a quarter of what we wanted to see and spent only 9 days in Myanmar.
The staff and Myanmar Travel and Tour association are very helpful but forget to mention that there service comes at a charge, sometimes. They helped us and many others for free, leading us to believe they were a service set up by the government to help deal with the trouble people had finding rooms.
We visited the old capital city of Yangon; the two small towns of Pyay and Magwe; the Buddhist temple strewn city of Bagan; and finally, Mandalay. We were also lucky enough to be at the airport on our way to Bangkok when President Obama visited Myanmar. In the short time that we were there we saw so much. Looking back through the photos to prepare this post I felt sad that we decided to leave. I don’t regret our decision, I just wish the circumstances were different. Myanmar is an amazing place. I feel blessed to have seen it before it has changed too much. I would love to return, but by the time I do I think it will be a totally different place. You can already see the change. The hotels are scrambling to try to keep up with the demand. As tourists flock to visit the country it will change to accommodate them. That’s not a bad thing at all. In fact, there are likely plenty of folks looking forward to the economic boost that comes with tourism.
My advice to anyone wanting to visit the country in the near future is to go in the off-season, i.e. not between November and February (check guidebooks to see what they describe as the busy season.) or book your hotels in advance. My guess is that finding accommodations in the off-season will not be as difficult and you might even have room to bargain. Also, do a bit of research to see what hotels are charging. There’s a good bit of price gouging happening right now, so the guidebook price estimates are way off. Don’t expect to get what you pay for either. Many of the budget hotels are in a sad state. That said, I’d recommend a visit. The people of Myanmar are fantastic and the country is beautiful.
This post is already too long so I won’t display the images one at a time. Below is a gallery containing all of the images. Our WordPress them doesn’t seem to allow us to create separate Galleries, so everything is together. Sorry for the mess. Hope you enjoy.
-
- Myanmar flag flown in Yangon, the old capital city.
-
- This is where we stored U.S. dollars that we planned to use during our day trips to keep it flat and in good shape.
-
- That’s not even close to all of the cash we had to carry.
-
- We stayed a couple of nights at the “White House” hotel in Yangon. Pretty pricey at $22/night for a hot box room on the 8th floor with a sliver of a window and small fan. They had an amazing breakfast though.
-
- The local phone booth. The people who run them are very helpful and patient. They dial the number for you and make sure it connects. It cost anywhere from 50 to 100 Kyat per minute. That’s about $.06 to $.12 per minute.
-
- The staff and Myanmar Travel and Tour association are very helpful but forget to mention that there service comes at a charge, sometimes. They helped us and many others for free, leading us to believe they were a service set up by the government to help deal with the trouble people had finding rooms.
-
- Market in Yangon.
-
- Our hotel in Yangon, The White House.
-
- Our first night in Yangon cooling down with a crisp beer on this very muggy evening.
-
- Shwedagon Pagoda at night.
-
- Shwedagon Pagoda at dawn.
-
- Yangon skyline.
-
- Apartment building in Yangon.
-
- This old guy is in the process of being renovated.
-
- Another old beautiful building.
-
- She had one of the best views in town on the top floor of this 4 story building.
-
- Beautiful old building waiting to be resurrected.
-
- These old buildings have a lot of potential. I won’t be surprised if foreign investors snatch them up and turn them into high end hotels. Many of them are near the river or temples.
-
- The Strand is one of a handful of high end hotels in Yangon. I think it’s from the British colonial era.
-
- River dock market. These people just exited the ferry.
-
- One of the many old buildings in disrepair.
-
- Tea “house” in Yangon.
-
- Street market in Yangon.
-
- Street market in Yangon.
-
- This guy is making a leaf rapped concoction of spices other unknown substances that is chewed by most men and some women, causing their saliva to turn red. They spit this stuff out constantly.
-
- Traditional longyi (skirt) worn by men.
-
- Another efficient way for one person to carry heavy loads.
-
- The equivalent of a public phone booth. The phone calls cost between 50 and 100 Kyat per minute. The attendant makes the call to ensure there’s a connection. They were very patient with us despite the language barrier. We made many calls this way.
-
- Myanmar flag.
-
- Christian church in Yangon.
-
- Bogyoke Aung San road in Yangon.
-
- Female monk wearing their traditional pink robes.
-
- The not so happy guy making our strawberry lassi. A regular lassi will run you 600 Kyat ($0.70), and a strawberry lassi 800 Kyat ($0.95)
-
- Sarah enjoying the strawberry lassi (yogurt drink). It was the chunkiest lassi I’d ever had. One of the tastiest too.
-
- Myanmar has a mix of people from all over Southeast Asia, especially China and India. So there was a good variety of food to choose from. In this case we’re enjoying some Indian cuisine.
-
- View of the Shwedagon Pagoda from our hotel.
-
- Where we hid U.S. dollars we’d need for the day to keep it crisp and clean.
-
- One of the many old houses we saw on our way to the Shwedagon Buddist Temple. They may be from the British colonial era. Some were being refurbished, possibly being turned into a hotel. I think much of the construction was being done in preparation for the increase in tourism.
-
- Monk at the Shwedagon Buddist Temple.
-
- No shoes allowed at the Shwedagon Buddist Temple, or any others for that matter.
-
- Gringo Buddhist monk. The folks in the foreground were very intrigued by him and kept bowing to him. Very interesting.
-
- Giant lounging Buddha in a state of Nirvana perhaps.
-
- Shwedagon Buddist Temple
-
- Thought the temples were sacred places, the rules of what not to do were pretty lax. Here are some kids climbing on white elephant statues at the Shwedagon Buddist Temple.
-
- Work was being performed on many of the structures. The scaffolding around this pagoda is pretty impressive.
-
- Towering Shwedagon Pagoda.
-
- Team of sweepers at the Shwedagon Buddist Temple.
-
- Shwedagon Buddist Temple
-
- Buddhists seem to love bright colors and flashing lights. You wouldn’t expect to see this on centuries old temples.
-
- I think the the Shwedagon Pagoda is covered in inches of gold leaf.
-
- Shwedagon Pagoda lit up at night.
-
- Shwedagon Pagoda lit up at night.
-
- Shwedagon Buddist Temple
-
- The first and longest staircase leading to our room. We were on the 8th floor.
-
- Second to last staircase leading up to our room.
-
- Traditional tea time chair.
-
- Early morning tea. Each cup cost about 250 Kyat ($0.30), though, this place charged us 300 Kyat. Tourist tax.
-
- Morning sidewalk breakfast and tea shop in Yangon.
-
- What might be a British era building being renovated. There were quite a few.
-
- One of the many water ways branching off of the Irrawaddy River in Yangon.
-
- Catching a ride from the boat dock.
-
- Making toast over hot coals at the White House hotel breakfast buffet.
-
- More of the White House breakfast buffet.
-
- Though the room at the White House hotel was a little rough, the breakfast buffet was amazing. I’d stay there again just for that.
-
- Infinity Buddha Power pills were given to us by the hotel owner. He promised great results for almost any ill. We opted not to used them.
-
- The view from our hostel in Yangon. You can see the Shwedagon Buddhist temple in the distance.
-
- Pickup group taxi.
-
- We saw acres and acres of farmland along most of our bus rides. Myanmar is an agrarian society. Much of the work was done by hand and with cattle and oxen. I only saw a few small tractors in use.
-
- We felt very safe in Myanmar. Partly because people were so friendly and partly because the government made it clear that anyone harming a tourist would be severely punished.
-
- Sarah’s trishaw driver.
-
- Our first trishaw ride. This one in Pyay after an evening arrival from Yangon.
-
- Breakfast in Pyay. Nearly all hotels include breakfast.
-
- These girls were part of an English speaking class in Pyay. They told us that not many tourist visit Pyay, so they were siked to spend time with us. The girls in the group were especially excited to find out that Sarah was an Engineer. As soon as they did she had a following. The girl in the foreground wants to be a singer. The youngest girl, known as monkey, asked us what we thought about democracy.
-
- Docked fishing boats and a pagoda in the background on the Irrawaddy River.
-
- Casting a fishing net on the Irrawaddy River.
-
- Canoe on the Irrawaddy River in Pyay.
-
- On the banks of the Irrawaddy River with the English speaking class in Pyay. They were very excited to spend time with us, even if they didn’t do a lot of talking.
-
- Sarah and the English teacher. I can’t believe I forgot his name.
-
- Taddy, palm wine drink advertisement. Pretty enticing, right?
-
- Houses on the outskirts of town of Pyay.
-
- All that we saw of the ruins in Pyay. We planned to see more but it was more interesting to spend the day with the students.
-
- Peter and us on his scooter.
-
- This is a statue of Bogyoke Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi. He was a key figure in the work done to secure independence from England. From what I’ve gathered, his historical importance to Myanmar is why Aung San Suu Kyi was only put on house arrest and not imprisoned like most of the other outspoken opposition political leaders.
-
- Irrawaddy River in Pyay.
-
- This guy is cooking us dinner at the Pyay night market.
-
- Delicious, but greasy, rice and coconut snacks for sale at the Pyay night market.
-
- Sharing a ride from the bus station with other travelers. The two couples were from Germany and Canada.
-
- Mosquitoes were kind of a problem in this room. When we arrived the staff sprayed what looked like Raid all of the room. We were lucky enough to be trapped between the two of them as they sprayed. Yummy.
-
- Bathing, washing clothes and dishes in the Irrawaddy River.
-
- Bridge crossing the mighty Irrawaddy River in Magwe.
-
- Example of some of the homes in Magwe.
-
- Stir fried noodles and veggies covered in a scrambled egg, accompanied by a strawberry milkshake that looked and tasted much like a child’s antibiotic drink. Yummy! The meal cost us 1500 Kyat ($1.80) and drink was 500 Kyat.
-
- Panoramic of Bagan temples. There were way more temples than what is shown here.
-
- Our early morning departure for Nyaung U (Bagan temples) from Magwe. As you can see, Sarah is very excited.
-
- Sarah’s hiding behind her curtain on the bus to avoid the walking vendors. If you don’t have a curtain it’s best to not make eye contact.
-
- These guys are awesome. They’re the equivalent of the work truck in the U.S.
-
- An example of one of the styles of headdress used in some places in Myanmar.
-
- Another popular taxi service in Myanmar.
-
- Road side snack of Pakora. Cost us 500 Kyat ($0.60)for 4. Not bad.
-
- Scooters were probably the main mode of motorized transport. I rode a couple scooter taxis during out trip.
-
- How do you unload a giant heavy box from the top of a bus? By balancing it on your neck of course.
-
- I didn’t quite fit in the seat for our 4 1/2 hour bus ride from Magwe to Nyaung U.
-
- The Myanmar Travel and Tour association in Nyaung U. They were extremely helpful but managed to sneak in a fee for their help without telling us. Nothing is free, I know, but the last they could do was let us know.
-
- Not sure what it’s called but it was a delicious midday snack.
-
- Golden lion at a Buddhist temple near the town of Nyaung U. One of the many Buddhist temples in the area. .
-
- This lady was very friendly and spoke a little English, though, she turned out to only want our money. Oh well.
-
- The universal means for transporting heavy loads. The U.S. needs to get on board.
-
- Sarah was very impressed with the giant trees we saw along most of our route through Myanmar. Here’s a good example.
-
- The ubiquitous trishaw.
-
- They dipped this basket filled with food into a boiling pan of oil. Their version of a deep fryer.
-
- Kids on their way home from school. It was bit rainy that day so this guy picked his legs up to ride through the puddle.
-
- Nearly all of the bathrooms we had in Myanmar looked something like this, a shower and toilet combo. Efficient use of space. Just be careful not to get the toilet paper wet.
-
- This trishaw ride cost us 1000 Kyat ($1.20). We planned to walk to our second hotel in Bagan but that was such a good price. The horse drawn carriage you see in the background wanted to charge us 6000 Kyat ($7.15).
-
- Bagan Buddhist temple. Many more to follow.
-
- The temples were close enough that we decide to rent bikes and take a nice leisurely tour of the area. It rained for a bit but most of the day was nice and cool.
-
- What looks like the inside of a crumbling temple.
-
- Farming near the temples.
-
- Farming near the temples.
-
- Bagan Buddhist temple entrance.
-
- One stop shop for scooter drivers. The bottles are filled with fuel and they can make a call while they wait for a fill up.
-
- Bagan
-
- Bagan
-
- I think this sign was describing the cost of the toll based on the vehicle type. Pretty straight forward if you ask me.
-
- Cattle traffic jam.
-
- This is a squat toilet in case you were curious. Not too bad, right?
-
- Most long bus rides stopped for lunch or dinner at a roadside restaurant.
-
- These guys were all over. They had small engines that were always exposed. They really worked hard as you can see.
-
- Pretty gruesome sign warning about traffic safety I suppose.
-
- In Myanmar they drive on the right side of the car as well as on the right side of the road.
-
- The hotel in Mandalay was much like a prison or an apartment building storage unit.
-
- This beauty cost us $25 per night. That’s not much back home but very expensive for budget travelers. We didn’t mind the place as much as the price tag.
-
- Our flooded room. We had to ask a couple of times before they found us another room to relocate to for the rest of the morning.
-
- The sink on the right gave way at 3 am, creating a loud bang that woke us up, and subsequently flooding our room. Water was spewing out of the power as several of the workers watched. I decided to place a trash can under the flow to catch most of the water. Par for course for this hotel as far as I could tell.
-
- Sketchy plug in our second room.
-
- Enjoying my second tea that morning before the crowd arrived at a tea house in Mandalay.
-
- A tea house we frequented while in Mandalay. I really like the atmosphere in these places. This shot is pretty early in the morning so it’s not very busy. It’s full most of the day, into the evening. The popular drink there is black tea with sweetened condensed milk. It was tasty.
-
- An old Jeep Willey outside of our hotel. There were faux Jeeps all over Thailand. There seems to be some sort of cult following. They even use the Jeep brand name, though, it’s obvious they’re not real Jeeps.
-
- One of the crazy intersections in Mandalay. Cyclist mix in with the rest of traffic. There are no bike lanes. Surprisingly you don’t see any road rage. Everyone just makes there way the best they can without and fuss.
-
- Many people used bicycles as there main mode of transport. Many of the bikes were pretty old. This guy is cruising on an oldie but goody.
-
- A monk take a smoke break outside of the Mandalay palace.
-
- A canal about 40 yards wide surrounds the palace. Not sure how deep it is.
-
- Pretty interesting warning. A small sign in the bottom right corner of the photo informs foreigners that they cannot enter the palace.
-
- These guys pound gold nuggets until they flat thin sheets. The gold leaf is used heavily in Buddhist temples.
-
- All of the hard work of pounding leads to this. Wow!
-
- These women were packaging the gold leaf to be sold and used. Some others were applying it to figurines to be sold.
-
- Inside a large Buddhist temple in Mandalay.
-
- The temple was getting a makeover. A crew of workers were applying 2″ by 2″ gold leaf squares to many of the walls and ceilings throughout the temple.
-
- Men are allowed to apply gold leave squared to Buddhas body. His head is polished every morning at 4am.
-
- Women were not allowed in the room with the golden Buddha.
-
- This woman gave me a huge smile as she passed. She was riding through what seemed like a school for Buddhist monks. This corridor led to a busy matrix of streets surrounding a large Buddhist temple.
-
- Stone carvers in Mandalay. These guys carve Buddhas all day long. The quality and skill of their work was pretty impressive.
-
- Large and extra large Buddhas.
-
- Where’s OSHA when you need them. This guy could definitely use a respirator.
-
- Carving the text by hand.
-
- Inking the carved text to make it pop.
-
- It seemed that the polishing was left to the ladies.
-
- The junk pile. Some of these statues are pretty far along. Too bad they had to be scrapped.
-
- Buddhist monks welcoming Obama.
-
- Obama on the left (obviously) and Aung San Suu Kyi on the right. I think the guy in the center might be the current leader of Myanmar. During Obama’s visit to the country he paid a short visit to Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League of Democracy.
-
- Everyone was very excited about Obama’s visit and what it could potentially mean for the country, in terms of civil liberties and economic opportunities.
-
- A little last minute gardening before the guests arrive.
-
- Air Force One
-
- Crowd’s lining the street outside of the airport to greet President Obama.
-
- President Obama’s fly ride.
-
- Goodbye Myanmar, hello Thailand.
Peach and Bones 
WOW, that was fascinating! LOVED the pictures, but sorry it was so tough to find a place to stay! It’d be really interesting to go back in a few years to see how it’s changed.
So what are you doing now? Traveling around Thailand early or going somewhere else?
We’re in Thailand now and will be here until we fly to Calcutta, India on December 8th. We spent a few days in Bangkok and are now in Railay in the south.
Pingback: Railay, Thailand « Peach and Bones