Hi Ozbargainers,
Just wondering if anyone here has travelled to Myanmar? This could be with or without a tour group.
If you could let me know
how much you spent
which cities you went to
what kind of accommodation you used
which places you went to
any other relevant info
Thanks!
@ynot1985 Thanks for your detailed response! Appreciate it!
how many days did you spend there and if you don't mind revealing how must you spent for the tour? Just so I can get a gauge of what I should be paying
it was for 15 days.. about 1300ish for the tour back in 2012 ( I paid about 1100ish as I got discount from travelling with them before. I don't think they do Myanmar anymore… but they are owned by the same people as Intrepid
flights- just go with air asia if you flying for Australia.
also, not many people speak English so it might be easier to do a tour than by yourself.
It a fairly safe place as long as you don't get political or go to places where tourist are forbidden (e.g. shan states is highly restricted as its supposedly where most of the warlords grow they heroin crops)
If you are female, you may find it intimidating as men would literally stare at you (they don't even feel embarrassed about it) and also, some of the buddhist temples, females are not allowed to go the sacred areas.. only men are allowed.
also forgot to add, when I went, there was zero mobile reception so it might be hard to be contactable from outside and the internet is really slow there
Sweet thanks for the information!
Hopefully things may have changed for the better in the past two years!
You should try to PM @Clarky.
You mean Burma?
It was named Burma from 1948 when Britain ended their rule and the country became an independent nation with the official name of 'the Union of Burma'. Subsequently, in 1989, a military takeover took place and thus, it was changed to Myanmar.
I've not been there yet. anyway hope you have a wonderful journey :)
Have you gone yet?
ahh i've decided to go to vietnam instead! but thanks for chiming in!
Let me know if you decide another time maybe i can help
cheers buddy! will do!
I went two years ago, joined gecko tours.
Myanmar can be cheap but a lot of the stores/people have a funny expectation that foreigners must be rich and try to charge us accordingly. accommodation in yangoon isn't cheap. food can be cheap but we opted for pricier options as the cheaper options looked like gastro waiting to happen.
we went to yangoon, bagan (the hot air ballon is a must do- its pricy but wow), mandalay, pyin oo lin, kalaw (my fav place in Myanmar)- very cool town in the hills, inle lake, kyaikto to see the golden stone temple.
we did all sorts of stuff, budget hotels, motels, did an overnight train ride, etc.. nothing special… just don't expect a lot
Myanmar are full of temples and the places that I think are must see are the main golden temple in yangoon, bagan (the hotair ballon ride— $$$ but wow), bagan is beautiful at sunset, kalaw and inle lake.
the 2 things that I hated in Myanmar was getting access to money was a pain.. NO ATM and not many places accept credit cards. you need physical USD to change money (don't change money on the streets- they offer better rates but they do the sleight of hands on you) and legit money changers only take gem mint cash or else they give you a crap rate but the money they give you are disgustingly dirty.
the food is Myanmar is awful… the worst food I have ever had in Asia.. I'm the type who would try anything and Myanmar food is full of oil and not much meat, a lot of salty preserved food. some meals for them is just rice with preserved salty vergetables. its not pleasant. however Myanmar gold is a local beer (having seen it here)- quite decent.. I would drink it if they sell it here.
Funny thing about Myanmar is that for a country with that many road tolls (there was infinite paying checkpoints), the roads there are terrible
the group I went with was really well travelled.. many have done the world numerous times and the others have been to exotic places like cuba, india, etc so we know what we are doing. But the one consensus we agreed on at the end was that Myanmar is probably not a place we would come back. It's exotic and all but it didn't have any wow factor that made us want to go back again