Burma Travel Answers

you might like t contact Minthan, another vt member in rangoon as he works at a travel agency and has plans on becoming a tourist guide.

Gordy, I rarely use travel agents but you are starting in Rangoon and it is my experience that just about anywhere you stay will have some sort of travel agency facility for onward travel and accommodation. If you want the security of pre-booking I am sure some of the very knowledgeable members here will assist. In relation to itinerary I may be able to help a little there. I went to Burma for a month and managed to see a good deal. Your start point of Rangoon is definitely a few days worth with the Shwedagon, Sule Paya, river etc. there is a lot to see. From there I went stopped in Magwe on my way North. Not much to do but a pleasant place. You simply must visit the Bagan complex, this is completely non-negotiable and I suggest an abolute minimum of three days there. It is, simply put, the most amazing place I have ever seen. I did go up to Mandalay although I was slightly disappointed in it. Still worth a look though. A day or two relaxing in Hsipaw is recommended. Again, not a whole lot to do but that is the joy of it. You can just sit about or go for a leisurely walk in the gorgeous surrounding countryside. The other "must see" for visitors is Inle Lake and I suggest staying at Nyaungshwe which is a lovely town with a sort of "Venice canal" feel about it and easy access to the lake. Apart from the organised trips to the floating market etc., I would suggest you take a paddled canoe trip round the edges of the lake. More eco-friendly than a longtail boat and a whole lot more fun as you can get to some places inaccessible to longtails. I have pages on all the things I have mentioned if you want to look at them and I hope this assists, fergy.

Hi There are so many Guest house in Yangon.You can stay with around cost 40USD. How many day would you like to visit in Myanmar? welcome to Myanmar

Hi There are so many Guest house in Yangon.You can stay with around cost 40USD. How many day would you like to visit in Myanmar? welcome to Myanmar

Hi There are so many Guest house in Yangon.You can stay with around cost 40USD. How many day would you like to visit in Myanmar? welcome to Myanmar

Hi There are so many Guest house in Yangon.You can stay with around cost 40USD. How many day would you like to visit in Myanmar? welcome to Myanmar

It is easy to give you just a list of travel agencies but if prebooking a hotel is the only reason, some of us here can help you with that no problem. \As stated before on the itinerary.. Yangon is a must see with Shwedagon at least. But there are many things more and it is nice to stay a day or two at the end here to 'round things off' Bagan and Inle are, again as said, non-negotiable. They are the must-sees apart from Shwedagon. I like them both and they both have their reasons for being the top-visited places here. Bagan is breath-taking, Inle is relaxing. From Bagan, you can visit Mt. Popa, or cross the river to Pakokku and Monywa (with some interesting buddhist caves) and on to towards Mandalay Mandalay is nice but the main attractions are around it. With one of my personal favourites in Myanmar: Paliek (not the snake pagoda but the stupas near the village itself). near Inle you hace Kalaw (and the trek from kalaw to Inle). There are caves to be visited near there too. And if you have time, a day to the Pa-O site of Kekku is nice (can also be done as an overnight trek from Inle). I loved the boat trip from Moulemein to Hpa-an whihc in my opinion is much more interesting than the overrated Mandalay-Bagan trip. A whole lot less comfortable though.. ;-) Bago is often overlooked but can be done as a nice outing from Yangon or as a overnigther when going on. Hsipaw is nice but so are Pyin Oo Lwin (old Britisch hill station) and Kyakme. The Gokteik bridge is a exhilaration trip to take. The train trip is nice in itself but that bridge.... Wow. There is more but these are the main places.

Hi There are so many Guest house in Yangon.You can stay with around cost 40USD. How many day would you like to visit in Myanmar? welcome to Myanmar

Gordy, I would certainly take Mique's advice. She is resident in the country and very much the VT expert there. I completely endorse everyhting she says in the post above. newrock, I am unclear what your point is but it has been very well made now.

The other option of course is to prebook and prepay through a reputable hotel booking company such as agoda. We did this with a couple of hotels that we stayed at so we did not have to factor in hotel costs that would deplete the cash we had. This meant that we used vouchers when we arrived. We did not have any problems with this method.

Prebooking sounds like a great idea. And as you say, it saves on the 'taking money with you' part...

I would definitely prefer to prebook for my trip next March, especially as it seems tour groups and business travellers are block booking at the moment and prices appear to be going up quickly as a result. There are more and more stories of agents making bookings but not confirming prices as they may get a better offer for a room in the meantime as there is a shortage of rooms in the country due to the current demand. I hope the authorities manage to improve the infrastructure to cope with the inevitable surge of interest in a "new" destination. I rather wish I'd made more of an effort to visit a few years ago even though I doubted at the time that the tourist dollar might have improved the lives of the average citizen and I suspect my money would have benefited those least deserving.

I'll ask hubby for addresses and stuff for a couple of good travel agencies. True, hotel rooms are in short supply but it isn't as bad as they all make it out to be. The worst hit are upmarket places since most business travelers want to stay there as well. They're in the process of upgrading all long distance and city buses (in Yangon at least) so that area is also getting better.

Wow! Updating the buses in Yangon? Last time I was there, they all looked about 60 years old!

Even here things are improving ;-) Although improving.. just learned today that Engelbert Humperdinck will come for a concert this July to Yangon...

Englebert, my word, Burma must be back in the international fold. Who's next, Dame Shirley Bassey? Bay City Rollers?

I know.. He must be the first international artist for the past ... decades! My first thought though was that he must be rather desperate.. Las Vegas as a end-of-career is one thing. Burma is a long way from that..

Apologies for the question hijack here, Gordon. Strangely and coincidentally, I saw a fairly recent live clip of Englebert here in the Philippines. The guy nust be well into h8s 60's now but I'll tell you, he put on a great show. Get tix, he will be worth seeing. Seriously, I am just wondering who will follow. If any Burmese agent is looking for an Irish band, I'm available. Let's be honest, it is only a matter of time until the first Irish bar opens in Rangoon, they are everywhere else!

Bloody Hell. Engelbert lives a few miles away from me here in Leicester and I might bump into him in Burma ! He's actually not a bad performer for his age (think he's 74). The world is indeed getting smaller. Thanks for the reassurances on the accomodation query, its good to know that its the top end where any problems may be and less so in my normal category of hotel

Thanks Min Thant, I did't know it was cancelled... Let's see who will be the first famous westerner/band performing then ;-)

Hello!I recommend Sweety Green Land travel and tour.That agency would be made the best service and reasonable price.

I keep forgetting to ask hubby. He went to Bagan over the weekend but is back. I'll try to remember.