very short time in Myanmar
Replies: 7 - Last Post: Jan 11, 2012 6:46 AM Last Post By: busman7
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very short time in Myanmar
We will be spending a month later in the year in Thailand (the north). We have spent a lot of time over the last few years in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam but have never been to Myanmar. We have realised that we could go to Myanmar for 5 days in between Bangkok and Chiang Mai and that there are flights to and from Yangon and Bangkok and Chiang Mai.For those folk who have travelled in this area, would you recomend travelling around Myanmar (Yangon, Bagan, Inle Lake), or staying in Yangon for the five days, or going to another place, say Ngapali for say three days. We normally prefer to stay a few days in each place but unfortuately 5 days is as much as we can spend here. It seems that overland travel can be quite time consuming but don't want to spend the whole time flying either.
It won't worry us too much not to see the big sites, but still want to get a feel for the country (or at least as much as we can in 5 days).
We have never done a "tour" in Asia but is Myanmar one place where it would be worthwhile?
We haven't been to a place we haven't enjoyed yet and like taking a variety of transport and staying in smaller locally run accomodation.
1
Both Inle and Bagan are marvelous, but transportation is iffy and once we found our southbound flight going north to pick up someone important. Our plane exiting the country was 8-9 hours late and even then it wasn't clear we would be going to our destination. It is not a country that is easily managed, but it is well worth it. That said, with five days I might suggest a couple of locations rather than trying to hit the highlights and mostly waiting for transportation.2
definitely try to get to bagan, well worth the journey time from yangon, we spent a day doing the 'sights' in a horse drawn buggy, goes nice and slow, you can see as many or as few as you want to. we sepnt 18 days in myanmar in august, a great trip3
I endorse poster 1. If you get to Bagan try to get an early morning balloon flight over the temples - it's magic.4
about 9 years ago we spent three weeks in Myanmar - don't know if the ferry from Mandalay to Bagan down theAyeyerwady River is still running but that's how we got there - fabulous trip. Bagan is a magical place - we were there about five days and enjoyed every minute of it. Explored the area by foot and rented bike.
I'd love to back to Myanmar.
Margaret
5
For 5 days just stay in touristy Thailand.You need at least 2 weeks to make it worthwhile to visit Myanmar.
Nothing wrong with the transportation, trains, buses, the slow-boat from Mandalay to Bagan all work fine, you just need more than 5 days to even do a minimum Yangon-Mandalay by train-Bagan by slow boat-Yangon.
Could spend 5 days in the Yangon area but it would be a waste.
6
Thanks for all your suggestions - from the comments it seems that 5 days is really not enough time and we would be better to wait for next year when we can spare more time. Gratton1932 - three weeks sounds wonderful. We spent 8 weeks just in Cambodia and would love to go back again - it seems the longer you spend the better it is.Looks like this holiday will be just Thailand. If we skip Burma, we will be able to take trains instead of flying so that is a bonus.
Thanks again for your responses.
