Am I nuts to start NOW to plan a trip in November?
Replies: 31 - Last Post: Nov 6, 2012 2:58 AM Last Post By: emmeff
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Am I nuts to start NOW to plan a trip in November?
A complete Myanmar newbie here.It was only last week that I thought 'hmm, why not go to Myanmar?' when considering the next leg of my journey after arriving in BKK on 5 November. AirAsia flights between Yangun and/or Mandalay and BKK seem cheap and plentiful at that time. I usually travel through Asia (East, South and Central) without prebooking anything more than the first night's accommodation.
I read the FAQ here. But now I'm reading about the expected avalanche of tourists in November this year, and the one-month backlog of visa applications here in Australia, and anyway the website of the embassy in Australia is down and the phones are permanently busy.
Am I nuts to contemplate going to MM for around 10 days from 6 or 7 Nov, with nothing arranged as of this moment? Will I have problems finding accommodation at anywhere other than the Parkroyal? Can I rely on getting a visa in BKK in two days, as others have indicated? I'd like to book my flights now, but I'd also like to know I can get a visa before I settle on flight dates.
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The only real issue I'd see would be getting the visa in Oz. Double check that there are no unexpected Thai or Burmese holdiays - and time your flights to get a visa in KL or Bangkok -you can apparently do it in one day if you pay more and get there v.early. I don't believe Canberra has any "fast track" system - so I wouldn't risk getting a visa from them in your time frame.The Parkroyal is the last place you'll get now - the more expensive places are the heaviest booked. What;s your tolerance of risk? No one really knows how busy it will be - I'd try to book Yangon if you can (check agoda - I got the May Shan with them) - for the rest of it - who knows. We're going in Nov and taking sleeping mats - incase we end up in the broom cupboard or restaraunt. But then we've travelled a lot and don't freak out about not knowing where we'll sleep in advance. Your mileage may vary.
Can you only spare 10 days? That would a frustratingly short trip for me. Also read up about the cash only economy - no CC or ATMs
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Go for it, book your flights, head off to BKK and get your visa for Myanmar. It will all work out fine. The world needs more swashbuckling adventurers like you. Last century we had the challenges of finding undiscovered countries, conquering the arctic poles, landing on the moon etc. All we now have left is Myanmar in November.6
The Canberra embassy is taking 4-5 weeks to process a visa at the moment, so your best bet will be to get it in Asia.As for accommodation, I'm going to be in Burma from late October for 3.5 weeks and I have only started booking (some) accommodation in the last few weeks and haven't had a problem so far. The rest I'm just going to try and organise when I get there. A lot of the cheaper places can only be contacted by phone anyway.
Not sure if that helps you make a decision...
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I think most heading for myanmar in November will hopefully head for the Balloon festival from Inle 22nd to 29th so head there first and follow the FAQ73 & FAQ87 updatesgo for it and report back on this thread your personal experience and any problems, also as son as you arrive in bangkok head for Burmese Embassy and get there for 8am and same day visa, unless you are actually living in camberra and can get to Embassy personally
have a great time.
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$1.50 GH in Annmemories are made of this including free breakfast at immigration officers house, he then had to requisition a truck to take me back to Magwee, with many years as a long distance Lorry driver in UK, for me even greater fun as I taught them to rope and sheet the English way lol. They found me a guest house near the bus station (not registered for foreigners) as they were worried I might be mugged at 1am when we arrived back in magwee fantastic scenery and stops on the way where they had not seen foreigners at all.
journey see pages 7&8
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I say go for it. I absolutely want to see Myanmar before the real mass tourism starts. We're going late November, early December and are yet to book accommodation for most of our stay. So far we've had 100% success rate booking places by phoning (well, we phoned 1 place and got 1 room). Most people on here seem to talk about trying to book accommodation using Agoda or email - that doesn't seem to be the way it works in Myanmar. Get on the phone and speak to somebody. They might not speak great English, it might take you a while to get connected and the connection may be poor but I'm pretty sure you'll find places to stay without too much trouble.To make things a bit easier on ourselves we've trimmed down the Myanmar part of our SE Asia trip considerably and are now only going to see a few places and then head back to the beach in Thailand to relax (/recover!).
Your potential visa issues are something else though. I picked ours up from the embassy here in London yesterday. They were processed in 5 days and there was only a short queue when we applied and no queue to collect. Lucky that we live in a major capital city with an embassy I suppose.
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If you book a room it is best to reconfirm the booking a few days before you arrive there just to make sure they know you are still coming. "I'm pretty sure you'll find places to stay without too much trouble." Not sure about that even 2 years ago most GHs were pretty full and they have not built many since then esp. at the cheaper end, now there are probably x2 the numbers going as then.
