This wildlife sanctuary deep in the delta offers the chance to experience traditional life in the Ayeyarwady region and see rare species including wild estuarine crocodiles and, if you're lucky, Irrawaddy dolphins. Between November and February, it's also a pit stop for vast numbers of migratory waterbirds on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. On the aptly named Turtle Island, 7 miles south of the sanctuary, turtles nest and hatch between October and March.
The sanctuary, one of three Ramsar sites in Myanmar, is accessed from Bogalay, 93 miles southwest of Yangon. While the trip can be done independently, it will be a smoother experience and not much more expensive to go on an all-inclusive three-day trip with a specialist operator such as SST Tours in Yangon or Soe Moe Aung in Pathein.