Loading ...
Few places are so compelling to me that I feel I must return soon. But Burma was that kind of place. Relatively untouristed, it is on the verge of great growth as a destination for adventuresome travelers.
Once Burma opens up, it will change rapidly. Indeed, the release of ASSK this year seems to have spurred an uptick in tourism. In making my travel arrangements for November, I found that I couldn’t always get the hotels I wanted because they were full… and that was in May!
I started with an outline of where we wanted to go.
First on our list was a visit to Mrauk U, a concentration of Buddhist temples near the border with Bangladesh. These temples are from a different era than the Bagan temples, but like Bagan, this was once a capital of a kingdon.
Second on our list was the Ancient cities area outside of Mandalay. I also wanted to visit Pyin U Lwin, where there is a botanical garden as well as remnants of an old British hill station.
Third, we wanted to stop and visit our friend MinThu, who had been our horsecart driver and guide in Bagan.
And last, we wanted some time in Yangon.
With this outline, I contacted our travel agent, Zaw, at Santa Maria Travel in Yangon.
One of the problems with planning a trip is that the airlines don’t publish accurate schedules. The schedules change seasonally, and the airlines feel free to make last minute changes as well. The best you can do is to use an agent in Yangon who knows what the past patterns have been and to cross your fingers.
While we thought it made sense to go to Mrauk U first, Zaw advised me to put it at the end. Getting to and from Mrauk U is complicated. You have to fly to Sittwe, and from there it is a long (4-6 hours) boat ride to Mrauk U. If there is a flight in the morning, you can make the trip in a day. If not, you must spend a night in SIttwe. Likewise, on the return, you hope for an afternoon flight to be available so you don’t “waste” a day in Sittwe. But you can only catch a flight to Sittwe from Yangon, so we would have to schedule a day in Yangon before we fly to Sittwe.
Ultimately, we re-ordered our itinerary, flying to Mandalay the day we arrive, then to Bagan, then a day in Yangon before going on to Mrauk U. When we return from SIttwe, we’ll have two days in Yangon. We wanted one more day in Yangon at the end, but our hotel was not available for another night.
So while our itinerary required a number of compromises, we now have a plan that should run smoothly as long as the flights
