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We both hadn’t been to this country, because Burma is one of the most isolated countries in the world and at the time Yvonne traveled through South East Asia, Burma’s borders were closed for foreigners. The country had a negative travel advice and was boycotted by many Western countries for years for the simple fact that the military regime was accused of abusing human rights. This had a big impact on Burma’s economy; trade & investment were second to none thus the Burmese population remained incredibly poor.
In 2011 the president (Sein) publicly promised to introduce change to the country, but in the end nothing significantly changed.
Political History
I’m not sure if you are familiar with the story of Aung San Suu Kyi, but I’ll write a quick snap shot of what we read and learnt. Aung San Suu Kyi was the daughter of an influential and popular politician who fought (with words) and then successfully negotiated independence from the British and the Japanese. He wanted various religions and tribes to co-exist in his beautiful country. Him and most members of his political party were assassinated that same year. Aung San Suu Kyi had an identical view on life and followed his footsteps. As she gained popularity, the opposition tried to find ways to lock her up, this resulted in several house arrest. I would recommend you to read her book (Freedom from Fear) in case you are interested in reading more about this.
Myanmar only opened its borders two years ago to individual travelers. They have also opened its borders to international companies, which was evident when we passed the Myanmar brewery that hasn’t been set up for brewery tours as such but the beer brand has been bought by Heineken.
Till this date, there are still a lot of areas where foreigners aren’t allowed to go to. These untouched areas are mainly in the south of Burma, bordering with Thailand.
Imagine Thailand 30 years ago, without the sex trade, without the tacky tourism and without the hassling culture and false friendliness……..that’s Myanmar! The people are the most friendly and genuine people we have met in South East Asia. They are inquisitive and curious why we Westerners do things differently, dress differently, walk differently, talk differently and eat differently 🙂
Before Arrival
We were waiting for our flight in KL and forgot to change money so we quickly cashed out Malaysian money and got that changed to US dollars. We read up about Myanmar and apparently there were no ATM’s in the country (Lonely Planet publication 2013 thank you for not being accurate), so we had to estimate how much we brought in. The Burmese also only accepted pristine US dollar bills printed in 2006 or after so no fold lines, no writing, no rips, anything. The bigger the notes the better the exchange rate. We were very thorough and the guy behind the desk must have thought we were crazy. I’m glad we were checking every single bill and being picky with what we accepted as during our first visit to a restaurant we encountered a few other travelers who tried to pay their bill and their notes weren’t accepted. By the way: there are ATM’s nowadays… not many but you don’t have to bring all your money up front!
Once AirAsia announced boarding, everyone ran to the front from excitement! It was a very funny moment, seeing all these Burmese adults run to the front of the queue, they were acting like kids in a candy store, we assumed they don’t fly often. From the entire plane, there were only 3 Australian travelers, a Dutch couple and the two of us. We were the minority and it felt amazing.
Yangon
We flew into Yangon and our hotel staff welcomed us. They wore men skirts (called Longyi). Again: happy, friendly, innocent people with big smiles on their faces.
It was about a 40-minute ride from the airport to our hotel. Hotels in Burma are very expensive for what you get. This is due to the fact that there is more tourists then accommodation thus they can bump up the prices. We organised our accommodation and bus fares before we left Australia and all up spent $300 US each for 2 weeks hotels and busses.
We had a cheeky local beer on our first night (Myanmar beer) and a meal from the restaurant next door, which only cost $2 each! The Burmese cuisine is largely influenced by Indian and Chinese food. Most restaurants offer stir-fry, curries, and rice and noodle dishes.
The hotel we stayed at was very old school and primitive, with blue and white painted walls, and 1960’s style curtains. It felt like it was still in its original state and we were going back in time. Apart from the fact that every single hotel has wifi… that was a bit surreal.
Yangon (also known as Rangoon) is the largest city in Myanmar and used to be the capital. We passed a lot of ‘beer stations’, which is their name for ‘pub’.
I won’t bother you with all the restaurants or bars you can visit, talk to the hotel receptionist what is most popular at that time as it changes rapidly.
We took a taxi to the bus station (K7000), which is miles away from where most hotels are located. We played some cards and locals were circling around us trying to understand what the game was about. Aaron showed a few pictures that were printed on our deck of cards “my country” he said, pointing out the Great Barrier Reef and some of the Australian local animals like koala’s and kangaroos these locals had never seen before.
Kyaiktiyo & the Golden Rock
The bus the Golden Rock (K7500) took about 4 hours. I would recommend to book the seat in the back of the bus. The bus becomes fuller and people even stand in the entrance or lean entirely over you as there is no space. The bus left Yangon around 10.30am and we arrived in Kyaiktiyo at 3pm. We quickly dropped our bags off in our bungalow (Sea Sar Hotel; $50 per night for 2 pax).
We had a meal and left for the trucks – the station was next to our hotel, which was convenient. The truck leaves when it’s full and takes about 1 hour to get up the hill. I believe we paid K2500 per person for the ride. It’s a very bumpy ride and described as a ‘roller coaster ride’ but a fun experience! About 45-50 people are squished into one truck and there is nothing to hold on to 🙂 Along the way the trucks stop at a few pilgrim places where everyone donates money. We couldn’t understand a word and they never held the basket in front of us so we didn’t contribute. The amount of money that people constantly give to these monks is quite a lot for them! They must save heaps before going to the Golden Rock.
Once you get up there (entrance fee K6000) you’ll have to walk the last bit barefoot. You will see lots of locals setting up camp for staying there for sunrise. Little kids followed us around and when eye contact was made they either smiled or ran away because they were shy. We gave away a few kangaroo key rings and they all politely said “thank you”.
Locals will discourage you to go the Golden Rock, this is because the entrance money goes to the government and not to the people. For us, it was well worth the visit, it’s an incredibly holy place and it’s considered to be the most sacred place in Myanmar. It’s as mighty as Lourdes or Mecca! There was a special aura about the place; even though we aren’t religious you could just feel the spiritual vibe. Men can buy gold leaf and apply it as a tribute though women weren’t allowed to enter the podium.
We got there 20-30 minutes before sunset so it’s doable to get there on the same day without staying overnight in a 5-star expensive hotel. The last truck goes at 6pm so make sure you’re back in time.
Just be aware that around 4am the locals start praying and they have loudspeakers all over the streets for you to enjoy it also. Make sure you have your earplugs ready!
Shwedagon Pagoda
After getting back to Yangon from the Golden Rock, we jumped into a taxi to get to the Shwedagon Pagoda (entrance K6000) in time for sunset.
The pagoda is 99 meters high and covered with gold plates. It’s the oldest pagoda in the world (2500 years old). There are four entrances – north, east, south and west. Once you’re inside, you need to remove your shoes, cover your shoulders and knees and walk clockwise. They have 8 different planetary posts; a post for each day though Wednesday is for some reason divided into am/pm.
There are vendors selling lucky charms, Buddha images, gold leaf, incense, candles, flowers and much more.
Especially at nighttime when the pagoda is lit up, de decorations of gold and diamonds are astonishing. The calm, serene atmosphere and devotion of the worshippers is what makes it memorable. 
Train Yangon to Bagan
We bought a train ticket for a sleeper cabin (US $50 each) and the ride would take around the 16 hours.
The train ride was an incredible experience, we both love train travel and knew it was going to be a bumpy ride and were ready for the adventure!
The gates opened 30 minutes before departure and kids were guiding us to the right part of the train. At 4pm the train whistled and off we went. 
We shared a cabin with two English men who had bought us a couple of beers upon introduction.
Beers on the train cost roughly K1500, kids will try and sell them to you before the train leaves. Make sure you bargain because they start high 😉
At the start we all went out of the ‘room’ to wave to the people. We were taking in the scenery going through little villages and the countryside, mainly rice fields. The views were stunning especially around sunset and sunrise, absolutely breathtaking. When the train stopped, kids would come up and say hello or parents with their babies were waiting all day for the train to pass. It’s like when we were younger we would go to the airport to watch the planes take off.
I read online complaints about the train ride, about the fact that the train arrived 5 hours later or that it was too noisy, shuddering carriages and so on. When traveling, it’s all about setting expectations. We kept in our minds with everything we did “it’s Myanmar, it’s a 3rd world country that recently opened its borders for travelers like us”. Surely it’s not going to be VIP or luxury! But isn’t that what traveling is about? Accepting that things aren’t the same as back home and adjusting your lifestyle to the way locals do things?
Apart from the friendly British gentlemen in our sleeper hut, we also met a Swiss guy and a German couple. We all ended up trying to eat in the restaurant carriage. This was quite a challenge as it was so bumpy 🙂 Imagine yourself on a mechanic bull trying to eat noodles with chopsticks, that’s how it felt! We shared alcoholic beverages with the other passengers and invited a couple of locals to join us. They didn’t talk much because they didn’t speak English but often hand gestures and pointing at objects is the only way to communicate and does the job.
We took a sleeping tablet, grabbed our silicone earplugs and eye mask and slept over 8 hours.
Bagan
Once we arrived in Bagan we shared a taxi (K8000) with the German couple, paid the ‘entrance fee’ to the Bagan area (K15000 each) and freshed ourselves up in our hotel Yar Kinn Tha (US $50 per night). The area we stayed in is called Nyaung U and is famous amongst the backpackers and has a wide variety of (budget) restaurants. We rented bikes (K5000) and explored the area.
On the same street our hotel was located, we found a travel agency that booked horse and carriage trips to the temples. We paid K20000 for half a day (12pm till 6pm) and went with Mister E and his horse Lucky. Mister E was telling us a lot about the political situation and how the people of Burma were only allowed to learn other languages two years ago. He told us that he quickly learnt English, French and was currently learning Japanese! Mister E took us to the most hidden and of course least touristy pagodas. We were the only tourists at the first 4-5 temples we visited. There are thousands of temples, pagodas and stupas stretched out over 16 square miles of land. The majority of these were built between 11th and 13th century. We have seen some beautiful mural paintings and stone inscriptions.
We climbed 3/6 pagodas you could enter and did sunset on one of them (I believe it was called Mingaladezi). It was one of the least touristy temples and counted approximately 30 visitors. You can really sit there and dream away, it’s magical.
We overheard a guy saying ‘I miss cheddar cheese man…’, we found out he was from Melbourne and kept bumping into him.
We were considering the really expensive balloon flight (US $320 per person). I had never experienced a hot air balloon flight before and this would be one of the highlights, even if the weather would be overcast. The thing is that this balloon flight is fully booked months and months in advance. We asked the hotel manager if she could give them a call to find out whether there were cancellations. There it was, two spots available for tomorrow! So we basically ran to the ATM to get more cash out, gave our money to one of the hotel employees, she took off on her motorbike to get the money in time to the company.
The next day we were picked up but arriving at the departure fields, our names weren’t on the list. We were a little anxious but then discovered they had written down complete different names, Augkin from Australia and Lakti from the Netherlands 😉 
Our guide was David from the UK and this was his first season in Burma. When we got in the little basket, a couple from Spain got separated and asked a German tourist if he wanted to swap. There was no way the German guy wanted to switch positions because he heard ‘this was the best spot’. David overheard this conversation and in the air he turned the balloon 180 degrees, which meant that we were the ones with the best view HA! What comes around goes around…
This flight was absolutely mind blowing and it is over before you know it. We would definitely recommend the experience. Once we landed we had some champagne to celebrate. We got some croissants and other pastries. We received a ‘certificate’ and a hat and got back into town around lunchtime.
We rented bikes again, bought some beers and snacks and tried to find the way to the pagoda we visited for sunset the night before. Surprisingly we managed to find the temple and this time there were even less people than the night before. The sunset was even better too. We again bumped into mister Cheddar Cheese – small world.
Going out for dinner can be so cheap; we had lunch and dinner at Weather Spoon several times and only spent about K7000 between the two of us including fresh ginger watermelon juices! We tried out a couple of other places but those were disappointing. Aroma 2, which was highly recommended on both TripAdvisor and the newest Lonely Planet was a disaster. We counted about 8 tables had been waiting for their food for over an hour and the wrong meals were sent out to tables. A lot of people walked away from this place. Knowing this, we ordered food and went for a walk. They called themselves the best Indian restaurant but without papadoms and other typical Indian dishes we disagree. This other place we went to was called Black Bamboo, a French owned restaurant. The meals were alright but pricey.
Inlelake
We took a tourist bus to Inlelake (K7000 each) and roughly 10 hours. The route is through the mountains and the views are stunning. Lots of the people got of at a place called Kalaw and do 3-4 day hikes from here. Whilst we thought the bus wasn’t bad at all for Burmese standards, the couple behind us hated it. A German lady in front of us asked politely if she could recline her chair a little, which was fine to us. When we reclined the chairs a tiny bit too, this lady behind Yvonne started kicking, screaming and crying. With her knee she kept on punching the back of her chair, thinking that it would help change Yvonne’s mind and put the seat back up. For an hour Yvonne had to suffer from this childish behavior. When we had a quick stop Yvonne told me about it and we purposely put the seats back heaps. When the couple got back they both started to make a scene. The whole bus was entertained and during our second stop two Canadian girls sat with us and asked what the hell was going on. They thought it was hilarious as we basically told them they were allowed to put their own seats back also, but they refused to. Two German girls were laughing because they had their chairs fully reclined. I told the couple that they had to suck it up because we were in Burma for crying out loud and if they wanted luxury, first class travel they shouldn’t travel on a bus but take a plane instead. They finally shut up.
Inlelake is way more touristy than the previous places we visited. A lot of people speak English and there are heaps of people trying to sell you things. We took a bike taxi to our hotel (Remember Inn, US $30 per night). Staff welcomed us, brought our bags upstairs as if they didn’t weigh anything, we received a welcome-drink and entering our room, we felt we scored the honeymoon suite!! With a huge lounge room, a beautiful kingsize bed with flowers and swan shaped folded towels.
Aaron took his guitar out and played for a while, whilst I read my book. This was the first time during our 4 weeks of travel that we had a moment to do this…
The next day we signed up for a boat trip over the lake (K24000), which is definitely the biggest tourist attraction we have been to in Myanmar. The guy barely spoke English but he knew his stuff and he knew where we wanted to go. He brought us to his long boat, which was nearly falling apart but we were up for an adventure. Unlike most tourists, we left at 12pm, which meant that we were the only boat driving around the first leg of the lake tour. Whilst filming the experience, a few fishing boats got closer and closer. We recognised the image as it’s like the cover of the Lonely Planet, fisherman balancing on one foot and with the other steering the boat. They caught this sad tiny fish and showed us, then asking for money. In the meantime, we were still capturing this on video, but we didn’t like the fact that they asked for money.
After that, we got a little wary and thought every other Burmese on the water would be like that, but thank god that wasn’t the case. We asked our guide to NOT bring us to any tourist traps but to show us the real life on the lakes. He then brought us to the Southern part of the lake, which was more authentic. We drove through all the floating gardens, where they grew tomatoes and the like. We went through a few stilted villages, where we saw the locals wash their food, washed themselves and washed their clothes, all in the same water whilst this same water is heavily polluted by the sewage water…!
Some parts of the trip were unusual and impressive, like the visit to the longneck women from the hill tribes. 
We read about them but never actually saw them and it was a tiny bit creepy. We avoided the main tourist traps like the silk workshops, Mulberry paper factory, craft outlets, weaving workshops and gem stores. We went to visit the cigar factory, where they produced handmade cigars (2000 a day!) with banana leafs as paper and anise as flavour. The boat workshop suppose to be good too because they weren’t trying to sell you anything.
We read about the ‘jumping cats’ in the monastery but that ‘show’ hadn’t been active for years. All it had was stalls with the same touristy handicraft. At that point we were over visiting temples, pagodas and monasteries.
Our guide brought us to a place for lunch, very overprices and the food was disappointing. But… we didn’t let it spoil our day. So we asked the guy to drive us to the teak bridge for sunset and that was something nearly no tourist had thought about. The views were stunning!!
Later on, on our way back to town, gliding through very calm water, we actually saw the real fisherman up close. This was a nice way of finishing the trip.
The next day we rented a bike and cycled to the winery, passing rice fields where farmers rode their buffalo, canals and villages. You would think: a vineyard in South East Asia… really? That’s what we thought too, though we had been recommended to give it a try. I believe its owned by a French couple. They have a restaurant with a beautiful view over the vineyard and the mountains. The prices for wine tasting weren’t too bad either, even though the place looked very posh. Tasting cost us K2000 for four wines (which is like $2). We loved the rose and bought a bottle as reward for our bike session and enjoyed the lovely scenery. We could easily spend all day here just dreaming away.
The day after we again rented a bike and went up a dirt road to get to hot springs in a town called Kaung Daing (which is also famous for its tofu production). 
There were mixed baths where most tourists went to, these were K7000 per person. Then there were separate male & female baths, only K4000. You get a towel, soap and a locker key. These baths were entirely empty, so we decided to go separate ways. The ride took about 30-40 minutes and it was terrible but fantastic at the same time as you see so much of the local life.
We had one more bus ride to go (K7000, 8-9 hours) our last stop was going to be Mandalay. There we stayed at the Royal Hotel (US$50 a night). We arrived at like 3am and nobody was awake so we dumped our bags and slept on the couch next to the two staff members who were sleeping. Then two hours later we heard a big bang and ‘hellooooooo’, just as we were setting off for our deep sleep. Super rude, a German couple came in and they woke everyone up because they wanted to check in and see the sunrise at the teak bridge. They were very demanding and expected it to be 24/7 service. She asked SO many questions, the poor guy just woke up! After all, they shouldn’t have woken up the staff members and us because it was too much work for them to register and they rushed out the hotel for sunrise! But it was good for us, that way we were able to get our room.
After a few hours proper sleep we went to look for a gym. There was one down the road called ‘Star Gym’. Apparently a famous bodybuilder owns it and was chatting to Aaron. It only cost like K500, which is like US$1 🙂
We walked around town and found a restaurant called Rolly Polly, we felt like celebrities, seriously about 10 staff members in suits and bowties were outside bowing for us, smiling and they all greeted us. Then we walked up, there were another 6 staff members guiding and following us. It was so weird. The food was average but did the job.
The next morning we walked to the Jade Market, we could not believe our eyes… it was that expensive! US$46.000 for an average bangle, you could get that for US$10 at Collete’s. Unreal, we didn’t know Jade was so expensive.
We then went to the fruit & vegetable market and bought some avocados to add to our breakfast, $0.10 ct per avocado, this country keeps surprising us!
In amongst all the poverty there was this big shopping mall, it just didn’t fit in the scenery. We had lunch at Minh and walked back via 77 street, where we had the biggest shock of our lives. We saw a man dead on the ground, nearly naked. We presumed he was robbed of all his belongings and lay there curled up. It was a real eye-opener and gave us a real sad vibe; we nearly cried it was so upsetting. I don’t understand why the government uses all the money for military purposes, it’s so wrong.
We took a taxi to the longest teak bridge in the world; U Bein. Aaron bought a fake Jade necklace for US$4 and took some fantastic photos of monks crossing the bridge. There were a lot of young students wanting to learn English and so they approach you and ask you a few questions. Yvonne ended up speaking to one of the girls for 15 minutes.
We had dinner at BBB’s, very western and lots of expats were eating here but it was great food and ridiculous service.
The next day we strolled into a hotel with a swimming pool and pretended we were meeting our friends there, the ‘waiting for a mate scene’ but they obviously never rocked up and we got away with it 😉
The afternoon we got on a motorbike to go to Mandalay hill for sunset. We had to hurry otherwise we would miss sunset and so instead of a 45 minute walk up the steep stairs, we smashed it in 20 minutes. The views were awe-inspiring and we had chosen an excellent spot to watch the sun go down.
We ate at a vegetarian Thai restaurant called ‘rainbow’ for dinner. For US$10 we had fresh fruit juices and a meal each, it was so cheap and tasty.
We asked reception to post our Christmas cards (though we found out they never arrived!!). That day we found out the FIFA draw and couldn’t believe the group of death; the Netherlands, Spain, Chile and Australia.
After breakfast we took a taxi to the airport (45 minute ride – K12000). And that was the end of our trip.
It was an unforgettable experience and we look back at one of the best two weeks we had in Asia. We truly hope that this country doesn’t get ruined by tourism, we hope the people stay honest and friendly.
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