Myanmar Highlights and Travel Tips

In the 20 years that we have travelled in South East Asia, we have dreamed about the time we would visit the mysterious and authentic Myanmar.

In excitement, we could hardly sleep a wink the night before the day we arrived in Myanmar. But soon we would find we would have an adventure of a lifetime and visit one of our favourite countries in the world.

Yangon

Once we arrived, we walked the streets of Yangon, somewhat shell-shocked hardly believing we were there. “WOW!” I laughed. “We are in Myanmar.”
We soon found we were among the friendliest people in the world. People were stopping us on the streets just to say hello and asking for nothing else but hello in return.

Ancient buildings, Temples & Shwedagon Pagoda

We have never seen so many temples, pagodas & places of worship in any other country than we did in Myanmar.
There are temples everywhere! We find them beautiful, fascinating and peaceful places to visit!
In no time at all, we found we had the temple bug and wanted to see them all!
Though we have seen many temples all over the world, the visit to Shwedagon Pagoda – South East Asia’s most beautiful temple, is now one of the highlights of our life.
And one of the many beautiful Buddhas at Sule Paya, Yangon stays firmly in our memories.

Riding the Circular train

The Circular train in Yangon gave us a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the Myanmar people who live in or near the city. We were able to meet many friendly people on the train including kids, grandparents, vendors, teachers, friendly cops and even the train driver. Starting from the city centre, the 3-hour train trip loops from the city into the greater Yangon area. Once you leave the city areas, the countryside is very lush and pretty, but it is easy to see there is a lot of poverty. The great thing about this train trip is that you can jump on and off wherever you like and, you can even catch a taxi back once you’ve finished exploring.

Myanmar food

Myanmar food is so diverse and tasty. We found the food a cross between Indian and Chinese. We were a bit weary so not to get sick, but after our first delicious feast of Myanmar style chicken curry, Chinese Shan style chicken curry plus plates of vegetables including mix vegetables, greens beans, chillies & potato soup we ate anything and everything. Most times we sat down at a table and then along with the meal we ordered, 6 or 7 different plates came out to test all our taste buds. So it was always a feast!

Mandalay

While Yangon was fun and a cultural eye-opener with many beautiful temples to visit and many friendly locals to meet (some of the most welcoming people of any city in the world), Mandalay has shown us all the beauty and mysticism we have imagined Myanmar was. You could easily spend a week or 2 exploring temples, mountains, lakes, villages and diverse restaurants.

One of our highlights is the Kuthodaw Pagoda. With over 700 beautiful shrines, it is where you will find the Worlds largest book. It is a collection consisting of 729 stone tablets and once took 2400 monks over 5 months in a nonstop relay to read it.

Day trip from Mandalay to temples and ancient cities

We booked a private day trip from our hotel. Our guide picked us up in his taxi and drove us to temples and the ancient cities in Mandalay. We love all of Myanmar, but Inwa is one of our favourite places. Inwa is an ancient city known for its religious structures from the 14th Century. There are many gorgeous 14th to 19th Century buildings to visit surrounded by beautiful countryside. It’s a fascinating trip back in time taking a horse-drawn cart through rice fields, farms, local villages and atmospheric religious and imperial buildings.

The fun and diverse day ended with a trip to U Bein Bridge – The world’s longest teak footbridge. The sunset from here was magnificent and enjoyed by many locals.

Friendly people

We fell in love with how Myanmar’s dress so well and wear beautiful traditional outfits, especially when visiting the temple. Often, we asked if we could take their picture. In some instances, to our surprise, people asked us for our photo. Sometimes by people who only spoke a few words of English. But, but smiling and photography – it’s the universal language.

Inle Lake

Arriving into Myanmar’s first designated place of UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves, we weren’t expecting too much from our accommodation after reading Nyaung Shwe (the gateway to the remarkable Lake Inle) is a bit of a dirty, shabby town.

Imagine our amazement when we opened our curtains to a view of a temple, temple grounds with boy monks playing soccer, trees, mountains and river.

Tourism is strong, construction is booming, and the town is in a transformation into a quaint village with an atmosphere. Much like most of Myanmar, the paths will be clean, beautiful and paved but ‘the road less travelled’ will soon be well-trodden with many tourists arriving.

The Floating Village on the Lake

What’s so special about this lake? Well, for one it’s so much fun cruising in a boat in any beautiful lake surrounded by nature and people.
But at Inle Lake, the floating villages and gardens give you the magical feeling of the impossible being possible. Similar to the awestruck feeling you get being in Venice.

Marshes and gardens fringe the lake. Generations have built up the floating garden beds by gathering weeds from the lake resulting in land in the middle of a lake where once there was only water. There’s so much to see – the many birds and wildlife, the fishermen, the locals collecting weeds to build their floating gardens, the temples, and the traditional arts and crafts.

The unique stilt houses in the water and the floating villages are fascinating to see, as is watching the villagers going about their everyday lives while cruising in the canals in an open-air boat.
The communities embrace an authentic way of life, that’s been passed down through generations. It’s one of Myanmar’s most popular destinations and rightfully so. But, as yet it doesn’t feel as touristy as Venice.

We just Love the beauty and authenticity. We would add this to your Top 50 in your Travel Bucket list of the World!

Sunsets, Vineyards & Good times

Wherever we are and whatever we do, we always try to find time to watch the sunset.
The added bonus is when there is a splash of colour or exceptional landscape.
We heard there was a vineyard in Inle and being that wine, sunsets and views is one of our favourite things to do we hot-footed it to Red Mountain Winery and indulged. The wine was divine, the view was beautiful, and the bonus was meeting some cool travellers that we really want to stay in touch with.
Travel is so great that way. There’s something you want to do, then you just do it. There’s someone you see you like, then you just go up and meet them. You live a lifetime in just one day! Anything is possible!

Bagan

We travelled 10 hours by bus through the Myanmar countryside and arrived in Bagan. This ancient city is an archaeological wonderland with more than 2000 Buddhist monuments from the 9th to 13th centuries. It rivals Angkor Wat in majesty, and the masses of tourists are starting to arrive. But it’s low season, so we are lucky!

Exploring the area on an electric scooter at 45km per hour is a slow and easy-going cruise. Outside a stunning temple, we found some local handmade toddy palm syrup candies in many varieties of flavours – coconut, tamarind, cocoa, sour plum. It is the first time we had them, and we delighted at the most delicious taste sensations. The sweet women sent us on our merry way with monster bags of sweets.

The ancient city of Bagan, Myanmar is still unknown due to Myanmar’s isolation from the world for so long. Anyone who loves ruins and antiquity will be in awe of this sprawling city of 2000 monuments, pagodas and temples, some dating back to the 9th century.

If you loved spending hours/days exploring the ancient buildings in Rome, Angkor Wat, Athens, then add Bagan to the top of your travel bucket list and get there before mass tourism does.

We love the atmosphere in Bagan, Myanmar. While it is getting touristy, there is still a village rural lifestyle. Walking around people are welcoming and friendly without some of the push and hassle you get in some countries.

The awe-inspiring buildings of the ancient city Bagan

Bagan has plenty of culture, bustling markets, awesome sunsets, but the most fascinating is the 2500+ religious ancient buildings and temples to explore in over 100 square kilometres. While tourism is starting to grow, it’s still off the beaten path compared to Angkor Wat. With so many highlights in this unique culturally rich country, it is hard to choose a favourite, but Bagan is a must for any dedicated travellers bucket list.

Slowing down and making friends

We were taking photos of the small temple in the middle of the lake when this Myanmar woman poses for a picture without being asked. At first, we thought she might be a tattoo seller, and this was part of the sales ploy. But, after taking her photo and she then took ours, we found out she was on a charity fundraising tour. She was happy to meet us and spoke adequate English, and we found out they were visiting temples and raising money for leprosy.

It was so great to meet a Myanmar tourist and find out a bit about her life. Myanmar tourists are starting to travel around the country. Mostly it is religious tourism visiting temples around the country and to visit family or friends.

Travelling is fun, is exploring, is searching, is an adventure, is culture, is knowledge… but to us, it’s always looking for the beauty in the world.

Mawlamyine

After 2 and a half weeks visiting the highlights of Myanmar, we wanted to see somewhere not as touristy. We chose Mawlamyine as it was close to the border of Thailand (We would be heading there next.) and photos of the temples, pagodas and landscapes showed dazzling beauty.
We had heard the great writers, Rudyard Kipling and George Orwell had spent time in Mawlamyine so that to us was a great recommendation.

There are many highlights and temples in Mawlamyine spread out over a wide area, and while there are day tours, we preferred to rent a motorbike and tour independently. True to our usual style we started with the local markets and then drove through the local suburbs including the fishing villages and got a taste of authentic life before heading to see some of the gorgeous temples on the tourist trail.
One of our favourites was the Kyeik Than Lan Pagoda. We recommend you go at sunset for the majestic views over the city.

Every night, for dinner, we drifted to the local market by the water’s edge. The atmosphere is lively and full of locals.
We had cold beers and freshly cooked seafood and Thai/Myanmar fusion dishes, which we found to our liking.

These are the highlights and a snapshot of our adventures in Myanmar. During the last four years, we have travelled to 30 countries around the world. Myanmar is one of our favourites.

We were there for 3 weeks. As the roads are rough and there is traffic in the cities, travelling is a lengthy but fun-filled process. We recommend that if you choose to go overland as we did, that you take a minimum of 2 weeks.