It's been a little over a week now, I was coming back from a short stay in Burma. A first return to these neighboring lands since our brief visit to Yangon 6 years ago! And it's fair to say that on some points it's night and day!
From “the opening” of the country, 2/3 years ago, prices have exploded (some hotels have tripled their rates!), tourism is still in its infancy, but we can already see changes. In particular, all these brand new shops selling… smartphones, which everyone has already become addicted to… but also increased road traffic, especially in Yangon, now plagued like any big city by traffic jams.
It's as if the country went from the 60s/70s to the 2010s in just less than 3 years... a shock.
15 days in Burma: the chosen itinerary
Since we were leaving for a fairly short time, we decided to focus on a single region. The choice was made based on the usual promotions of the local company Air Asia and our budget.
It is therefore only in the region around Yangon that this 2014 vintage was concentrated in Burma, officially called Myanmar as a reminder, but I will focus here on the name still used in France (because the name Myanmar is still not recognized to this day!).
Some explanations, if you open the menu at the top left of the map, you can remove the blue route, you will then see:
– The red diamonds, which are our stages
– The yellow circles, which are just passages for a few hours (so no overnight stay on site)
– The pale green squares are the starting and finishing points of this stay
– All that’s missing is a cross and we’ll have a Playstation controller (well, I’m told in my earpiece that they’re also triangles and not diamonds, ah… I’m also told in my earpiece that my joke is rotten…)
So we landed in Yangon and decided to return to Thailand via the Myawaddy-Mae Sot land border, which has only been open since 2013.
From the deserted beaches of Chaung Tha to the rugged mountains of Hpa An, I've had my share of heart stroke which I will not fail to tell you about on this blog!
Budget for 15 days in Burma
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words... no, no, you can't fool a thousand words, but a picture... (sorry, I have vanity, the disease of rotten jokes...):
Total Budget:30B (403€) or 758B (2€) / day (for 172)
As you can see, the biggest budget by far was accommodation, with an average of 1000 Baht (25€)/day. We slept in rather simple hotels, the least was $12 per night, the most expensive was $45.
By the way, speaking of money, know that in 2014 you can relatively forget your dollars if you go to Burma. US dollars used to be almost obligatory, the local currency, the Kyat (pronounced Tchiatte), is today mostly used. It's quite simple, apart from 2 hotels where we could pay directly in Uncle Sam's currency, the rest was a no-go.
Consequence of this? We had changed our bahts only into dollars… which we were unable to use and so had to change as we went along, losing a little on the exchange since it was a double exchange (bahts-dollars then dollars-kyats)
Some pointers:
- A bottle of water costs an average of 400 Kyats
- A meal costs an average of 3 Kyats per person.
- Motorbike rental: between 6 and 000 Kyats
- On average the bus cost us 7 Kyats per person.
- For taxi rides, expect to pay an average of 4 Kyats
- Average price for tours: 10 Kyats
Getting around Burma: don’t be in a hurry!
Overall the distances were quite short, the longest distance covered, between Kinpun (at the foot of the Golden Rock Mountain) and Mawlamyine, there is about 150 km, connected in a little less than 4 hours…
The motorbike ride between Chaung Tha and Ngwe Saung beaches, separated by 17 km, takes at least 2 hours!
The roads are not yet developed. For buses, it varies, sometimes we will have local buses that are not very young, other times more recent buses with air conditioning. Taxis are now almost all standardized with vehicles from the 2000s, mostly from Japan (with steering wheel on the right... while they have been driving on the right since 1970...) and Chinese motorcycles.
Pauline
Hi Romain and thanks for this article!
I was in Burma a little over a year ago, I loved this country, very "quiet" in terms of the number of tourists compared to Thailand! I did the basic itinerary, starting from Mandalay, to end in Yangon, making a detour via Mawlamyine. The bus was hell for me, I remember that on the journey between Bagan and Kalaw, the people around me were all throwing up... It was a very long journey!!
Good continuation 🙂
Pauline
Deed
Thank you for this article which is very useful to us. We are thinking of going to Burma in early 2015.
Regarding your budget, do you think it is easy to spend less? Around 15-20 euros per person per day?
Have a good day
Roman
Easy? Not easy, for sure it is possible to reduce the budget at the hotel level by being satisfied with a little simpler, as mentioned in the article, it is possible to find hotels at 12-15$ but it is very basic… After by eating a little less it can also reduce. Targeting 20€ seems to me possibly feasible, 15€, I don't think so.
Roman
Hi Pauline,
The bus journeys are long but it was bearable for us, no vomit to report! Merry Christmas by the way and good luck with your travels too!
romeuf
Well done, good subject,
Happy Holidays
Richard@OneDayOneTravel
Great article Romain! Thanks a lot, your information will be very useful to us because Burma is in our plans for 2015.
Roman
Thank you, happy holidays to you too!
Roman
Thanks! Great project! Burma is a destination that is better to discover now before it has changed too much (even if I think that the country should remain ignored by mass tourism for a while longer, as Laos still is)
Deed
Thank you!
Sandrine
Hello Romain,
Thank you for sharing this information.
I am starting to prepare my next trip for September, about two weeks.
I hesitate between Burma, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka
If you had to make a choice, which of these countries would you choose first?
Budget-wise, is there a big difference?
thank you in advance
Sandrine
Roman
Hello and thank you !
If I had to choose, it would be Indonesia, for the simple reason that in this season (September) the climate will be good! In Burma and Thailand it is in the middle of the rainy season (even if not insurmountable) and in Sri Lanka, from the west coast to the east the climate will differ. Budget-wise there is not really a big difference.
Maria
Hello Romain
I really enjoyed your trip,
I am leaving for Burma and Thailand, I will stay 28 days in Burma.
I would like to ask you two questions:
Is it easy to change euros or do we need to bring dollars?
we will enter Thailand at the Mae Sot border. To go to Myawaddy, is it better to do it from Hpa an or Mawlamyine? If we leave from Mawlamyine we have to go to Hpa an?
thank you in advance
Maria
Roman
Hello Maria,
Overall, dollars should be preferred to euros for Burma, but not having noticed, I can't say but I think that euros are accepted at least in banks and at the airport.
To reach the border, you will have to go through Hpa An anyway, which I recommend you visit!
See articles on Hpa An: 1er day et 2th day
And on the border crossing: http://www.thailande-et-asie.com/traverser-frontiere-terrestre-birmanie-thailande-myawaddy-mae-sot/
Maria
Thank you, Romain!
I'll check out your articles!
mariep2002
Hello Romain,
Thank you for this blog full of information and magnificent photos, can you tell me if the bus network serves the whole country, like in Sri Lanka, for example? And regarding the trains have you taken any? Is it easy? Because everyone seems to say that it is better to travel by plane, but that doesn't appeal to me at all, unless the price difference justifies it!! Also you say that I don't need to change into dollars? I suppose that you can change your euros into Kyats directly in Bangkok….
Thank you for your answer
Roman
Hello Marie !
The bus network normally serves the entire country, but the road network is in poor condition and getting from one point to another takes time... hence the general preference for the plane, if only to connect Yangon to Mandalay.
In my case, having only visited the southern part of the country, I had settled for the bus. I only took the train to do part of the loop around Yangon, not to go outside… We were supposed to take it to get to Bago from Yangon but as we couldn't find the right times before and we weren't helped much on site (at the ticket office at least) we fell back on the bus…
Kyat is not a tradable currency. This means that you will not find it outside of Burma. Change it once you are there at the airport if you are arriving via Yangon. If you are crossing overland from Thailand, then get some dollars in Bangkok but change them as soon as possible into Kyat.
Lloyd
Hello Romain, your blog is great, and the information is of good quality...
I am writing to you to know if you would be able to estimate a budget for 1 month in Burma? I would like to go there with my best friend in February but we cannot imagine the cost of the trip… we would like to travel without artifice, just decent and clean rooms, and eat our fill… your opinion will be useful to us 🙂
Thank you for your reply…
Roman
Hello,
I thought the article was sufficiently explicit in itself... if I base myself on my experience, which was over a period of 15 days, you would therefore have to double the amount in question for a budget over a month, i.e. around €1600 for 2, €2000 if you want a margin should be enough.
Manon
Hello,
We are two friends and we are leaving for 3 weeks in Asia in July 2016, the first two in Burma, then we would like to rest for 5-6 days in a heavenly place in Thailand before leaving again, knowing that we are taking a round trip Paris-Bangkok, do you have a particular island to suggest in Thailand (so as not to waste too much time in transport to reach Bangkok on the way back), and is it better to return from Burma by plane to Bangkok or is there a better way to reach an island (or any quiet, nice and heavenly place combining beaches and nature hiking!)?
Thank you very much!
Roman
The fastest will certainly be the plane. For the islands, either you opt for the plane and suddenly you can go almost anywhere, by taking a flight to Phuket, Krabi or Samui directly. And from one of these countries, sail around (like Koh Lanta from Krabi, Koh Phangan from Samui etc.). Otherwise, you would have to stay in the islands close to Bangkok, Koh Samet for example, there would also be Koh Chang or Koh Kood; but this area is particularly wet during the rainy season.
Marie Gillet
Hello Romain
Currently in Nepal I would like to spend 15 days in Burma before going to Thailand. However it is expensive directly from Nepal by plane, can it be done by another means? Is it better that I stay in the north or the south or are both feasible?
To get to Thailand, what transport should I use?
Do you need warm clothes?
Thank you in advance !
Roman
Hello,
When you say it's expensive, you're talking about getting to Burma I guess? Have you looked at a flight to Thailand? You might be able to get to Burma from there.
Otherwise I don't see many other solutions, because from Nepal, reaching the Burmese border will not be easy as there are some unstable areas and I don't know to what extent these are borders open to foreigners (I'm talking about the northwest of Burma).
As for where to go, if you only have 15 days, I would choose either north or south but not both. Knowing that it is in the north that you will find the "unmissable" places, Bagan, a trek to Kalaw, Inle Lake. You can always make a detour via Yangon and then at least see Hpa An, before joining Thailand via Myawaddy – Mae Sot. Doable by shared taxi, see my article here.
No real need for very warm clothes but at least a sweater, something with long sleeves, it can still be chilly in the mountains at night.
Christine
Wow, Burma looks like an interesting country.
Burma enthusiast
Hi! I have a great passion for Myanmar. I love everything about this country: the culture, the landscapes, the people, the religion, etc. I am very excited to read your shares. Thank you very much:)
Eve
Hello Romain!
I would like to visit Burma this winter! I would like to know if you had any problems with electronic items, if you brought any with you. Can you bring a laptop + cell phone + Nikon? I read that it was possible that the authorities would not let us enter the country with… Thank you! Great blog, the articles are really interesting for beginners of the trip!
Roman
Hello,
No problem, the country has opened up since then and this information is a bit dated... Thanks for the compliment!