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What’s New in Myanmar?

by Sam Clark
Golden Island Cottages, Lake Inle

Golden Island Cottages, Lake Inle

We launched Myanmar* in 2011, following Aung San Sui Kyi and the NLD’s decision to recommend lifting the embargo on foreign travel. Needless to say, we weren’t the only travel company to make this decision and tourism to Myanmar has grown at a startling rate ever since. I’m not going to address the political situation here – I covered that recently in a post which you can read here. I did want to discuss a little how travel to Myanmar had changed and what is new and exciting there right now.

A couple of years ago the major difficulty was in getting hotel rooms for our guests. There was an unprecedented rush of travellers wishing to visit Myanmar and a corresponding lack of decent hotels. That balance is much better now. Some excellent hotels have opened since, giving travellers far more options. It is no longer a bun fight to get the best rooms, and hotels have started to get serious about their customer service. In general, we’re seeing an increase in standards across the board. It’s not just hotels: at ETG we’ve been working with our local partners to train and improve the skills of our on the spot guides.

For us at ETG, the major difference lies in how much of the country is accessible and what there is to do. Traditionally, visitors to Myanmar kept very strictly to the main ‘route’ – Mandalay, Lake Inle, Yangon and Bagan. And I noticed that most tourists stay extremely close to these main sites when I visited a small island in the Irrawaddy River back in November 2014. Although it was less than 30 minutes journey from the main temple complex in Bagan, the head monk at an extremely beautiful wooden monastery told me he got almost no foreign visitors.

We’ve launched quite a few new experiences as part of our Myanmar holidays which take advantage of this fact. From city walks, to getting into the countryside and eating at local restaurants, our holidays typically combine the best character and boutique hotels, with experiences that take you off the main tourist trail – whilst still allowing you to see the main sites.

Wooden house, Mergui Archipelago

Wooden house, Mergui Archipelago

There are, of course, many new hotels which have opened since 2011. Some of these are not particularly wonderful and in any case there are far too many to detail here. A few of them have added a bit of style and panache to the Myanmar hotels options, such as Bagan Lodge and the Loft in Yangon. So new that we haven’t yet visited them (but looking promising!) are the Royal Kalaw Hill Resort and the Sanctum Inle. Watch this space for reviews in the near future.

However when planning to travel in Myanmar one mustn’t forget general logistics and accessibility. The internal flight network is improving in terms of efficiency and reliability all the time, making internal travel much easier. That’s why trips to places such as Putao in the far north and Myeik Archipelago in the far south are now more more practical. A great example is our Myanmar and the Myeik Archipelago holiday. Another option now easily accessible, due to visa restrictions being lifted, is the overland journey from Chiang Rai in northern Thailand overland into Myanmar, via Keng Tung. See our Thailand to Burma Overland holiday.

Finally, a river cruise is a good option in terms of getting off the main trail and into regions which are largely inaccessible otherwise, often due to a shonky road network. We’ve long recommended Pandaw’s cruise up river in order to get to places such as Bhamo and Katha on the Irrawaddy and Mingkin or Sitthaung up the Chindwin. All of them are fascinating places, dripping with history and romance and very tricky to get to unless by boat. More recently, Pandaw’s newest boats have ultra low draughts enabling these expeditions to take place not only in the monsoon season when river levels are very high, but as late into the season as February.

Putao, remote village in Myanmar.

Putao, remote village in Myanmar

All in all, it’s a great time to visit Myanmar. The quality has improved significantly and it’s just so much easier to get around, get off the beaten track and really discover just how wonderful this country is.

*What’s in a name? We still refer to Myanmar on our site as ‘Burma’. That’s purely because majority of Google searches made in the UK are still for ‘Burma’ rather than ‘Myanmar’ and indeed I believe the UK Government still uses Burma officially. In general, we are moving towards referring to the country by its official name – which is Myanmar. It’s only really in the UK and the US, that Burma is still used. Partly I think, as Burma has romantic connotations in British culture, with ‘Road to Mandalay’, ‘Burmese Days’, and the colonial period generally, but also, as the change of name to Myanmar is associated with the military regime. Nonetheless, locals speaking in English refer to the country colloquially as ‘Myanmar’ in normal conversation and for that reason it makes sense for us to do the same.

 

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