It has already been a year since I went to Myanmar (where did the time go?!) but I want to have the series of my travel diaries from Asia complete so here we are. 🙂 Myanmar surprisingly became one of my favourite countries in the world so I’m excited to finally share this part of my travel diary with you. If you are curious what I did in this truly unique Southeast Asian country, grab a cup of tea and let’s have a look at my Myanmar itinerary!

Watch my guide to Myanmar on Youtube! Turn on English subtitles 😉

Myanmar was actually one of the last destinations on my 2018 trip. By the time I got to Myanmar, I had already explored Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, China, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand again (in this order).

It is also a country I was slightly hesitant about booking my flight tickets to and even found myself reading articles like “Is it ethical to visit Myanmar?” and “Is Myanmar safe?”. Now after I have travelled to Myanmar myself, I even wrote my own take on this topic to help other backpackers who might be contemplating a trip to Myanmar decide. You can read it here: Should you visit Myanmar?

Booking that flight ticket turned out to be one of the best decisions I made last year. My only regret was giving myself only three weeks to explore Myanmar (basic tourist visas are for one month). Three weeks were nowhere near enough – I kept hearing about more and more interesting places to visit but couldn’t possibly see them all in the time I set aside for Myanmar. Places I didn’t get a chance to see include Hpa An, Hsipaw, Gokteik Viaduct, Ngapali Beach, the Golden Rock or the world’s largest reclining Buddha statue Win Sein Taw Ya.

Despite (or maybe BECAUSE OF) not really planning my Myanmar itinerary in advance, I ended up having a really memorable trip and probably experienced more cool stuff here than in any other country.

I flew from Bangkok to Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, which only took one hour and a half. Fun fact: Myanmar’s time is HALF an hour behind Thailand. (Read more curiosities about Myanmar here.)

MANDALAY

For many people, Yangon seems to be the preferred city in Myanmar but I actually liked Mandalay better out of the two. It’s quieter and has more interesting places to visit in my opinion. It’s also very green – you’ll find a huge forested square right in the centre of the city (about 2 km x 2 km) with the Royal Palace in the middle.

I usually spend the first few days in any country just getting to know the local culture and taking in the atmosphere and I’m really glad I chose Mandalay over Yangon for this. Myanmar is different in so many ways and even after spending months in other Southeast Asian countries, I still felt overwhelmed the first couple of days – which, I imagine, would be intensified in the madness of Yangon.

As a foreigner in Mandalay, I constantly heard “taxi, taxi” from tireless drivers, usually offering rides to Mandalay Hill, which felt a bit annoying after a while. I actually found Mandalay quite walkable (maybe because I like to walk!) but if something’s too far for you, I recommend using Grab, the Asian version of Uber, which is very cheap here (you must have data on your phone but it’s a good idea to buy a local SIM card in Myanmar anyway).

So what did I see and do in Mandalay?

• Mandalay Royal Palace: My top tips for visiting the Mandalay Palace are have your passport with you, know which entrance you can use (there is only one entrance for foreigners) and don’t pay for a scooter to take you from the entrance to the palace itself – it’s an easy 15-min walk.
• Mandalay Hill: A great place to see the view of the city and watch the sunset. I also met some really nice local students who come to Mandalay Hill every evening to practise their English with foreigners.
• Shwenandaw Monastery: A very old wooden monastery with some amazing carvings.
• Kuthodaw Pagoda: One of the best pagodas in Mandalay. It is known for containing the world’s largest book, inscribed on large stones.
• U Bein Bridge: A long teak bridge in Amarapura which is recommended to visit during either a sunrise or a sunset. The sunset I saw here was magical (very lucky for rainy season).
• Mingun: Mingun isn’t exactly in Mandalay but actually 11 km away from the city. I highly recommend taking the boat to Mingun and exploring the Hsinbyume Pagoda (the most beautiful pagoda in Southeast Asia in my opinion!), the impressively big unfinished Mingun Pahtodawgyi or the Mingun Bell (the largest ringing bell in the world). The tourist boat from Mandalay leaves only once a day at 9am and comes back at 12.30pm – that gives you about two and a half hours to comfortably see all the Mingun sights.
• Mandalay Marionettes: Myanmar has a big tradition of puppet shows and I’m glad I got to see one.

PINDAYA

After a few days in Mandalay I took a night bus to Kalaw which arrived at the destination at 4am – true Myanmar style. I should mention here that even though I was travelling Myanmar solo, I made some great friends along the way and didn’t actually travel alone for the majority of my time in Myanmar.

So my new friends and I were planning to stay in Kalaw for one day, find a trekking company and book a 3-day trek starting the following day. However, when we arrived in Kalaw it was pouring down heavily for most of the day. We decided it would be no fun walking through the mud and postponed our trek by one day.

Staying in Kalaw for one more day gave us some extra time to visit nearby Pindaya. The main attraction in this town are the Pindaya Caves with over 8,000 Buddhist statues of all sizes inside. We also had a nice walk around the local lake and visited a paper umbrella factory (handmade paper umbrellas are another Burmese speciality and it was really cool to see the intricate process of how they are made).

TREKKING FROM KALAW TO INLE LAKE

Possibly the best three days I had in Myanmar! Walking around the lush countryside and seeing untouched beauty all around was a really special experience. Miraculously there was not one drop of rain during the whole trek! Taking a stunning boat ride across Inle Lake was the cherry on top after three days of walking. 🙂

I have already written a whole article about this three-day trek to Inle Lake and you can read it here.

NYAUNGSHWE (INLE LAKE)

Inle Lake is rightfully one of the most popular destinations in Myanmar. The lake with its floating villages, floating gardens and fishermen is absolutely gorgeous and the recommended activity here is to take a boat tour around all the interesting places. I didn’t take such a tour but rather spent my three days in Nyaungshwe (the town by Inle Lake) hanging out with my trekking friends, walking and cycling by the lake, eating a lot of Burmese food and also learning how to cook it in a cooking class.

Top tip for Inle Lake: Eat at the Lin Htett restaurant owned by the loveliest family ever (they also organise the great Myo Myo cooking class we took) and the Indian restaurant called Innlay Hut whose owner is a crazy guy and “Eminem’s biggest fan”. 😀

BAGAN

Another night bus (and another 4am arrival) later and we found ourselves in Bagan. Bagan is a magical land with around 2,000 old temples and pagodas and definitely a must-see in Myanmar. We were lucky to have a kind local who decided to show us the best of Bagan – there are so many temples and it can be a little overwhelming trying to see everything. These are some of the main temples we visited:

Of course, there are temples everywhere you go in Bagan. Many of the smaller ones only have numbers instead of names.

Sunset and Sunrise Pagodas in Bagan

Bagan is a popular place for watching sunrises and sunsets from pagodas’ rooftops – or at least it used to be. The government didn’t like tourists climbing on top of the pagodas and decided to restrict access to almost all temples. We actually found a few that remain open (with the help of Maps.Me and a local tuk tuk driver) but I’m not even going to tell you where to find them. Most of them had no names anyway and for all I know, they might be closed by now, too. If you want to watch the sunrise or sunset in Bagan, your best bet is to talk to locals.

By the way, since we were visiting Myanmar in rainy season, we didn’t see the famous hot air balloons floating over Bagan. The hot air balloon season only lasts from October to April.

We also took a sunset boat ride on the Irrawaddy River and went to the local Nyaung U Market.

Lastly, we went on a little trip to the nearby Mount Popa. It has a lot of stairs you need to climb – and they are messy because of the huge amount of monkeys living there, but the views from the top are quite nice. Nothing too special, though (compared to other destinations in Myanmar).

NAYPYIDAW

Not many people visit the new capital city of Myanmar, Nay Pyi Taw – which is why we did! There isn’t really much to do so we only stayed for one day. I must say it’s honestly one of the most bizarre cities I’ve ever been to because it’s virtually empty. If you want to know all about this crazy experience and the National Landmark Garden with miniatures of all the famous sights in Myanmar, read my article here.

YANGON

And finally, Yangon. Myanmar’s biggest city and former capital. While travelling all over Myanmar, we kept hearing “Yangon is… a big city” every time we asked someone what Yangon was like. And yes – it is a big city. It’s also very busy and crowded.

But! You can find the most famous landmark of Myanmar here: Shwedagon Pagoda. Funny story about how I didn’t actually get to go inside… I had the last two days in Myanmar and was slowly running out of cash. I didn’t want to withdraw more money just for the pagoda as ATM and bank fees were quite expensive, so I decided to skip Shwedagon this time. Guess what I’m adding to my Myanmar bucket list…

My best experience in Yangon was taking the circular train around the city. It takes three hours to circle the city and only costs 200 kyats (something like 10 cents). The life on the train is the most interesting part – there is so much going on! I have actually written an article about the Yangon circular train for Written From Travel; you can read it here.

And that’s it, now you know my Myanmar itinerary!

My journey continued from Myanmar to Bali, Indonesia. Bali was actually the last destination of my big 2018 backpacking trip. Stay tuned for my new adventures!

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