2 weeks itinerary for the highlights of Burma
Summary
Burma for most people is all about the 4 key highlights of Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake. All are definitely worth seeing and will form the core of any trip you make there. Bagan, with its world-renowned temples spread in their thousands across the plain, and Inle Lake, with its stunning mirror effect and serene villages on stilts, are arguably the highlights, with Mandalay and Yangon as interesting cities that you need to fly into, but well worth the visit. I’ve included them below in a 2 week itinerary that won’t be rushed whilst also making sure you get the most out of your time here
I’ve written below some further travel tips for travelling around Burma, but my 2 biggest tips are:
- #1 Is it safe? You will naturally have seen in the news Burma very often flaring up with the latest crisis and the story of the country is truly a sad one considering the repression in particular of the ethic minorities and continued belligerence of the military junta. But, from a tourist point of view, such changes have not in the slightest stopped the country as it opens up more and more to overseas visitors. Whilst it may sound like a country to avoid based on headlines, thousands more come to the country each year than the year before and flare ups occur only in the remote areas foreigners are not allowed in, and still with no tourists ever having come to harm because of the troubles. There are far more countries in the world with far more dangers that receive far more tourists on a regular basis
- #2 A feeling of real Burma. Consider wandering off the beaten track just a little to see the real country that has been surprisingly untouched by the tourism wave of the 4 main sites. One of the best adventures I’ve experienced was the 6 day trip down the Irrawaddy River by ferry in Northern Burma from Myitkyina (or you can start in Bhamo / Katha to reduce the time) to Mandalay. Breathtaking mountainous jungle vistas, the chance to see the real local villages along the mighty Irrawaddy River, and the old echoes of the former colonial past. A truly great travel experience and I’ve included the details in the travel entry – Exploring Northern Burma by train and ferry from Myitkyina, via Bhamo and Katha to Mandalay
highlights
#1 Just the sheer other-worldliness of the place. Whether it be the old 35 chat notes or guys wearing skirts, it’s all just wonderfully odd
#2 The view across the lush plain of Bagan to see thousands of temples sticking out into the distance, many of which glistening in the sun
#3 Meeting the locals as the get on with their lives in what has been a turbulent country
#4 Making your way through forgotten towns and a land still vacated by tourists as you take a ferry down the Irrawaddy in Northern Burma
#5 Taking one of the boats through the serene mirror lake of Inle Lake
#6 Cycling around the temples of Bagan, finding one that in any other place would be a top tourist spot, yet here it is just a number, and just having it to yourself
#7 Seeing the beautiful and imposing Shwedagon Paya in Yangon
#8 Taking the short boat ride from Mandalay to see the giant cracked Mingyun Paya
#9 Taking one of the long bus journeys for the scenery, sense of adventure and relief once you’re off the bloody thing!
#10 Heading into one of the glorious old colonial buildings now acting as a market in Yangon
#11 Looking down on the views of Mandalay's giant Palace from Mandalay Hill
#12 Seeing the sheer scale of the Irrawaddy River - often too wide to see the other side
#13 Wandering with monks along the world’s longest teak bridge at U-Bein near Mandalay
#14 Going to see George Orwell’s old house where he wrote Burmese Days, and the former British Club, along the Irrawaddy at Katha
The Route
Rough itinerary
Other Travel Tips
- Be prepare for things to be a little odd at times – men wearing skirts, odd denominated notes, bus drivers driving their buses into rivers to “cool them down” – that sort of thing
- Burma is a heavily Buddhist country so remember some of the key things – cover up in temples, don’t touch the Buddha or show the soles of your feet or disrespect the monks, take your shoes off when entering temples / private homes and make sure to return friendly greetings. The Burmese are very chilled out and will give you heaps of leeway, but it helps to be courteous
- Be prepared for an upset stomach and some stage. Its kind of par for the course
- Each of these 4 main attractions also have individual travel entries and you can see them here:
- As with all countries, see if you can do a bit of reading about the place to give yourself some of the context. You can get the overview history from wikipedia, but for stories that give you more depth (and are more enjoyable), I’d really recommend two books: 1. Burmese Days by George Orwell because it brings to life what it must have been like in Burma during the British Raj and the harsh contradictions this brought. 2. The Glass Palace by Amitav Gosh, which charts the story of a small number of families as they navigate their way through the fall of the royal dynasty in Mandalay to the British inn the late 1800s, through to the end of the second world war, and in particular covers the teak trade
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Country-wide Adventures
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone