I could be wrong... buy my memory is that the Australian guys who run the hot air baloon in Bagan take to low season 'off'. My info is a couple of years off so YMMV.

No, if you want a general political discussion about Burma that you consider appropriate for OMNI then I think better you post it there, albeit with a link from here.

June is not the best time for Myanmar as it is a bit hot and the monsoon season is going to start soon after.

Air travel with Bagan Air or Mandalay Air in economy is even better than on US carriers. The airports are a little shabby but if you have been in other third-world country then you will feels right at home.

Long train travel in Myanmar is not for the faint of heart (India general carriage comes to mind). Bus journey are also not recommended due to really bad road conditions. For short jaunts <> 3 hours they are tolerable.

Yangon -> Mandalay: You would want to fly this route. It is about 2 hours flying time. The Mandalay Air was flying twice daily when I was there in Nov 2004.

Mandalay is good for about 1-2 day as you can take a day trip to see the U-Bein bridge.

Mandalay -> Bagan: Best if you take the SLOW ferry. It will allow you to relax and enjoy the idyllic life of Myanmar famous Irrawaddy river.

Bagan: Give yourself at least 2 days, 3 if you want to see mount Popa. This is the crowning jewel of Myanmar. With Angkor in Cambodia and Borobodur in Indonesia, they are the 3 most important Buddhism complexes in the world. Sunrise in Bagan is amazingly beautiful.

Yangoon: 2 days is quite enough for me here. Not many thing to see here except for the Schwedagon. You would want to take a train trip on the Yangoon loop. It takes about 2 hours.

I have a few of pictures on my Nov 2004 trip here and more here

I'm in Myanmar in April for 3 days (if I like it I'll go back). I was looking at spending two days in Yangon, and doing a day trip up to Mandalay. Is that a good use of time?

Also, does anyone know how to book domestic flights in Myanmar?

Thanks,
MD

One day in Yangon, 2 days in Bagan. Yangon is nothing special at all and you will missing the splendor of Bagan!

I cant remember the name of the TA we used but if you do a search on FT they are there somewhere.

I communicated with them through emails on fares and seats availability. Tickets were delivered to my hotel when I arrived in Yangon, and I paid them in cash (USD). If I remember correctly payment could also be made by TT to their account (may not be possible from US) but I chose to pay with cash upon delivery of tickets.

Domestic tickets are not cheap in Burma, and its not worth doing Mandalay without Bagan. I would choose Bagan instead of Mandalay, I dont think there is another place on earth that is similar to Bagan and you will not be disappointed .

(Sorry to totally hijack the thread)

Thanks for the replies mario33 and Q Shoe Guy.

I am definitely in Yangon for 4 night (3 days) and have already paid for the accommodation there. My reasoning is on this trip I am doing a lot of 1-2 nighters at different places, so wanted a long stretch at the one hotel.

Having said that, do you think it is worth doing a day trip to Bagan? The flights work out such that I can be there at 8am and out at 6pm.

8-10hrs is certainly enough time for some sightseeing. If you are unlikely to visit Burma again and there is no way you could squeeze in a night there, yes its worth it even for a day trip. The main attraction is the scenery (do choose a nice spot for viewing) and there is no need to visit every single temple close-up.

Do, however, bear in mind that you will not have a hotel room to rest inbetween your sightseengs. The flight though short is not exactly comfortable and you may not arrive with the best physical form. If you choose to use a horse-cart to move around, the ride itself can also be very uncomfortable (best to use a car under your circumstances). You will miss the sunset scenery which is most spectacular when the temples "glow" against the vast plains. You will also miss the tranquility of Bagan (it is really isolated) at night under the stars, and the cool crisp air at the temples early in the morning.

Do spend a night if you can, but if you absolutely cant its still worth a visit. I believe the TA we used for flight bookings was http://www.radianttours.com/

hehehehe,

i was thinking about posting a reply and ask where the earlier debate would lead to, but it is not necesarry anymore

thnx mishkira for your tips!
we might shorten up on Mandalay and Yangoon to do Bagan and Inle longer time. Unfortunately we have only 11 days, but we r convinced it will be a special holiday. If we find the people you mention we would defenitely say hi from you!
And you r right about travelling independent, would note consider to join busloads of tourists

Can anybody give me an idea how much money i would have to take with me for 10 days. Based on inbound travelling by plane.

Thnx n Ciao
Martine

ok , 11 days will be tight but I hope it will be a good introduction trip convincing for more later

I would suggest the following plan (I know all plans will fail but take it as idea then ):

Yangoon - arrival day and Day 1 (I guess you will also have several hours or more on your departure day) - that should be enough to see pretty everything. Try to fly to Mandalay in the evening of day 1. Train is ok also (but see my earlier notes about it scomfort) as it leaves at about 4pm.

Mandalay - 2.5 - 3 days (day 2 for the city and close suburbs, days 3 and 4 for outside trips).
Try to fly to Bagan in the afternoon/evening of day 4. If you won't fly then you will have to take whole day boat trip (day 5) which is not bad but too time consuming for your short visit (forget bus or train as those are tiring and you won't see anything during whole day journey).

Bagan - 3 days (Days 5, 6, 7) I am strongly disagree with idea of one-day flying visit and speedy sighseeing especially without sunset/sunrise experience -you will miss a lot as midday sun makes picture and viewing of temples much pale and you will be tired under hot sun.
I think you will figure out yourselves after 2 days if you want to stay more in Bagan, or you will visit Mount Popa (I did not go there but I am not saying it is not worth it) or will head to Inlay lake on day 3. We bought air-tickets in Bagan 1 day before flight (and it was busy New Year season) so I think it will be easy to decide and move on easily.

Inlay Lake - 2-4 days (depending if you want to relax a bit after busy previous days and if you want to do a day trek up to the hills). Allow 2 full days to tour the lake, villages and monastires.

This will take you to day 10-11 and your flight back to Yangoon.

2 main things to make things happenned and seen:
1) plan early start every day (say 6-7am for normal sighseeing) and 4-5am for sunrise (must in Bagan and on Inlay lake, please dont miss it). This will also allow time for some rest and long launch during hot afternoon hours, afterwards you can see things till sunset. Not much of nightlife but there are few bars where you will be ok with drinks if you want it (but pretty everything else shuts down as the sun goes down).
2) take it easy and respect local way of life (sometimes service is slow but it is just their life and many myanmar people don't know that travellers expect it speedy, like in western world or in HK/SG). but absolutely majority of people made a real effort to make us happy, and they well succedded^

As for the money, I think you can find current airfares on websites of Air Mandalay and Air Bagan (sorry I dont remember but I think they were about $50-70 per flight in Dec 2005, can be higher now with oil price hike last year).
Daily costs, well it depends on your taste and habbits but we paid about:
12-20 US$ for clean double-bed rooms (with hotwater and aircon but nothing funcy, but we ok with those to sleep in and take showers only),
guides cost ~10 US$/day (incl horsecart or longtail boat),
food and drinks - say 1US$ per single meal (mind you, we enjoyed street food and not those tourist restaurants ) or beer.
If my memory still works, we had exchanged about 800 US$ into local kyats on day 1 and it was enough for 2.5 weeks of travelling includinig all internal flights, my beers and her bit of shopping

ok, i guess you are tired reading this so you better go there and check yourselves:-) enjoy, I hope you will ^

mishkira

For the conversation about the politics of visiting Burma, here are two websites that some might find helpful for background, thought, ...:

<http://[URL="http://www.freeburmacoalition.org"]www.freeburmacoalition.org[/URL]/>; and, more generally,
<http://[URL="http://www.freeburma.org"]www.freeburma.org[/URL]/>.

THNX everybody for tips,
i have something to work out again hehehhe

it might be silly to ask and some of you might laugh but i read somewhere on the internet that customs will take our mobile phones in their possesion on arrival, is that true?

ciao
Martine

Not a silly question at all. I left mine at home to avoid problems and in anycase your mobile wont work in Burma.

Your mobile will not work there (they do have some internal network but access is given to local rulers and their close-bys only, you cannot get on it).
But I did not see that phones were taken away nor I was even requested to show it. I think 99,99% that you will just carry your phone around with no problems. If it is too heavy than leave it at home
11 days without mobile - can you survive it?

by the way, no ATM/cash machine either in the whole country. They do accept creditcard for payment in the Strand hotel but not much elsewhere. Hard greenbucks will do it for you nicely though

You will be laughing but the fact is - we have just booked our tickets for another trip to Myanmar in Dec'07! I hope nothing politically correct will happen before, hurrrreyyyy!