"11 days in the Golden Land!" a Burma Travel Page by A2002

My mileage was going to expire on the 31 March. Hence, I wanna use it before it expired. With the mileage that I have, I can get 2 tickets to go to Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, China, etc... After reading that Ayurin (VT member) will be visiting Bagan and Yangon with her husband, Hiroyuki. I was thrilled and immediately decided to go there to meet them! We have known each other since 2002, but only virtually. We finally met in Bagan!

My hubby, Terence, and I flew to Yangon on the 18 Mar 05. We met Ayurin and Hiroyuki, togather with another VT member (Shweyoo) for two consecutive nites in Bagan on 19 and 20 Mar 05. It was a wonderful and certainly a memorable meet in Bagan!

This is our first travel after our wedding. People asked if it's our honeymoon... Well... Myanmar is not a "typical" place for honeymoon. If we say that it is our honeymoon, people will be surprised. We have travelled around Europe togather many times. I think those are more like "honeymoon" than the trip to Myanmar, in others' perspective. Well, this is a relaxing and comfortable travel around Myanmar with so much to discover in this "Land of Gold".

When Terence and I arrived at Yangon International Airport, we wanted to take a taxi to the bus station. Along the way, a tour agent followed us and persuaded us to hire a car and a driver to travel around Myanmar. We paid USD400 for the car and driver for 11 days. After seeing so many packed trucks and buses along the dusty roads, we felt lucky that we have hired a car and a driver. I cannot imagine having to squeeze with so many people in the very hot weather.

The travel agent recommended a travel route. We were pretty flexible in where we wanna go, except that we gotta arrive in Bagan on 19 Mar 05.

Day 1: Flight from Singapore to Yangon.
Drive to Pyay. Visit the pagoda in Pyay and overnite in Smile Hotel - the second best hotel there.

Day 2: Drive from Pyay to Salay for some sightseeing. Then drive to Bagan. Saw the beautiful sunset before proceeding for the VT meet.
Overnite in Bagan.

Day 3: Sightseeing in Bagan. Sunrise and sunset in Bagan. Overnite in Bagan.

Day 4: Drive from Bagan to Mount Popa, then to Mandalay. Overnite in Mandalay.

Day 5: Trip to Mingun. Sightseeing in Mandalay. Overnite in Mandalay.

Day 6: Sagaing hill and Amapura sightseeing. Walk on U-Bein bridge. Sightseeing in Mandalay.

Day 7: Trip to Pyin Oo Lwin. On the way, visit a big waterfall and a sacred cave. Overnite in Mandalay.

Day 8: Drive from Mandalay to Taungoo. Overnite in Taungoo.

Day 9: Drive from Taungoo to Bago. Sightseeing in Bago. Drive from Bago to Yangon. Overnite in Yangon.

Day 10: Sightseeing in Yangon.

Day 11: Sightseeing in Yangon in the morning. Then Yangon - Singapore - Home sweet home...

I will not have time to build a separate page for each town/city that we had visited. Instead, I will put all the information about our trip under "Burma".

We had a road trip with a private car and driver - only for the two of us. It will give you some ideas about private road trips around Myanmar, which I had not read about before I arrive there.

This page is still under construction... There are more tips coming, especially about the places to visit... Currently, I am busy with setting up my business. I will come in here when I have the time to add in more tips...