GUIDE TO , Myanmar view of Shwedagon Pagoda at dusk

2 Yangon MYANMAR QUEST

Myanmar is only just getting started who want to see the best of Myanmar. opening up to tourists, and that can Whether you want a five day whistle- make it difficult for all but the hardened stop tour of the top sights or a leisurely backpacker to find the best and most trekking tour way off the beaten track authentic experiences on their own. including a stay in an elephant camp, we’re at your service! That’s why we’ve worked with local partners to help travellers discover this For more itinerary ideas, and more vibrant, varied and colourful country. photos of this beautiful country, visit We’re new - but they have a decade our website at myanmarquest.com of experience dealing with travellers and prepare to be inspired.

3 After decades of isolation, Myanmar has finally started to open up to foreign travellers.

It’s a country of bright colours and spicy tastes. It’s a country of immense diversity, sandwiched between , China and Thailand - you’ll recognise influences from all these countries, but Myanmar definitely has a flavour all its own. . MYANMAR 1 .

Its highlights include golden Buddhas, ancient temples, the colonial architecture of Yangon, pristine lakes, rocky mountains and possibly the bumpiest ride on earth. But even a stroll down an ordinary street will produce memories to treasure - kids hanging out with kittens in the local pagoda, an old monk who wants to talk about London, or a sweet, sticky cup of tea on the veranda of an old teahouse. It’s that kind of place.

4 5 2. COLOUR

Myanmar is a wonderfully colourful country. Forget grey suits and greyer Monday mornings - in Myanmar, the favourite colours are bright fuchsia pink and lime or pistachio green.

Buddhist monks in their red and orange robes look almost drab next to this display of vivid colour; nuns, on the other hand, wear pastel pink. Fetchingly lurid turquoise paint decorates many houses, and if all these colours aren’t enough, then why not throw in a good handful of gold leaf?

6 7 3. CUSTOMS

Men in skirts, and everyone in face paint - right from the moment you arrive, Myanmar will surprise you.

Many men - as well as nearly all women - wear the traditional longyi, a long, -like skirt. For men, it’s usually in a dark checker-board or striped fabric, whereas for women, bright colours are the norm, with a nipped-waist jacket on top and, often, a shawl over one shoulder. (Shoulders and legs should always be covered, something you might consider when you’re packing.)

8 EVERY TEMPLE, AND MANY SHOPS AND BUSINESSES, HAVE A WATER COOLER OUTSIDE. SOME STILL HAVE THE TRADITIONAL EARTHEN POTS, WHICH KEEP THE WATER COOL THROUGH EVAPORATION, BUT MAKE IT TASTE RATHER MUSTY.

You’ll see women with big circles of yellow paste on their cheeks, and children with it smeared all over their faces; some men just cover the nose and cheekbones. The thanaka paste is a sunscreen - particularly important for young kids, in this hot sunny climate. Grab some photos - youngsters in particular will be happy to pose.

If you want to do some peoplewatching, temples are a good place to start - whole families hang out at the paya in the evenings or in the hot midday. Even an unassuming neighbourhood temple often has a vibrant life of its own - but remember to take your shoes off before you cross the threshold. 9 4. RELIGION

10 Myanmar is as diverse in religion as of gaining merit and securing a better it is in other ways - though it’s mainly rebirth into the next life. Buddhist, there are significant Christian and Muslim minorities. Even Buddhism In Mandalay, the grumble of angle- is mixed up with animism in the worship grinders and thud of stoneworkers’ of ‘nats’, local spirits who can make your mallets on chisels fills the air in streets wishes come true. One horse-riding near the Mahamuni temple. In the nat has dollar bills pushed into his fists market attached to the temple you can - other gifts include whisky, rum and buy monks’ robes - a common charitable cigarettes. donation - or figures of tiger-riding nats, as well as Buddhas. Or you can settle for Spending time as a monk is part of a meditation gong cut out of thick brass, growing up for boys and young men whose gentle note will always remind in Myanmar, and some girls also pass you of your time in Myanmar. part of their education as trainee nuns. Buddhist temples, or ‘pagodas’ (paya), Myanmar Quest’s guides will even show serve as social centres, schools, and you the workshops where gold leaf is information points as well as places of beaten by hand so thinly that you have worship. Most are highly decorated, to hold your breath or it will float away with brightly coloured paint and gold - before it’s used to decorate the gilded leaf. Paying for the décor is one way Buddha statues in the temples.

11 5. F O O D

CAN’T GET THE WAIT STAFF’S ATTENTION? IN MYANMAR, YOU MAKE A SMOOCHY KISSY SOUND TO GET SERVED. DON’T TRY IT AT HOME!

12 Myanmar’s diversity shows up in its rice as well as noodles, lime, onions and food; though it benefits from Indian, hard boiled eggs. Even with a simple dish, Chinese and Thai influences, it’s not you’ll get a variety of different toppings quite like any of its neighbours’ cuisines. and sauces - crunchy peanuts, sweet It’s spicy, but mild; sometimes quite tart, and sour relishes, pungent fish sauce, or but also sweet. You can go for a full-on fresh herbs. Variety, here, is quite literally weird food experience and eat chicken the spice of life. neck salad or fried crickets, or savour a curry with just enough spice for a gentle Teahouses are a national institution; buzz or a sweet sticky rice parcel in the tea is strong and sweet, usually with banana leaf. condensed milk straight out of the tin. If you really want to get the flavour of If there’s a national dish, it’s mohinga, a Myanmar, only one place is better - the kind of fish soup - but no one can quite street stall, where you’ll find the freshest, agree on the recipe, which might include tastiest food.

13 6. ETHNIC DIVERSITY Myanmar is an ethnically diverse Don’t judge on appearances - get country with no fewer than 135 to know people properly. Someone ethnic groups. The most famous are might wear a suit for work, jeans at probably the Kayan tribe with their the weekend, and full formal longyi ‘long necked’ women; you’ll find Naga suit to celebrate a young relative’s tribespeople on the Indian border, with ear-piercing ceremony. Pa-O women their strongly built and well-attended might strut the whole tribal costume, Baptist churches, and the Moken ‘sea but many of the men just jazz up gypsies’ on the islands off the coast. In regular western clothes with a bright Shan villages, baseball caps mix with the orange . Chat to a saffron-robed traditional conical straw hats; Muslim old monk in a temple and he may men henna their beards orange, and turn out to be a former bank Enn highlanders chew betel which manager. And Yangon even has a turns their teeth black, and sell their small but committed Rastafarian handicrafts at Kengtung market. community!

14 15 7. FESTIVALS

16 Myanmar has an amazing array of August’s Nat festival at Taung festivals. Every pagoda has its own Byone is raucous and exuberant. festival, so even if you’re not at Bagan’s The Nat images come out to play, Ananda Paya festival in January or transvestite and transgender shamen Yangon’s Shwedagon Paya festival in channel the Nat spirits, and everyone March, you have a chance of finding a drinks and dances way too much. smaller celebration going on. There’s another big Nat festival in Myitkyina every January, with mass The Thingyan (New Year) festival in buffalo sacrifices, magnificently mid April celebrates the end of the dry costumed dancers, and vats of rice season. Watch out for water fights - beer to drink. if you’re out on the street, you’re fair game! People party like there’s no You didn’t manage to catch a tomorrow, with massive sound systems festival? Hang about Shwedagon pumping out rock music, but you’ll also Paya long enough and you’ll find traditional song and dance pavilions probably catch a family celebration if you look around a bit. This is also the - if they’re wealthy enough, with time to see golden padauk flowers which photographers and film crew blossom only in the earliest rain showers. in tow.

17 . MONUMENTS 8 .

18 Myanmar is a country where it’s difficult to divide monuments and landscape. At Bagan, for instance, medieval pagodas are scattered across the plain by the Ayeyarwady river; at Mount Popa, one of the country’s major Nat shrines is perched high on a rocky outcrop with amazing mountain views. At Mount Kyaiktiyo, Buddhists visit a stupa perched on a gold-encased boulder balanced precariously on top of a mountain.

But you’ll find other monuments in the big cities. In Mandalay ancient temples and lovely wooden buildings share space with skyscrapers and tree-shaded residential districts. And the city is surrounded by the remains of former capitals - a huge but never finished stupa across the river at Mingun, and a whole hill of ancient monasteries at Sagaing. Head out to the immense wooden bridge at U Bein for an refurbished Strand Hotel. (It’s $300 to atmospheric sunset. stay, but you can enjoy afternoon tea for just $15.) Yangon’s Shwedagon Paya is an immense conical zedi (stupa) with For those who prefer a laid-back city four separate ways up to the terrace and a lusher landscape, Mawlaymine’s and a huge number of smaller shrines, with its stupa-capped skyline, seaside many gleaming with gold leaf. But location, and old colonial buildings don’t overlook the delights of smaller are just the ticket. Or visit Bago, a less temples like Sule Paya - said to be older well known town full of interesting old than Shwedagon - as well as Yangon’s pagodas where you’ll hardly see another colonial architecture like the recently tourist.

19 9. LANDSCAPE

Myanmar offers a variety of landscapes, from the Himalayan foothills in the north to palm-fringed sandy coast in the south.

At Inle Lake fishermen still use one leg to row their boats, and tomatoes grow on floating islands. It’s a birders’ paradise; cormorants pose with their wings dramatically outspread to dry their feathers after a successful fishing trip, while herons and egrets stalk the shallows.

Even better, you can trek from Kalaw village to the lake, a gentle trek through rolling hills and farmland. For more extensive and wilder trekking, head to Shan state - isolated monasteries, upland tracks, tiny villages, and fields of sinister dark chillies - or Chin state, close to the Indian borders, with its misty mountains and deep, forested valleys.

20 If rivers are more your thing, take a cruise along the Ayerawaddy river (which might include visiting Bagan and Mandalay). Sea lovers should head for the remote Myeik archipelago; tiny, almost undeveloped islands with coral reefs, mangrove swamps, rocky inlets, and shallow seas where dolphins sport and divers can catch sight of eagle rays. Just want to laze on the beach? Ngapali beach could be your paradise; long stretches of fine, pale sand, with the shelter of palm trees giving shade at midday.

21 10. CULTURE AND SOUVENIRS

SOME MARKETS ARE TOURISTY - OTHERS ARE MORE DIRECTED AT LOCAL BUYERS. MYANMAR QUEST KNOWS THE BEST PLACES TO SHOP AND ENJOY SOME PEOPLE- WATCHING AT THE SAME TIME.

22 Fed up with seeing the same stuff in The sound is rich and dense, and souvenir markets wherever you travel? sometimes rather mournful -at least Myanmar is very different. You’ll find to western ears. distinctive local culture and distinctive local souvenirs. • You’ll often see chinlon being played - a kind of keepy-uppy using a large, • Burmese puppet theatre (yoke thay) light-weight rattan ball. It’s the kind uses beautifully dressed marionettes of game you can play anywhere, and which act against a background of young boys love to show off with traditional music. Often, puppets bicycle kicks, back-foot flips, and are used for gentle political satire; other tricks. sometimes, they vie with human actors, and it’s not always the ‘real’ • Lacquerware is a speciality of actor who is the most convincing. Myanmar; sometimes plain terracotta You can visit a show in Yangon red, or sometimes mixing red and or Mandalay, and buy a puppet mint green with black. It’s light in to take home from most tourist weight but strong, often used for markets. offering vessels in temples.

• Classical dances praise the nats, or • In a tropical climate, parasols are tell Buddhist stories, but you don’t practical ways to keep the sun off, have to know the story to appreciate but they’re also used for both civil this graceful and lively art. Village and and religious ceremonies. Visit the tribal dances can be more vigorous, umbrella makers of Pathein, or look but whatever style they’re dancing, out for parasols in the markets in people will always be beautifully Yangon or Bagan. dressed in local costume or in beautiful sequinned outfits. • Embroidery flourishes in Mandalay. Appliqué is used to create a 3D effect; • Musical ensembles include gongs, gold and silver thread glitters among drums, xylophones, and wailing the bright colours, often set off by a shawms, as well as harps and flutes. black background.

23 24 11. ITINERARIES You can see the sights in just a week Give Myanmar two weeks, and you if you’re short of time: fly into Yangon, can add destinations like Mawlaymine, visit Bagan and Mandalay, and finally Kyaikhtiyo, and Mount Popa, as well as Inle Lake. But you’ll need to fly between getting up into the hills. these destinations to make best use of your time - and you’ll miss out Obviously, you’ll want to make your tour the smaller destinations, and have no reflect your interests, so we suggest here time to chill. a few thematic tours, too.

25 Interested in Myanmar’s monuments? You’ll want to visit Yangon, Mandalay and Bagan, and if you have time, take the detour to Bago as well. In Mandalay, walk the hidden pathways of Sagaing hill to find monasteries dug into the rock; or cycle out to the ancient Bupaya Paya at Bagan to look out over the Ayerawaddy river.

Outdoors enthusiasts should visit Inle Lake and Kalaw, Shan State for some more trekking, and then head to the coast to chill. Visit Bagan and you can go up in a balloon or rent a bike and cycle country tracks to the furthest flung pagodas.

26 Head south for a different flavour of Myanmar - Mawlaymine’s colonial past, with its cashew nut production and beaches, and then the Myeik archipelago.

A western tour might include trekking in the Chin country, and chilling out on Ngapali beach. Or simply add these destinations to a more general tour.

Remember when you’re planning your itinerary that Myanmar’s transport links are often slow. It’s better to spend quality time in two or three places than to spend all your time on bumpy, slow buses and even slower, bumpier trains - though internal flights can save you valuable days if you plan wisely.

27 COME AND EXPERIENCE

Copyright © 2019 Myanmar Quest LLC Disclaimer All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be We do not represent that any travel products and services reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any set out in this e-book will be suitable for you. You release means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic us from any claims in relation to the travel products and or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission services described in our e-book, including but not limited to of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations claims that the travel products and services are not suitable. embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial Service Providers, such as airlines, hotels and transportation uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, suppliers, are independent parties over which we have write to the owner at [email protected] no control. The information and description given about the Service Providers and their products are based on our First edition 2019. inquiries and are believed to be accurate, but we cannot guarantee in respect thereof. Publisher: Myanmar Quest LLC, 1910 Thomes Ave Cheyenne, WY 82001