Personal travel experience in Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Direct flights between Russia and Myanmar will soon become even more convenient, which means there is a reason to talk about this amazing country, a trip to which will definitely remain one of the most vivid memories for any tourist. The editor-in-chief of Profi talks about what to see, where to go, what dishes to try in colorful, hospitable and completely incomprehensible Myanmar.Travel Artyom Chumak.
Last year in For the first time in the last 30 years, direct flights from Myanmar: Myanmar Airways International (MAI) has launched a flight program from Yangon to Novosibirsk with an intermediate landing in Mandalay. Flights are operated on medium-haul Airbus A319.
In 2024, mysterious and fascinating Myanmar will become even closer: MAI has signed a code-sharing agreement with S7. This means that for tourists from cities such as Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, etc., connections in Novosibirsk will become as convenient as possible. In addition, the risks of being late for the second “shoulder” due to flight delays on the first one will be eliminated.
When to come to Myanmar: the rainy season and the best time to relax
The most comfortable time to relax in Myanmar is from October to February. During these months, the average daytime temperature is 25 degrees, and this season is considered “cool” here. But from February to May, Myanmar has a hot season, more than 40 degrees, which is perceived even hotter in conditions of sufficiently high humidity. After that, until October, the rainy season is here.
Mandalay: a living Buddha statue and a book with marble pages
An additional landing in Mandalay expands the possibilities of travel — you can start your trip from this city, the cultural capital of Myanmar, and fly back from Yangon. We actually did so and have never regretted it.
The Myanmar people are Buddhists, they belong to the ancient Theravada school (the teaching of the elders, which is based on the texts of the Pali Canon, written 2,100 years ago on palm leaves). Pagodas are everywhere here, there are about 700 of them in Mandalay alone. Money has not been spared for them here since time immemorial, and therefore the golden stupas and peaks of amazingly beautiful temples sparkle under the rays of the generous Myanmar sun wherever you look.
It is definitely worth seeing the Maha Myat Muni Pagoda, where one of the five Buddha statues created during his lifetime is located. Local legend says that the statue is alive — before leaving for Tibet, the Buddha himself breathed life into it. Today, the statue weighs about six tons — much more than before, because during prayer it is customary to make an offering to Maha Muni: stick small leaves of gold leaf on the statue. The golden layer is already about 12 cm and continues to grow. Any tourist, by the way, can buy a bag of gold leaf and ask a living statue for wish fulfillment.
Another amazing temple complex that should not be missed is Kutodo. And the 57—meter-high golden pagoda is not the main shrine by which he is recognized.
Kutodo is a huge book: texts from Buddhist scripture are carved on 729 marble slabs on both sides. To protect the “pages” of the book from rain and wind, white stone buildings were built around each of them. The plates are inscribed on both sides and, according to the guide, if you read the texts on them for eight hours a day, it will take more than a year to read them all.
The sunset is best observed from the Mandalay Hill — from a height of 240 meters you will enjoy stunning views, and the glare from the sunset rays in hundreds of thousands of gilded mosaic squares on the walls and columns of the pagoda on its top will remain in your memory for a long time.
The easiest way to get to the foot of the hill, which is located northeast of the city center, is by tuk-tuk, and an escalator or elevator will take you to the top.
After sunset, you can take a walk next to the royal palace. After dark, more and more lights are lit on the palace wall, which are very colorfully reflected in the water filling the moat around the territory.
Bagan is the heart of Myanmar
The locals themselves consider Bagan to be the heart of the country, there is even a saying: “If you haven’t been to Bagan, you haven’t been to Myanmar.” This is the first capital, the city had its status from the 11th to the 13th centuries. Previously, there were more than four thousand temples here, but after a large-scale fire in which all wooden buildings were destroyed, about three thousand remained.
You can get from Mandalay to Bagan by river — there are many options for cruises, but we took the bus to save time. It took about four hours to get there. By the way, if time allows you to stay here for two days, then at dawn you can climb into the sky and see all three thousand temples in the rays of the rising sun.
Damayanji Temple is the largest preserved temple in Bagan. Even on a scorching afternoon, it is cool in it — it was built so that the wind always walked in its walls.
Anand Temple is considered the most beautiful in Bagan. In addition, it is one of the oldest (11th century) and one of the most “democratic”: here women are allowed to rub the Buddha statues with gold leaf themselves, without the help of monks.
And there are two smiling Buddhas in the Ananda Temple. There are four such statues in total, one on each side of the world, but two of them have been restored, and they do not change their facial expressions: only those who look to the south and north “smile”. If you get close to the statue, you will see a stern expression on his face, but the further away you go, the wider the Buddha’s smile becomes. The fact is that next to his feet there is a place for monks, and then there is a territory for everyone else. “The Myanmar people love the Buddha very much and want as many people as possible to love him too and be imbued with his teachings. And who do people love? Beautiful and friendly. Therefore, our Buddha statues often have a thin waist and wide hips, big eyes and beautiful cheekbones, and also a pleasant smile,” the guide explains to us. This is the best characteristic of the Myanmar mentality: they don’t just believe, they love. They don’t just smile at the guests, they really welcome everyone. And we are ready to help anyone, even if you do not know which side to approach the statue to pour water on it for good luck and longevity (a tradition in Myanmar). The hospitality and friendliness of the Myanmar people erases any language barriers and gives a feeling of complete peace.
The Shwezigon Pagoda in Bagan is so blinding on a sunny day that it hurts your eyes. But it’s an incredibly beautiful sight. And the light ringing of Buddhist bells spreads through the air, which sway in the wind, and create unique music.
Yangon: the intersection of different cultures
At the small Bagan Airport, you can board a domestic flight to Yangon, the economic center of the country.
Less than an hour and a half on a very comfortable liner, and we are in the city that was the capital of Myanmar until 2006. After that, the government moved it to Naypyidaw, where all ministries and government departments, including the country’s leadership, are located now.
Yangon is a surprisingly colorful, vibrant city. It harmoniously combines Myanmar and colonial British architecture. In it, noisy labyrinths of streets are replaced by majestic squares in the very center, where office workers and monks walk in the same stream and invariably smile at tourists.
By the way, in Myanmar it is believed that every man should become a monk — at least for a week. And then make your choice: stay in the monastery for a year (or maybe forever) or return home and live a secular life.
But, of course, the real pearl of Yangon (and probably the whole of Myanmar) — the amazingly beautiful, atmospheric, fascinating Shwedagon temple complex. When we were about to go there, it started to rain. More precisely, it was a downpour that fell on us from the sky, like in disaster movies. When it passed, it was already dark, and we decided that we were unlucky because we would not see the temple at sunset. But it turned out that Shwedagon at night is just an unforgettable picture. In addition, this way we managed to avoid the crowds of travelers and believers who usually fill the entire space of the complex.
The main stupa of the pagoda, which is considered the oldest in the world, contains 8 hairs of Gautama Buddha. It is to this shrine that Buddhists from many countries of the world come.
Interestingly, despite all this gold and precious stones, there is no pathos in Shwedagon, as in other Myanmar temples: there are no prohibitions, no rules and obligatory rituals — everyone behaves as it seems right to him.
Here, even those who are not fully aware of all Buddhist symbols begin to “catch Zen” simply because of the indescribable energy of this place. Here you can wander for hours and find more and more amazing corners.
Shwedagon is an amazing place in Myanmar that you want to return to more than once.
Beach holidays in Myanmar: Ngapali
The flight from Yangon to Tandwe, where Ngapali Beach is located, takes only 40 minutes.
At the airport, there is a business lounge on the second floor, the entrance to which costs only 10 thousand kyats (at a cost it is like two cups of coffee on the first floor of an air hub). It is completely empty — it seems that little is known about him yet or he is not particularly popular with the locals.
Ngapali is the most famous resort in Myanmar, which is preferred by European and Russian tourists. There are several hotel complexes on it, the most famous of them are: Jasmine Ngapali Resort, Amazing Ngapali Resort, Aureum Palace Hotel, Amata Resort and Spa, Sandoway Resort, Bay View Resort. All of them are classified as level 4* objects, although the Jasmine service can be assigned a solid 5.
I was lucky enough to spend two days in the most expensive two-storey villa on the entire coast, at Sandoway Resort. The villa is designed in an island style, through huge glass doors on the ground floor you can access your own terrace, just beyond which the beach begins.
Among the attractions here is a natural park where you can admire the mangrove forests, an elephant nursery where elephants are ridden, a fishing village, diving and snorkeling.
The water in the Bay of Bengal in November is like fresh milk. It’s easy to spend a few hours in it and not even notice it. And what sunsets there are!
Myanmar cuisine: seafood is never enough!
The national cuisine of Myanmar is dominated by fish and seafood dishes. And I must say that they can cook them here.
The service in many restaurants and resorts is absolutely not inferior to the one we are used to in the capital’s establishments.
A mandatory dish on the table is rice with all kinds of sauces and additives. From the exotic, you can try the so—called tea salad (vegetable salad, to which boiled tea leaves are added). However, be careful: there is a huge amount of hot pepper in it.
The fruits here are mostly incredibly sweet papaya, pineapples with a slight sourness, watermelons and bananas.
My favorite is oseihi. This is a seafood soup with curry in coke milk, which is served in green coconut. A very satisfying dish, from which it is simply impossible to break away: the sweet taste of coconut milk turns it more into a dessert.
What to bring from Myanmar
Firstly, jade jewelry: rosaries, bracelets, pendants, rings and so on. Jade is mined in Myanmar, and products made of this stone cost pennies in local markets. For example, a bracelet will cost you 150-200 rubles. By the way, you won’t have to look for a place to buy for a long time: shopping malls precede the road to the entrance of most large temples in Myanmar.
There you can also buy jewelry with river pearls, including artificially grown ones, for a song. Rubies, which are also mined in Myanmar, will already be more expensive. And you can buy them in the markets only at your own risk — it is better to choose a store where a certificate will be attached to the product, guaranteeing its authenticity. You will also find a huge variety of silver and gold products in Myanmar, from jewelry to tableware. The advice is the same: if guarantees are important, it is better to choose them not in the markets.
Alternative medicine is in use in Myanmar, and if you are not afraid, you can buy various ointments and medicines that the locals take for any diseases. However, you can choose something familiar: for example, “tiger” balm, an analogue of the well-known Vietnamese “Asterisk”. Among cosmetics, various creams based on tanaka, the core of the lemon feronia tree, are popular here. They moisturize the skin and save from sunburn, indeed, better than any of the most popular sunburn products.
From the food, it is worth bringing stunningly sweet mangoes in any form, for example, dried slices, so that there is no overweight. As the guide told us, most Russians take with them sweets with tamarind (a family of legumes), which have a beneficial effect on digestion. However, we advise you to try them first: they taste just like lozenges with a slight sourness, but you should be careful with their action: even one candy awakens a brutal appetite.
In addition, you can take home a few bags of Burmese tea — it is really high-quality. Choose whichever one you prefer: black, green or with herbs.
For the trip Profi.Travel thanks the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism of Myanmar, the Center for Public and Business Cooperation with the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and the tour operator Space Travel.
Photo: Artem Chumak, Profi.Travel
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