Backpacking Myanmar for 10 days

Myanmar just recently opened its door to travellers and it is a great destination for those looking for an authentic experience in South East Asia. I went backpacking in Myanmar for 10 days in September 2017, during my South East Asian trip, and I visited Yangon, Naypyidaw, Bagan and Mandalay.

Located next to Thailand, it is very new in tourism, and it still shows a pure and original attitude that many of its nearby countries have lost. Backpackers have started to explore Myanmar in the last few years and I recommend anyone to visit it asap, before it becomes too touristic.

Get a Visa for backpacking in Myanmar

You need to apply for an e Visa to visit Myanmar. It is super easy, costs about 50 $, can be done online and takes less than 2 days to get approved.

Here is the link to the government website for the tourist e Visa: evisa.moip.gov.mm

Backpacking Myanmar: Yangon

We started our backpacking trip around Myanmar in Yangon! Yangon is the main and most populous city in Myanmar. I was travelling with Attilio and we flew with Air Asia from Bangkok to Yangon. I recommend to get a local sim card with data at the airport, it costs just a few bucks and works well. Get a Uber to town instead of a taxi, it is cheaper!

We stayed at Backpacker Bed and Breakfast, conveniently located in the centre of Yangon and a good place to meet some other backpackers. We left our bags as soon as we arrived, and went exploring the city.

The main things to see are the Shwedagon Pagoda, the Sule Pagoda, the reclining Buddha statue and a few markets.

There are many street vendors and you can try some of the local food there.
Be warned though, I heard many backpackers who were food poisoned when backpacking Myanmar. If you want to avoid this risk I suggest you to eat at the shopping malls, much cleaner and with great food options, at a fair price.

You should check out the Yangon Circular Train. It is a slow train that goes in circle all around the city and takes 3 hours to make a round. You can have a glimpse of how locals live and move around, and it is a great way to spend a few hours in Yangon.

Local people are not very used to tourists so you will often be greeted and you will be asked to take photos together.

I was at the Shwedagon Pagoda with Attilio and these 2 local girls approached us and asked if they could interview us. They explained us that many young people in Myanmar study English at university and teachers give them the assignment to speak with tourists and ask them questions about the city. It was super fun to interact with some locals and they had to take a pic with us in the end to show their teachers they completed the homework!

Bethel Nut

You will notice that many locals, especially the ones of a lower class, have some horrible red teeth.
That’s due to the large consumption of Bethel nut.

Almost every street corner in Myanmar has a stall selling kun-ya, a traditional sort of stimulating “chewing gum” made with areca nut, betel leaves, dried tobacco leaves and slaked lime paste. The habit of chewing Bethel Nut traces its roots in the past but in the poorer countries is still in fashion despite being carcinogenic and severely damaging the user’s teeth.

Kun-ya sellers spread the lime paste (calcium hydroxide) on the betel leaf and sprinkle the tobacco and powdered areca nut on top – sometimes spiced up with cardamom or cloves – before neatly folding the leaf into a square while their customers patiently wait.

People chew and spit out dark-red gobs of sputum, adorning the streets with red marks.

Naypyidaw, capital of Myanmar

Naypyidaw is Myanmar’s capital city since 2006, replacing the former capital Yangon. It has been named as “the world’s weirdest capital”, but for some reasons backpackers tend not to go there. I really recommend you guys to check it out because it is super strange and that makes it so interesting.

We took a bus from Yangon and we asked the driver to drop us off in front of our hotel, The Golden Lake Hotel. There are no hostels in Naypyidaw so we had to go to a hotel. All the hotels are immense and they usually have no guests. It feels so weird to stay in such a huge place and being the only customers. The hotel was so big that we needed a golf car to reach our room.

We rented a scooter and went exploring the city. There are a few nice parks and the government buildings. It doesn’t feel to be in a South East Asian city, with newly paved roads, giant malls and meticulously landscaped roundabouts with large sculptures of flowers.

There is a 20 lane highway, super cool to check out, which from its dimensions seems more a football pitch than a road.

Naypiyday was built with the intent to move most of the population of the country there and make it the largest and most developed city. However, for some reasons, things didn’t go as planned and almost no one moved there. When riding around this weird town the shocking thing to notice is that there are literally no people. It is a ghost town.

Then we went to see the local street market, located next to the bus station. We bought our tickets to Bagan for the next day and went back to the hotel.

Backpacking Myanmar: Bagan

We took the bus in the morning to Bagan. Buses in Myanmar are super cold , but like really really cold.

They provide you blankets but I recommend to take with you all the warm clothes you have in your backpack. On the way to Bagan we stopped at a local village to use the toilets and there were a bunch of kids playing football. They invited me to join them and passed me the ball. As soon as I kicked the ball back this dog ran towards me and bit my leg. I was shocked, couldn’t really move or do anything. One of the kids took a stick and pushed the dog away. My leg started to bleed copiously and I was in a remote village in Myanmar with no one speaking English.

Someone said I needed a doctor because the dog might have rabies and that worried me even more.
Luckily I had data on my phone so I was able to call my insurance and get an appointment in Bagan that afternoon.
We got back on the bus and in a couple of hours we reached Bagan. There is a tourist fee to enter Bagan archaeological area of 25 000 Kyats, but I told the lady at the counter that I just needed to go to the hospital now and I would pay the fee later. Looking at my leg bleeding, she let me go and so I was able not to pay the fee (thanks to that rabies dog yeah!).
I got a rabies and tetanus injections at one of the dirtiest hospitals and most full of mosquitos that I had ever been, and then straight to the hostel.

We stayed at Ostello Bello Bagan, a super nice backpacker hostel with a great vibe and many other travellers. They have 3 free spaghetti sections during the day and if you are there you can enjoy a free meal.

The next morning we explored Bagan, the most popular attraction in Myanmar, which boasts a collection of 2000 Buddhist pagodas, stupas and temples scattered across a flat area.

It is best to visit during sunset or sunrise to enjoy some amazing colours and take great photos. You can rent an electric scooter in town and drive around the temples with it.

From October to April is ballooning season so you can admire the temples on a hot air balloon. Unfortunately I wasn’t in that period so no chance to go on the balloon. If you have never been on one, do it! I went on a hot air balloon in Laos and it is an amazing experience!

The evening with had a Burmese massage and we tried the Thanaka cream, a natural cosmetic used by Burmese women for more than 2000 years. It is said to make the skin softer and protect from the sun.

Mandalay

We took a bus from Bagan to Mandalay, the last stop of our backpacking trip in Myanmar. I recommend to stay at Ostello Bello Mandalay, very nice and with the same backpacking vibe of the one in Bagan.
We jumped on a scooter taxi with two local guys to U Bein Bridge, believed to be the oldest and longest teakwood bridge in the world.

We explored the rest of Mandalay during the afternoon and at night we had some parties at the hostel. Mandalay hosts quite a large (for Myanmar standards) expat population, mostly backpackers teaching English. Ostello Bello is the place where everyone meets for some pre-drinks. After we all went to some sort of karaoke nightclub. The concept is that a group of people rent a karaoke room and stay there all night drinking and singing. Not the most fun nightlife scene, but definitely interesting to check out.

The next day we went to visit a temple and ended up in a place where a group of monks were praying. We were about to leave not to bother them, when they called us and told us to sit next to them. Excited, we joined them and they asked us a few questions about our trip. Their English was poor but we still managed to have a small conversation.

They blessed us with some rituals, and then one of them took off his wooden bead necklace and gave it to me.
“Keep it, it is for the good luck” he told me.

We thanked the monks for the special experience, gave them a little offer and took a taxi to the airport.
It was time to fly back to Bangkok. My trip in Myanmar couldn’t have ended better.