Myanmar is an ancient country where is famous for its great religious monuments and delicate architecture. This peaceful and beautiful country also attracts foreigners by the natural scenery and unique customs. To get the memorable trip, you should know the all information about Myanmar vs Burma country
The men wear skirts
The traditional Burmese dress is the longyi, a wraparound skirt worn by men and women. Men tie theirs in the front and women fold the cloth over and secure it at the side.
NLD Leader Aung San Suu Kyi is known for her beautiful longyis and tailored tops. Her high-profile appearances have helped boost the popularity of the traditional dress among young women in Myanmar.
As for what’s worn underneath, that’s a matter of personal preference. In the cities, Burmese men usually wear underwear beneath their longyis when they go out, but at home wear it as the Scots wear their kilts.
It’s completely acceptable for a foreigner to wear a longyi and can be a conversation starter.
Myanmar has fantastic beaches
Myanmar has 2,000 kilometers of coastline and some of the finest stretches of beach in Asia.
Ngapali Beach
The name Ngapali Beach is named after the beautiful city of Naples, Italy. Ngapali is a beautiful beach with 7 kilometers stretching white sand coverd by palm trees. The sea is always in deep blue turquoise with fluttering waves like a welcome signal. The other reason make this site to be the best place to go in Myanmar tours is you can come this place easily. There are many flights to this site a day from Yangon, you just need to wait for about 45 minutes to take a new flight. If you want to travel by road, you can go through the Rakhine Yoma Mountains.
The tranquil Ngapali beach is an ideal destination for people, who are too tired of bustling life. Come here in your Myanmar package tour, you can relax in maximum level, laying around the beach or soaking in the cool blue sea, throw all the worries to the waves. The Myanmar tourism industry is quite developed, offering you many marine sports, such as scuba diving, kayaking, biking around the beach, and golf on the beach.
In addition, you have many choices to wasting your time of your Myanmar travel tour here, such as: exploring the natural scenery around the beach, visiting small fishing villages and local markets, or biking to the countryside to explore the life of local people. You also can go on a boat to the beautiful offshore islands.
Accommodation services are very diverse. You can choose from the pristine small huts set on the beach to the luxurious villas for your Myanmar travels & tours. The foods here is amazing too. There are many restaurants serving fresh seafood at affordable prices. If you are not too difficult in eating, you should try all the dishes when you come here.
Ngwe Saung Beach (Silver Beach)
Ngwe Saung Beach is located south of Ngapali Beach and close to the capital Yangon. It only takes 35 minutes to fly from Yangon, or 6 hours travel by road. Travelers also can choose go by boat from Yangon on Myanmar tours. The trip takes 16 hours going through Pathein. Go by boat is very awesome because you can enjoy the panoramic view of immense sky and try to feel floating on the sea.
A decade ago, a series of resorts sprung up on the beach. Rates range from $ 15 to $ 400. There is a green swimming pool in resort but I think you must prefer swimming in the sea on your Myanmar travel tour. Ngwe Saung sea water is also as fresh as Ngapali beach. Here you can lie sunbathing on the beach, try scuba diving, or walking to visit the island at the end of the beach at low tide.
If you love driving and exploring, you can take a motorbike to explore the 15km coastline, drive on undulating rock, or simply walk along the stretch of coastline.
You shouldn’t miss the chance to taste seafood. There are crayfish, lobster, crabs, fish and so on. If you wake up at dawn, you can see the fisherman caught seafood on the beach. Try to get some seafood from fishermen because it is ver fresh with cheap price. It must be the most unforgettable memories of your Myanmar tours.
Chuang Tha Beach
Chuang Tha Beach is not as beautiful as Ngapali or Ngwe Saung, but is ideal for party who want to find a quite place near Yangon to have some relax time on Myanmar travels & tours. Located along the road to Chuang Tha is a green field, far away is the misty mountains. There is a series of international standard hotels, restaurants and spas in front of the beach. You can choose one to stay on your trip, enjoy dining and beauty treatments.
If you come here during the high season, you can escape the crowds by charter a boat to explore the beautiful islands nearby. Just take a speed boat or motorboat for 15 minutes to Thae Phyu Island. On the island there is a fine white sand beach, a small sacred temple. You can walk to Phokalar Island located near the beach, this also very nice place for your Myanmar tours. If you want to scuba dive watching tropical fish, you must bring your own snorkel.
Visitors to Chuang Tha can drink fresh coconut water, eat fresh seafood, breathe the breeze with the sea salty taste on Myanmar package tour. Tides pushed many shells, small crabs up the beach. You can pick up the shells as souvenirs. Near the beach there are fishing villages that visitors often visit. Here people sell dried shrimp, seafood and souvenirs at affordable prices. Local people are very hospitable, always welcoming you with a bright smile, kindly help you. In Chuang Tha there is another attraction is the baroque pagoda, located at the end of the beach.
Kanthaya Beach
If you want to enjoy a quiet and private space, away from urban noise, Kanthaya Beach must be the best destination for your Myanmar tours. Kanthaya beach is pristine and quiet. Kanthaya beach is quite shallow and 4.5 km long. Unlike the sandy beach of Ngapali, the sand in this beach is yellow and gravelly. There are no beach sports or souvenir shops. So if you want to come here on your private Myanmar tour, you can not book a room, but you have to go to the hotel before you can rent a room.
These are the four most beautiful beaches in Myanmar that I would recommend to you. Hope you have found an ideal destination for your next trip ot Myanmar. Now save money, make up the plan and go to the beach of the dream!
The food is exceptional
1.Lephet
The most famed Burmese food is fermented tea leaves as known as Lephet. This is the most typical Myanmar food you should try on your Burma tours. Taste this dish, you can feel the sour and slightly bitter of leaves combine with sliced tomatoes, shredded cabbage and some crunchy deep fried nuts, beans and peas. To make the dish more attractive, they add some garlic oil, slices of garlic and chili.
You can eat this dish as a snack, an appetizer or eat with rice in your meal. The Burmese say this dish is a stimulant because it can prevent sleep. So that, it must be a stunning experience for your Myanmar travel tour.
2. Burmese curry
Curry is the most culinary experience dish you can try in your Burma tours. To taste the most delicious Burmese curry, you should eat it in a traditional Burmese restaurant. These are many choices for you when you try curry, you can eat with fish, pork, shrimp, mutton or beef.
A traditional Burmese curry includes rice, a tart salad, a small bowl of soup, a mall dish of fried vegetables and a large tray of par-boiled vegetables and herbs. The dips are various too. You can choices from a watery, ngapi ye, fish sauce or a dry, spicy mixture of garlic, chilies and fried shrimp.
After your meal, you’ll get a jar of chunks of palm sugar or a lacquer tray containing pickle tea leaves and nuts.
As the traditional dish, you shouldn’t forget to taste curry once in your private Myanmar tour to fullfill your trip.
3. Shan-style rice – Fish rice
Shan-style rice as known as Nga Htamin or fish rice is one of the most typical dish in Myanmar – a Buddhist country. Burmese make this dish from rice, freshwater fish, and garlic oil. The rice can be cooked with turmeric, then topped with the flakes of freshwater fish and squashed into a dish with garlic oil.
You can feel the savory and oily when eating this dish with slides of leek roots, deep-fried pork rinds, cloves of raw garlic. Fish rice can be the best choice for the visitor of Myanmar travel tour who loves spicy food.
Tea shop meal
Myanmar’s tea shops are ideal places to enjoy sweet milky tea and also various cousins of Burma. There are many different dishes waiting for you to explore on your Burma tours.
If you go to a tea shop run by ethnic Burmese, you can find noodle or rice dishes.
If you go to tea shop run by Muslim Burmese, you can find deep-fried savory snacks, such as poori or samosas, baked bread such as nanbya.
If you go to tea shop run by Chinese, you often find baked sweet and meaty steamed buns and dim dum.
If you have time or love all of these “style”, you should list down all the tea shops you want to come before your private Myanmar tour, to make sure you don’t miss any chance to taste the dish you love.
Deep-fried stuff
When you come go on Burma tours, the one thing you cannot avoid is deep-fried food. There are many choices for you, such as samosas, savory fritters, spring rolls, bread, sweets and many noodle dishes topping with deep-fried crispy garnishes.
But the most worth tasting must be buthi kyaw, this dish is made from deep fried and battered chunks of the gourd. When you eat this dish while it is still hot, the gourd is tender and the fritters are sour or sweet dip with the addition of bean powder.
Be sure to try buthi kyaw when you go on Myanmar travel tour because it worths you a try.
Shan-style ‘tofu’ noodles
If you are interested in savory flavors, you shouldn’t miss the chance to taste Shan- style tofu noodle on your Burma tours. Not like the name, it does not make from tofu. It made from chickpea flour as a thick porridge. The food is served over thin rice noodles, which are marinated pork or chicken. The topping is chili oil, pickled veggies, and broth. The taste of this food is so stunning that almost visitor of Myanmar travel tour put it on the “must – eat” list.
Burmese sweet snacks
Myanmar’s sweet snacks as know as Moun are not consumed as dessert as in the West, they are consumed as snacks taking with tea in the morning or afternoon.
The sweetness of moun does not come from sugar, they come from the ingredient such as grated coconut, coconut milk, cooked sticky rice, rice flour, tapioca, and fruit.
The most favorite Burmese sweet snacks ar nwin ma kin and pyit thelet. They are not an only traditional dish but also have the unique taste, that you cannot find it anywhere else. That’s the reason I hope you can try it once on your Burma tours.
Nangyi thoke
Last but not least delicious dish in the list I hope you can try on your tour is Nangyi thoke, one kind of dry noodles in Myanmar. Nangyi thoke served over thick round rice noodle, with chicken, slices of fish cake, slices of boiled egg and par-boiled bean sprouts.
List of the most popular pagodas
Shwedagon
Shwedagon is located in Yangon, Myanmar, which is well known for its mystery for a long time. Being built 2500 years ago, Shwedagon were fixed many times and at last gets a great architecture like today.
Shwedagon includes 1000 pagodas surrounding. 72 of them are made of rocks with a statue of Buddha inside. Myanmar artists had to work very hard and took long time to carve the wall sophisticatedly. You can even see thousands of gold leaves used to decorate the pagoda. Myanmarese people even used diamonds for this. Of course, this makes Shwedagon the most beautiful pagoda in Myanmar. Do not miss this wonderful experience during your Myanmar tours.
Kyaikhtiyo
This pagoda is also called Golden rock pagoda, one of the best places to see in Myanmar. Together with Shwedagon, Kyaikhtiyo is among the top best places in Asia.
This Golden Rock pagoda is located on a very huge rock on the mountain. To get there, you have to climb up and reach the height of more than 1000 meters. Many still come here to get a real experience inside the mysterious pagoda.
Like many pagodas in Myanmar, Kyaikhtiyo is also decorated with many gold leaves. Some Buddha statues have diamonds covering it. One more special thing for you to know when visiting this pagoda is that there are hundreds of small gold bells inside it.
Shwemawdaw Paya
Next sacred pagoda is Shwemawdaw Paya, a great place to visit in your Burma tours. Its long name goes with its history. Shwemawdaw Paya was built 1000 years ago. Now this is the highest pagoda in Myanmar, at the height of 114 meters. The design is very traditional, it has many features of Buddhism.
From a very far distance, you can see the pagoda bathed in the sunshine. With its many gold statues, you can take time to have great pictures and discover their stories. Many come here just to feel the fresh air from a high position. You will be feeling like flying sometimes. Shwemawdaw Paya welcomes you to visit, discover and love!
Kuthodaw
Our next suggestion is about Kuthodaw. This is also among things to do in Myanmar. Visiting Kuthodaw, you can see how ancient it is and how sophisticated its design is. This ancient pagoda is located at the foot Mandalay mountain. It was built long time ago when Mindon king was still living.
A very interesting thing to note is that it has a big ancient rock book with 1460 pages! You can spend many days during your Myanmar tours to read it all. Many even estimate that it takes you 150 day to discover the book in Kuthadaw. How fantastic it is!
Sule
In any tours in Yangon, all travellers must visit Sule pagoda. Many come to pray, some to discover, and many other to visit its beauty. Sule is located right at Yangon centre, which is a gold destination for tourism to develop. Being built in late XX century, Sule pagoda now becomes a wonderful and sacred destination to visit.
None can ignore Sule architecture. Its octagon design is very featured. All parts of the pagoda are carved skillfully and sophisticatedly. This is not an ancient pagoda, but is is a mixture of both ancient and modern. You will never feel disappointed when visiting this.
