Yangon Surrounding journey Ideas - Dala & Twante

SEA WANDER adventure recommend new places for spending a few days in Yangon to get to know myanmar people in rural areas and travel its splendid sites. One of those is having a full day to find out the lives by Ayeyarwaddy River in Dala and Twante.

Dala – about 40km from Yangon – is one of the most joyful villages of myanmar (Burma), where you be able to experience the life on motorcycle, the friendliness of vendors on the street and the cheerful eyes of children. Twante is the traditional pottery handicraft of this country, where you could learn about the skillful people and their beautiful works, admire how young generation is keeping and developing the secret of their family’s traditional workshop. One day in these attractive towns is worth experience to take some memories of your captivating burma holiday back home.

Dala – How the lives get on by the Ayeyarwaddy River?

How to get there from Yangon:

Being a small town in the South of Yangon river, the trip to Dala starts bytaking the jetty at Pansadon road. Walking to the finish of the road then you could realize the local jetty which is ready to depart at any time of the day. Foreigners can buy the ticket at the booth near the jetty, the price is about US$4/pax/two ways, which be able to be paid by local currency (kyats) as well. The ferry will leave every 20 minutes and will reach the site at an approximately like time.

Going along the river by ferry will surely carry a Burmese local taste to your holiday. Immense by the scenery view, amazed by the fact that local vendors will try to sell nearly everything hand-made to customers with the warmest smile and brightest eyes. You may expect from snack, fruit to bread and egg… ect. Taking the captivating photos and feeling the “village smell” should add memories to your trip.

What to find in Dala?

Leaving Yangon in about 20 minutes and bring a tours in Dala for 2 – 3 hours in the afternoon is an excellent adjustment of the day. There are a lot of things recommended in this town:
bring a walk around Dala, there is a mix of harsh, dusty dirt roads and the piles of animal walking through streets to streets. This is the unlikely thing which could not be found in bustling cities like Yangon or Mandalay. You will find chicken, goats and cows are freely crossing the street now and then. Spend some kyats (the local Burmese money) to take a trishaw ride and relax being a farmer. Trishaw is one of the most common means of transportation in here. Riding by trishaw, watching authentic rural life, looking at the young kid slowly pass-by is something that has been lost in the big and state of the art countries. Go to the fresh fish market of the village and interact with the “local businessman” are also interesting and notable activities.
Belong to myanmar means there is no site that you cannot get to without a golden temple. Shwe Sayan Pagoda is a significant landmark of this town. All citizen that coming to this pagoda will pay their respect to the mummified monk in a glass cased for their quiet life. The spiritual Buddha has been taking care of the whole town for around 150 years and surely more to come. The legend has said 10 – 12 years ago, he has warned the villagers about a coming cyclone from Thailand.

Twante – Not only a pottery village but a town of surprised

How to go to Twante?

There are several ways to reach this boutique workshop village:

From Yangon, you may visit to Twante by ferry from Pandosan road (near Strand road) in 2 hours through the Twante Canal.
If you are already in Dala, first carry the ferry at Dala in 10 minutes then 45 minutes by car via Twante Bridge. All in all, reaching this town is as easy as it said.

How to adventure the town:

Not like Yangon, where the means of transportation is by bus or taxi, reaching small towns like Twante of Dala, you could experience from bike to motorbike to trishaw, local minibus, grand bus and taxi (if you do not go to with the own car), and a mix of them. If you ever try on bus, you will realize that each bus will inclue a ‘conductor’, who be able to speak some Burmese-English, will collect the money on hand and shout out the place. It would be an interesting experience.

What to notice in Twante:

George Orwell, in his renowned book “Burmese Days” has mentioned Twante as one of his favorite places while living in myanmar. As a neighbor of Dala on the Ayearewaddy delta river, this town will welcome you with its glorious agricultural products. Not only that, Twante is famous for its pots, the Shwe san daw Temple or the mysterious snake pagoda.

original one in the list is the Twante market, you be able to buy most of the local products in here, from tropical fruits to quail eggs to local powder and other goods. Citizen will normally hang their products on any type of vehicle and carriers, on bike, on boat, or even on their head….

The most well known pottery village is Oh-Bo Pottery, visitors can reach there by trishaw by somewhat 300 – 500 kyats (Kyats is myanmar currency) from Twante market. From now on, you could discover a whole world from water mugs, pots, vases, water filter, bowls and many more. Nearly everyone in a family will together handle the work by hand in each step. There is no machine but everything has been finished manually, from collecting the raw material, building to proper objects to firing and drying process. Although there is no paint or color on the last product but there are carvings and sculpting vases and pots which reveal the skills of those native artists. The products, after that, will be shipped to Yangon or other broad cities via boat then sold there.
Spend some time to go to Shwe san daw Pagoda (Shwe san daw means “the temple of golden hair”), a perfectly smaller duplicate of Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. There are only four temples in myanmar possess the name Shwe san daw (one in Yangon, one in Bagan – the most famous one, one in Pyay which is approximately 300km to the north of Yangon and one in Twante). The temple embraces two strands of hair of Buddha and is where all local citizen in Ayearewaddy regions come to pray for amazing life.

Besides, one of the very rare sites in Twante is the Snake Temple hich is 4 – 5 km from Twante. The pagoda is where the big snakes (pythons) are living, there are two nuns who devoted their lives to carry care of snakes in diverse sizes. They believe that Buddha is protected and kept quiet while he listens to his people’s peace and happiness asking.

wonderful to know – SEA WANDER tours suggested itinerary for Yangon surrounding adventure in 3 days including Dala and Twante. This is best for passengers from broad cruise ships docking at Yangon port for few days.

Yangon Surrounding journey Ideas – Dala & Twante