myanmar
14/03/2018 / myanmar , Travel
Thingyan Water Festival Myanmar: what you need to know
Myanmar (Burma)
You may have heard about the Songkran water festival in Thailand, but have you heard of the one in Myanmar. I suspect you haven’t unless you’ve been and experienced it for yourself. I didn’t even know it existed until we were a week into our trip and glanced at a calendar in the hotel reception. I didn’t even consider that it might be similar to the one in Thailand and completely forgot about it until it actually began.
One positive of the Thingyan festival being a lot less famous than the one in Thailand is that if you choose to involve yourself in the festival it is nowhere near as touristy or hectic as the Songkran festival. I’d still very much like to experience this one and was a bit disappointed that our route meant we were missing it but I’m so glad we still got the experience in Myanmar.
Obviously, the festival will vary depending on which areas of Myanmar you are in during the festival period. We met people who had been in Mandalay and they told us that it had been quite intense, the streets had been flooded with water and you couldn’t go anywhere without being soaked.
We experienced it in a quieter area of Myanmar; Bagan. Still very much a big part of the tourist path in Myanmar but a much smaller town Bagan seemed like the perfect place to experience the festival. Not that we’d chosen it, it just so happened to be the next stop on our route.
Now I’ve experienced it for myself and knew very little if anything before my trip I thought it would be useful to others to put together a post about the key things you should know about the festival and what you should expect.
16/10/2017 / Asia , myanmar , Travel
A guide to Inle Lake | Myanmar
I remember my first glimpse of Inle Lake. The narrow strip of water suddenly opened up revealing a great expanse of water. The whole lake seemed alive. We had just entered Inle Lake and it was truly stunning.
Inle Lake is one of the 'must sees' of Myanmar. Cambodia has Angor Wat, Vietnam has Halong Bay, India the Taj Mahal. Myanmar has Inle Lake.
Certainly not as famous as the other sights mentioned but what it lacks in status it makes up in with stunning landscape and friendly locals.
When researching what to do in Mandalay a place was mentioned a lot. I researched it some more and the pictures alone were enough to add the ancient capital (one of four surrounding Mandalay) to my must visit list.
My next point of call was figuring out how to get there, it's outside of the main city along the Ayeyarwaddy river. It took me a while to find all the information I needed. A lot of websites were offering me a tour or a combined tour which was something I didn't want to do. I like to try and do things myself if possible to make the day cheaper. Seeing as I struggled to find information I thought I'd put together a blog post about my day in Mingun including all the information you need to know for your own visit!
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