Southeast Asia Travel News

Yangon’s Alley Gardens is another example of an excellent urban renewal project we came across recently, following on from our recent post on Malang’s fantastic Rainbow Village. scheme.  This one’s even simpler – doesn’t involve painting the entirety of downtown Yangon – but equally effective, albeit on a smaller scale, yet manages to hit the spot on several levels. Anyone…

The following are a few of our thoughts on the current situation with regards Burma (Myanmar) tourism. We wouldn’t claim in any way to understand the entire situation – and it is certainly more complicated than initial appearances – nor would we presume our opinions are necessarily the correct ones. Firstly, we categorically and unreservedly condemn the recent actions of…

Mandalay Burma – a very evocative name but as with say Casablanca or Shangri La, (which is, of course, mythical but which the Chinese government has now seen fit to locate in northern Yunnan Province), the reality may not live up to the expectation and these days Burma’s 2nd largest city is busy, grubby and to many visitors, somewhat lacking…

Burma cottage industries – a few photos and descriptions from our Burma (Myanmar) tours. Guide: “Ok, next I’ll take you to visit some people who make rubber bands”. “Really?! And that’s interesting to see is it?” (It’s hot, the ‘roads’ are appalling and I’m carting around heavy camera gear.) Guide. “Yes – everybody likes it”. (Not convinced) “Errr ok then…

The Padaung people of Burma, more commonly known as the ‘Long-Neck Karen’, live in Kayah State in northeastern Burma and though the provincial capital Loikaw is now officially open for tourism it’s still very difficult to get to so your most likely contact with them would be at one of their lakeside souvenir stalls at Inle. The pros and cons…

The somewhat remote, Irrawaddy Delta town of Pathein is actually officially the 5th largest ‘city’ in Burma – which makes it slightly smaller than Moulmein (Mawlamyine) – yet even fewer tourists ever make it down to this super-friendly and fascinating river port than visit Mon State’s picturesque capital.  Pathein is the Delta’s commercial hub and the riverside area and central…

No, would be our easy answer as with regards photographing local people in Burma! Increasingly in Burma’s tourist hotspots, you will see local people posing for photographs in return for money and to our minds, this is a habit that shouldn’t be encouraged. If you don’t want your photo taken then suffice to say so; we don’t feel it should…

Selection of Marina’s Burma photos, who travelled on our recent off the beaten track South Burma tour, ‘Lookin’ Lazy at the Sea. Thanks a lot for the great pics, Marina! Taken, we believe, on the local boat between Moulmein, (Mawlamyine), and Bilu, (Ogre), Island. One of the Mon girls making the traditional Burmese bamboo hats on Bilu Island. See our…

Our earlier post covered Burma’s Mon State so we’ll take up our South Burma tour photos where we left off with the very scenic boat journey up the Thanlwin, or Salween, River from Moulmein, (Mawlamyine),  to the Karen State capital of Hpa-An. Great boat, helpful skipper and wonderful landscapes made for an excellent trip not forgetting a memorable stop in…

A selection of photos of Mon and Karen States taken on our recently completed, and inaugural, South Burma tour.  Doesn’t matter how much you research new tour itineraries, doing it with a group is always different and teething problems are generally par for the course though, in this case – if we do say so ourselves – all went surprisingly…

Here’s another selection of excellent Burma tour pictures from a recent Discover Burma tour taken by Wi for your perusal.  Burma’s certainly a photographer’s paradise and as usual, Wi returned with literally thousands of images so after making a tricky selection we’ll split our favourites into landscape and portrait posts. So, without further waffle – a few of the landscapes……..

After exploring Bagan and its amazing temples we headed east across the central Burmese plain for the distant Shan Plateau and the small market town of Kalaw. A spectacular visit en-route – an hour’s drive from Bagan – is the dramatic and sacred Mount Popa. Actually a dormant volcano some 1,500 meters high, (c. 4,500 ft), Mt Popa itself is…

Great set of photographs taken on Wi’s recent Burma tour; Discover Burma (Myanmar). The ancient sites at Mingun aren’t usually on the itinerary but since the boat company had seen fit to cancel the Mandalay to Bagan service, siting low numbers during low season, Wi organized an alternative boat trip up the Irrawaddy to visit the riverside site of Mingun…

Great boat trip down this picturesque and as yet unspoilt river, (the Burmese president having recently suspended the controversial Myitsone Dam project), and well worth the early start for the superb dawn views as we headed down the Irrawaddy from Mandalay. According to the Burmese powers that be Aerawaddy is a closer transliteration to the Burmese, (or Myanmar), pronunciation so…

A selection of photos and description of a Rangoon train ride. The Yangon, (Rangoon), circular – (that’s a local railway line, not a 6 lane ring-road or an underground line) – does a loop from the city’s main station through the inner city, suburbs and outlying villages, before returning to the station some 3 hours later. It’s a local train…

As with, for example, Malaysia the wide ethnic mix of Burma (Myanmar) leads to a wide range of Burmese food. Along with regional ethnic groups such as Karen, Shan, Kachin, Thai, Mon etc that contribute towards the indigenous mix, there were, during the British period, large numbers of Nepalese, Indian ((Bengali and Tamil for instance) – and in more recent…

“A golden mystery upheaved itself on the horizon – a beautiful winking wonder that blazed in the sun…”. So described Rudyard Kipling on first setting eyes upon the truly awe-inspiring sight that is Yangon’s, or in his day Rangoon’s, famous Shwedagon Pagoda. The gold leaf-covered central stupa of Shwedagon Paya towers some 100 metres into the Yangon skyline – topped…