With our spring break finally here, (we’re leaving a couple of days early) it’s time to head off on one of our bigger trips of the year. I’d also consider it one of our more ambitious destinations to visit with a toddler.
When selecting where to go this time around we knew wanted to head back to Asia but had no clear-cut destination in mind.
Our top three options were South Korea, Laos and Myanmar (Burma).
I was planning to allow award flight availability to dictate where we went but it turned out that we had a choice between our top 2, Laos and Myanmar.
Since our trip to Thailand, I’ve wanted to visit both of these countries to see amazing temples, sample local food as well as see what every day life is like. I had hoped that some day we’d have enough time during a break to see both Laos and Myanmar during one trip but that was highly unlikely to ever happen.
With Myanmar probably being the destination I’ve most wanted to visit for years, it was the easy choice as our destination for this trip!
Kim, Lucas and I will be starting out on our trip to Myanmar tonight. It will be a long journey, taking three flights to get us there.
We’ll be visiting four cities:
- Mandalay
- Inle Lake
- Bagan
- Yangon
From what I’ve read, WiFi is really slow and unreliable throughout Myanmar. If this is the case, I don’t know how much I’ll be posting while we’re away.
Please pardon the interruption. Some posts are scheduled. Regular programming will return to normal once we’re back from our trip! 🙂
If you’ll be traveling somewhere over this year’s spring break, please let us know where in the comments below.
Alex- We already booked our flights from home and avoided the bad one. I forgot the name too. Just finishing up our visit to Mandalay. They city is OK but some of the sites close to the city were really good. Thanks for the other suggestions!
MFK- Thanks!
I was there last year, so I know you’ll enjoy. ATMs are readily available in Yangon and Bagan also has a few, and credit cards are accepted in a lot of places, so you don’t need to bring that much cash, by the way. Safe travels.
Alex- We thought about taking the buses but with only a couple of weeks, we’re saving time by flying from city to city. Where else did you go?
Charlie- Thanks! We did make sure to get some crisp bills! Hopefully what we have are crisp enough! 🙂
Glenn- Had no clue what this meant but Googled it and saw Monty Python. lol
Flying is definitely a good choice but one of the airlines is awful. I’m no help as I can’t remember which one.
Yangon: Strand Hotel for happy hour (if your there on Friday) and Shwedagon Pagoda (sunrise/sunset), shan noodle parlor, night food market (the best) and all the other stuff in the NYT 36 hours in Yangon.
Mandalay: I’d skip this city entirely because Bagan has the great pagodas. Aye Myit Tar, No. 530, 81st Street (between 36th and 37th) restaurant (see wikitravel), Mann Restaurant Mann Restaurant, 83rd Street (Between 25th & 26th Streets).
Bagan: good luck riding the crappy bicycles haha. the famous pagoda for sunrise and a different for sunset. the worst hostels/hotels and food.
You saved me a trip report.
Sorry, I panicked.
Penguins don’t come from next door! They come from the Antartic!
Have a great time! When I was headed there (ended up canceling) a couple of years ago, it seemed all of the advice that stuck out was to have crisp US currency for exchange. Not sure if that is still as much of an issue or not.
Looking forward to hearing the reports and seeing some jump photos!
Oh Mandalay. Not the place to spend NYE. Was there in December, the city comes up well short of Vegas. The beach town Ngwe Saung had the best food followed by Yangon. Bagan was expensive all around.
Curious to hear your thoughts. I hope you are not taking the boat from Mandalay to Bagan! VIP buses were great.