Excursions Myanmar

We will visit Myanmar (Yangon) at the end of December. Ship excursions are extremely expensive and limited to only a few options for 3 days. Does anyone have suggestions what is nice to visit and can you recommend a good and safe excursion company?

Bagan? Unbelievable number of temples - go to the top of the new tower at sunset for a good view and photos.

Myanmar is not worth a cruise - definitely a land tour required.

I would do all this through your cruise line.

Please remember that the tourist infrastructure is not the same here as you might find in more mature tourist areas of the world.

You can see a lot during your stay there. We have.

Enjoy.

Keith

We are going to Myanmar this November and will be touring on our own. However we will have many arrangements made by a local travel agency which was recommended to me by many posters on Trip Advisor. This agency is One Stop. You can read more by going to Trip Advisor. There are many other local agencies which would be able to arrange a private tour for you.

Be aware the port is at least 1.5 hours away from downtown Yangoon & traffic in the city is horrible, worse than Bangkok. So, allow plenty of time to get in/get back - 3 hours of car travel minimum. If your ship overnights, consider a hotel room in town.

There are plenty of tour companies that will provide a superior experience than a ship bus tour. We were in Yangoon last month - several passengers went to the port front gate, negotiated with taxis and ended up (so they report) with a fine full day experience to/from the city. US dollars - clean & crisp - are preferred currency and English is widely spoken.

If you do a day tour, the highlight is of course the Schwedegon complex (very hot mid-day with the marble flooring) & Scott's Market. But I thought a walk through downtown and Chinatown was fascinating. Stop for a cool drink at the Strand Hotel.

Our small group used Myanmar Shalom for a two day tour. I do not recommend that company. Other tour companies are on Trip Advisor with far better feedback.

Has anyone used Tours by Locals?

We used Tour Mandalay in Yangon. We had a good guide, Giovanni (Johnny) and driver, Min Min. I think they arrange tours all over the country, although we just stayed in Yangon. They seemed to be very reliable, and were recommended to us by friends of my sister-in-lae in Australia, who had used the company a number of times.

The current Dawn Princess world cruise had their overnight call to Yangoon cancelled .They were told that the river had silted up and the ship could not dock.

What a big disappointment! I'm booked for a February 2015 cruise and the only reason I'm going is the three days in Myanmar. I've looked into river cruises and land tours and since my DH and I are at the end of our traveling years, we're taking a cruise. Hopefully we'll be lucky and have no problem then.

Sheila

I am going in Mar. 2015 so hopefully it will be open by then.

Does anybody have any up to date information? We're going in November 2014. Thanks.

We went with shalom tours this past February and it was the highlight of our cruise. Sammy was there and we had kid dish in the temple with his father who is a trustee of the temple....the second day we went to Baganda and it was fabulous as well. Highly recommend this tour...

We went with shalom tours this past February and it was the highlight of our cruise. Sammy was there and we had kid dish in the temple with his father who is a trustee of the temple....the second day we went to Baganda and it was fabulous as well. Highly recommend this tour...

Great news!

Did you do your visa through the ship? We will be there on the Ocean Princess in April. Will do a day tour with Shalom including the temple.

Actually we will be in Myanmar for a longer land tour with Shalom in March so have to do two separate visas, but don't have enough time to get them before we leave the US.

I have read that doing the ships visa takes several hours:eek:

As I posted above, our experience with Shalom in March this year was unsatisfactory. Other posters here say differently. To each his/her own.

The visa issue is tricky. You can not use the same visa to enter Myanmar twice - first independently, then a return by cruise ship. My suggestion is to use the cruise line to obtain a visa for admission when your ship docks.

But, on your own, purchase a visa from the Burmese embassy in DC for your pre-cruise March visit. Its easy, the embassy was efficient in our case. You can not obtain a visa online - as you can with Vietnam and Cambodia - but using Federal Express to/from the VISA section at the US embassy worked just fine for us and provides written certification of receipt at both ends. You can also use services that will handle the paperwork for you with the embassy although the process is very simple and easy.

wristband.....quote..."As I posted above, our experience with Shalom in March this year was unsatisfactory. Other posters here say differently. To each his/her own."

Thanks for the reply.

What were you unhappy about with Shalom's service. It is too late to change the operator, we will be doing a river cruise with just a couple of extra nights on land. Just want to be prepared for possible problems.

We can only get the Myanmar visa 90 days out and will be leaving the US 65 days before we arrive in Myanmar so there is only about 3 weeks turn around time, very close in the best of times. This is over the Christmas holidays when things run slow due to weather, more mail and closings. We have an Indian visa in our passports which we need for this trip also so can't risk the passport being delayed or lost.

We will have to let Shalom get our visa letter and I know it is only good for one trip. We can get another visa while in Bangkok, but will waste a day doing so. Princess is suggesting getting a visa ahead of time to allow for a full day touring. I am wondering how the visa through the ship went for others.

After Sept 1, we may be able to get a visa letter directly over the net maybe, but this has been promised for awhile so... who knows.

The current Dawn Princess world cruise had their overnight call to Yangoon cancelled .They were told that the river had silted up and the ship could not dock.

 

 

We are sailing on the Volendam departing Singapore Dec. 22.14 and will be docked in Thilawa for 3 days. After reading your post, I contacted HAL asking if there will be any problems with the ship docking. I was assured that there were no problems.

We had a similar problem on the old Royal Princess several years ago when we were unable to dock in Tristan da Cuhna only to find out afterwards that in fact the harbour had been dredged - I would if this is a similar situation?

Lynne

We are sailing on the Volendam departing Singapore Dec. 22.14 and will be docked in Thilawa for 3 days. After reading your post, I contacted HAL asking if there will be any problems with the ship docking. I was assured that there were no problems.

 

We had a similar problem on the old Royal Princess several years ago when we were unable to dock in Tristan da Cuhna only to find out afterwards that in fact the harbour had been dredged - I would if this is a similar situation?

 

Lynne

That is too bad the Dawn Princess couldn't dock, It is a bigger ship than the Ocean Princess, who is almost small enough to make it to the downtown docks. I know this port has had several missed calls in the past.

Please post about your experience in Dec as the HAL ship is also larger.

Are you letting HAL do a visa on arrival? Oceania's Insignia will also be there next spring for 3 days...she is a sister ship to the Ocean. I am tempted to just let the ship do that visa since anything can go wrong. I have arranged a tour for us and 6 others with the group we will have just done land tour with in March. I just don't want to waste several hours doing the ship visa, but....

It is a fairly new port of call, so I guess there is not too much info yet. I do know that the ships sail a ways up the river to dock and the tides have a big effect on the timing, but that should be known days in advance, I would think.

Re: Myanmar Visas: if possible, you should purchase the re-entry visa on your ship if the cruise line offers that option. We did so via Oceania and it was no problem, albeit the cost was higher than purchasing visas from the DC embassy. Myanmar's DC embassy Visa Section is efficient. Perhaps you can take that route for the "initial" entry visa for your independent travel - we did so and the turn around time was less than five days using FedEx.

India is a whole other story & not a good story. Ironically, India "outsourced" its visa service to a private company that is a reliable mess. I won't bore you with the details but we were meticulous with paperwork at the web site and we filed online. It took several weeks, wrong instructions post-filing sent from the service, it was impossible to get anyone to answer a simple question on the post-filing issue by phone or email.

We went to the US visa service, sat for three hours, eventually learned our initial online filing was perfect and received our India visa three weeks later. Again, you might consider a private service to obtain both India and Myanmar visas should your timing be of concern prior to leaving home. Your cruise line can suggest such a service or a Google search will help. I know several other pax who chose this service - paid more but had peace of mind.

We also planned to obtain our re-entry Myanmar visa when in Bangkok after our independent travel in country but prior to our cruise embarkation in Bangkok. However, the DC embassy urged us not to do so - turn around time in Bangkok is unpredictable which might not comport with your timing. You might have a two week wait to get the second visa or you might get it in 48 hours. Who knows? Why take the risk?

Shalom: I posted my specific concerns on CC and Trip Advisor. I have corresponded with Sammy a number of times detailing on our unhappiness as posted. The biggest factor I believe you should be cognizant of - based on our personal experience - is poor or nonexistent communication we experienced in other cities from the Rangoon office. Sammy is busy going to/from New York to work on trade deals with businesses eager to enter Burma. Shalom itself is experiencing great growing pains with the sudden spurt in tourism and now has 22 employees. It is my opinion the outfit needs far more management supervision and a leadership presence in Rangoon than what is presently the case.

Look, mistakes happen. Myanmar lacks the infrastructure of Singapore or Thailand, its a poor and corrupt country, travel schedules change unexpectedly, etc etc - all of which is perfectly understandable. As a guest in a foreign country, one needs to lower expectations and go with the flow each day. Got it, no issue with us.

That said, we experienced unacceptable circumstances as a result of Shalom's decisions. We felt we should have received a professional, adult response and effort to resolve the problems while we were their client. That did not happen and the communication from the head office was unacceptable. Based on our experience this year, I can not recommend the company. Others, obviously, had different experiences.

I do hope your experience does not mirror ours but echoes the positive feelings of others here. I also very much hope Sammy will step up to provide the necessary attention and management oversight his service needs so it will continue to grow without the missteps we experienced.

I should add the guides assigned to us (we were on a private tour for two weeks) were terrific except for one exception. Myanmar guides used are independent contractors who work for several tour outfits. But, again, our guides were for the most part very good and responsive to our interests.

Thanks wristband for your reply.

Glad to know you didn't have any problems with getting your Myanmar visa on the ship. That has our plan from the beginning, but Princess now has a note on the Myanmar visa for our trip saying we might want to do one ahead of time so as not to be delayed getting off the ship. Even so that visa is not really the problem. Plus currently Bangkok is issuing the visas the same day, it is just time consuming waiting in line, but again that is the one we need for the port day in Rangoon.

It is the visa we need for the earlier land trip that is the concern....according to several people responding on Fodors, it is currently taking 2-3 weeks to get their visas from DC whether they mail it themselves or go through a service. We will have exactly 3 weeks and 2 days over the Christmas/New Year Holidays, a time when mail can really get fouled up. I will talk to a visa service (we have always handled this ourselves but..) just to see what they say. The on-line E-visa starts on Sept 1 so that is a possibility, but for now we would have to fly to Rangoon first then on to Mandalay, instead of the current flight direct to Mandalay. The easiest (safest as far as the passport is concerned) is to let Shalom get us the visa on arrival.

You are right it is a very backward country that has become a tourist hot spot almost over night. We do not have high expectations, so hopefully we will have a good experience with Shalom....they were the most responsive of the agents we contacted. This kind of travel is always risky.

Fortunately we got our 10 year Indian visas for a land trip in 2013 just before their current visa mess started. So this trip is covered. The current Indian mess is one reason I don't want to put our passports in an iffy situation, of course, the other is we can't leave the country unless we have our passports and the ship won't wait for us.

Again thanks.

We are on a river cruise in Myanmar. Are American dollars accepted?

Our Myanmar Tour Agent has said not to widely, but we can exchange US at the airport. Be sure to bring brand new, not folded or marked bills. $100's work well. There are a few ATM's in the large cities that may actually be working when you need one and some places in the large cities also now take credit cards, again not many.

ATMs are becoming prevalent and credit cards are now widely accepted at major hotels and restaurants with no additional "commission" plopped atop transactions as they were in the past.

Every hotel we stayed at accepted VISA or AmEx for our charges and there was no problem on our statements back home. However, much depends on the state of the satellite or online connection - and Burmese electricity - to process/withdraw. For example, in Bagan, our hotel accepted all major credit cards and charged all room charges in USD. At an early morning check out and despite repeated attempts and apologies, the hotel Internet connection was down so we paid in cash with various bills ($20s, $10s & $100s). Electricity frequently goes down in Yangoon but the major hotels have their own generators.

Bring US cash in various denominations, US dollars accepted everywhere including local outdoor markets and high end artisanal gift shops (such as lacquer ware). We rarely experienced demand for crisp $100 dollars except with money changers. Local currency is good for tips, smaller items, coffee etc. Local money changers vary their conversion rate depending on the state of your bills. The newer and crisper and higher amount of US bills, the better the currency exchange rate. A crisp $100 bill gets a far more favorable exchange than a crumpled $100 bill or five $20 bills. Your guide will know where to exchange.

Caution at the airport - currency exchange booths are privately run with different rates. Take a moment to shop after you arrive b/c you likely only need to exchange once.

We did have a "situation" at a drinks stand in Yangoon - famous for their delicious avocado smoothies and snacks. The owner refused to accept our rumpled ten dollar bill for about six bucks worth of refreshment. He eagerly accepted a crisp US twenty and gave $15ish in change. Weird but roll with it and carry a couple of local Burmese bills.

Do not take any Burmese currency when you leave as it is impossible to exchange back into USD here in the US or elsewhere in Asia. Unless you want to gift it to a naïve relative, give your remaining local cash to your guide. If you don't use, you will lose it in terms of value.

We budgeted NO more than $30 USD cash per person per day in Myanmar. That proved too high for nearly two weeks of in-country travel living it up.

Re Visas Onboard in Rangoon: Princess has a larger cruise ship than Oceania (about 800 pax) but the immigration process with almost everyone on our cruise obtaining their visa through O worked quickly, efficiently and pleasantly.

Myanmar Immigration had a number of officers on board that cranked out the paperwork with all of us processed and off the ship within one hour! That may not be the case for your cruise but at least I can relate to you our first hand experience. We were meeting with our Shalom guide (this was after our two week visit pre-cruise) to tour Yangoon at the port. The port is a minimum of 1.5 hours from Yangoon and Yangoon traffic is the absolute worst I have experienced in Asia - worse than Bangkok, worse than Manila, worse than Saigon.

My point is many passengers, including yours truly, were anxious to get off and meet our private tours and then top amscray from the port pronto without delay. We had three days in port in Yangoon (er, 90 minutes from Yangoon) so our time was a valued resource. Again, the immigration visa process was flawless and efficient and quick.

It could be the immigration officials onboard could have cared less and mindless processed the paperwork without a care in the world. Or, it could be they are used to the drill and wanted us off and out asap. Who knows? But I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the onboard visa process being more expeditiously than assumed. Not to knock Princess but they are tempering expectations.

I do understand the anxiety over the Xmas holiday break and the time restriction on the visa. The online visa process was still not available earlier this summer and the Myanmar embassy web site has been claiming for FOUR YEARS! they would offer evisas online. Maybe that has finally changed but as of several months ago it was still "beta testing."

You need to do what makes you feel most comfortable. But I do believe if you use overnight delivery by FedEx to/from the DC embassy, you will have your visas much sooner than two weeks. FedEx is reliable, you will get a signature confirmation and the turn around time is pretty good. We applied at the same time (December) you plan to do so for a March visit and could only do so after our passports were returned from BIS with our India visas.

Took five days total - from our home to the DC embassy and back.

No guarantee of what you will experience but I can say it was easy and prompt.

wristband,

Thanks for the details about the ship and Embassy visa process. It is probably similar for all ships and the time depends on the number of passengers. Plus the officials are doing it more and more these days.

Unless the process for getting one in Bangkok is as straight forward next March as it currently is, we will do the ship visa. We are scheduled to dock at 7, but are not being picked up until 9 so the timing should also work out OK. It is just one of those things when cruising.

If you were on one of Oceania's three small ships, they and the two Princess small ships are all sister "R" ships. We have been on the Ocean Princess before and she carries 680 passengers max now. I know Wikipedia says over 800, but fortunately it is wrong. So the process should be about the same.

Guess I will just wait and see how things play out for our first visa. We have plenty of time and things in Myanmar are somewhat of a moving target. Think I will contact the Embassy about turn around time and see if we can get two visas at the same time, since I will have all the final paper work for the travel for the two visits by then. That is probably asking for too much!

Yes, indeed they are sister ships - "old" Renaissance ships which are perfect for your cruise. 786 passengers max, the ship can easily maneuver in and out of urban ports (ie. Bangkok) vs docking 2-3 hours away as must large RCL and Princess ships.

If you have not done so, spend time prioritizing & carving out what you really want to see in Yangoon. It is not a great city but there are interesting places to visit separate and apart from Schwedagon (try to visit the temple at sunset, it is the Burmese "passiagetta" resembling that in small Italian towns - monks and families out & about walking circle-wise around the large complex, incense burning, bells clanging, oil lamps being lit, sunlight slowly dims and disappears, reflecting sun light off the gold spires, night lights come on, magical).

Lonely Planet guide is a good resource but outdated and has information that is wrong. The UK Footprint guide is quite good, order it from Amazon. NY Times Travel section profile of Yangoon late last year/early 2014 cites a book of photographs of 20 old British colonial buildings. If you stop by the Strand Hotel, which has an excellent gift shop albeit overpriced with quality Burmese artifacts and other items, you can purchase a copy there. NY Times also rec'd Pomelo for lunch (it is worth it) - if so do visit the charity run store next door upstairs. That store has very interesting textiles and jewelry from Shan tribes that might interest you. We are not shoppers but wanted to support their charitable efforts and were pleasantly surprised at several unusual items that we purchased (such as a scarf dyed with a certain berry that only is available in the hill country one month each year). The shop is mentioned in Lonely Planet and the NYT article & on the menu at Pomelo.

Your time is too valuable and the constraints of city traffic - really, standstill car to car jams - so be determined with your guide. Its your time, not theirs. The museum is skippable - not worth a visit, dark and dingly. Scott market is as publicized enormous but unless you want to haggle over cheap t-shirts or longyis, skip it also - the Burmese also avoid it thinking the prices are too high and too many tourists visit by the bus load.

The park on the lake in town with the famous concrete bird barge (actually a restaurant run by an apparatchik of the generals) is not worth a special stop. Skip it. You can't get near Sun Sui/The Lady's house on the other major lake in town (we tried, no luck).

Instead, I suggest you do make arrangements to visit the synagogue (Sammy's father is the caretaker), walk through China Town's street, go to the open air downtown food markets that are rock & rolling at night - esp 19th Street with the rock bands - visit a tea house and sip tea, go to a noodle shop and slurp delicious Mohinga, have what they call a "tea salad" which is a mishmash of peanuts and greens in a spicy paste, very tasty.

Plenty to see instead of wasting time at the museum or the usual vulgar ship stops. If you want something bizarre, tell your guide to drive to Augustin's located in the green & shady embassy district for original weird tribal antiques. Its darkly lit but the silver stuff is real and the old opium weights in the shape of ducks, geese etc and opium weight scales are the real deal made in the 1840s in Shan state. When we were there the shop was shipping crates full of items to buyers in the US. Its near the Governor's Residence which has lovely open air grounds and is an old teak hotel structure from pre-British colonial days. Go there for break in your tour, have a nice Burmese lunch - G.R. is a 5 star hotel with none of the airs of a 4 Seasons. Plus, your lunch will be a meal comprised of organic and local ingredients with a number of Burmese specialties that are hard to find anywhere else.

We know another couple that went to a snake/alligator farm just outside Yangoon. We did not go but they said it was a blast.

The point being you need to be militant about what you want to see and why before you get there. Don't rely on Shalom to direct you to the typical tourist route they take people on. The guide will be perfectly happy to adjust and accommodate your schedule needs.