Destination: Myanmar

LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL ITINERARY INFORMATION

Itinerary: Ayeyarwady HO!

THREE TO FOUR WEEKS / MYITKINA TO CHAUNGTHA

This may be Myanmar’s ultimate journey – from Myanmar’s top to bottom, mostly following the Ayeyarwady, hitting the off-the-beaten track and not missing Mandalay or Bagan, with opportunities to travel aboard ferries with locals who rarely see a foreign face.



Fly to Myitkyina, where you can wait for the next ferry by taking in Kachin culture; in January animal sacrifices are made to satisfy the nat. Get a deck ticket for the half-day trip to Bhamo, a leafy town with a home-made helicopter inspired by James Bond. Hire a longboat for a six-hour ride to Katha, where George Orwell based his Burmese Days. Although most prefer to stay aboard for the 24 hours south to Mandalay, for a fun four-day side trip, disembark at Kyaukmyaung, and pack into a pick-up for quiet Shwebo, and then pleasant Monywa, near a Buddha-shaped mountain and the carnivalesque Thanboddhay Paya, brimming with over 500,000 Buddhas.

Take a bus to Mandalay, and spend three or four days visiting the ancient cities and biking around pagodas and chapati stands; then get back on the Ayeyarwady to Bagan, where you can cycle around 3000 temples. A couple of days south from Bagan by boat is ho-hum Magwe, near a gurgling mound of butane-gas sludge guarded by snakes at Minbu; another night south is Pyay, to see the ruins of the ancient city of the Pyu and the nearby spectacled Buddha, the Shwemyetman Paya.

Many travellers brave the bus from Pyay to Ngapali Beach for some relaxing beach life. Otherwise, get a bus back to Yangon, and another one southeast to Chaungtha Beach, a more accessible kick-back spot on the Bay of Bengal.