Alright /trv/ I'm going to Myanmar the 1st of April as the

I've never been there specifically, but I'm sure you can pay people to stay at their houses UNLESS the government has specifically forbidden this, which tyrannical governments have in the past.
If your lassie is cool as well as cute, y'all could camp a few nights.
Have fun and let us know how it goes. Thinking of going there for honeymoon.

>>1092906
Never found a cheap way to stay in Myanmar. Melbourne prices, Manila standards.

I haven't checked couchsurfing, that might work. There's enough expats there these days...

>>1092916
there's apparently some law requiring tourists to register at local government offices if staying the night in the region outside of a guesthouse. Not really enforced as far as I can tell from reading abit up on the subject

also bump

>>1092906

I've been to Myanmar twice and have a burmese friend, so I think I know a bit about this.

Yes, unfortunately a double room is at least 20$. April is not a very crowded time, so in case you stay in the same place for some nights, you might be fortunate enough to bargain a little and get three nights for 50$ or something, but it won't get any better.

Now Myanmar is changing incredibly quickly, so my knowledge may be outdated again, but when I was there (August 2013 and 2014), it was strictly forbidden to NOT stay in a hostel for the night.

Sleeping at locals was absolutely out of question. My friend told me a year ago about some guys who were arrested for this. (so the locals were arrested) They were set free the other day, so there was no severe punishment or something, but they got in trouble. The police will not get the tourists into problems and rather punish/arrest the locals when there is an issue.

Now that there is a new government, this might change, but I think it will take some time. The country has had almost 30 years of police/military deterrence, so I guess it will take some more time until you can behave and live "normally".

Internet in this country is far away from being fully developed, so I think couchsurfing is not an option at all.

The only time I heard of people was, when a place (Bagan) was too crowded and there were not enough hostel-beds in the city. People had to sleep in a monastery then.

>>1092906
>>1093251

Oh and I think it's not so much the government tax on those guesthouses driving up the prices, but simply the fact that only few houses get a license, and then demand drives the price.

So I guess there is not much room to escape the hostel prices. However, there might be one trick to occasionally save some money (which we did 3 or 4 times): Taking an overnight bus to the next destination. Streets are shitty so you won't get to sleep too much, but it will be okay one night or another.

Also, you might want to take the slow boat from Bagan to Mandalay. The really slow one with the locals, not the "slow" one with the tourists. I think it takes 2 days to get up the river, so you saved another 40 bucks ;)

Oh, and take the 24hr-train to Myitkyina!

One last thing, I really like the LonelyPlanet about Myanmar, it was worth the investment because you had almost no other way to get some info. Hostels say they have wifi, but it's usually something between very shitty and very very shitty... So Myanmar is one of the few places were having a real book in the hands isn't just nice but essential.

>>1093253
Ahh, thanks a bunch for the info. We'll try to suck it up as far as the prices go then, maybe try the eventual bargain.

Overnight busses and slow boats is now a part of the plan also!

I've invested in the LonelyPlanet on SEA - sufficient?
Also seeing as you've been to Myanmar twice, an off-topic question - balloon rides: Worth it or not? Pricy as hell, but I also figure it seems like great fun. What's your thought/experience on it?

>>1093309
SEA lonely planet sucks bad mate wouldn't even consider. there is heaps of good travel books out there and lp isn't one of them. it might be good for Myanmar but get the whole SEA edition will give you like a list of the crappiest places in 10 countries in one single book.
regards, a real traveller

>>1093309
>>1093253

Me again. Make sure to book the bus at least one day in advance, sometimes the seats are already taken if you want to go spontaneously.

I can't tell about the SEA LP, I've never used it. But it's probably just a more condensed version of the single country LPs, so I don't think it will be bad.

However, repeating the fact that the LP will be your only source of information in Myanmar, and given you guys want to stay there up to 4 weeks, I think getting the LP for Myanmar is not a waste of money.

Just make sure to get the latest version since the country really changes quickly. The overnight bus schedules are included, which is very, very useful for planning so naturally you would want to have the LP that is most up to date. Are the schedules also included in the SEA LP?

So about the balloon rides (I assume you mean the ones in Bagan), I cannot tell. Afaik they are 200-300$ and it's operated by a dutch company. If you have money for those rides, 20$ per night shouldnt bother you... If you really want to do it, make sure to find some fellow travellers to max out the seat capacity and get the per person price as far down as possible.

We did not take a ballon ride and climbed on the Pagodas instead to get and overview and watch the sunsets. However, as far is I know it's forbidden to climb the pagodas from 1st of March 2016 because, as always, some respectless tourists ruined it with eating, laughing, dancing and sexy fotoshooting on the pagodas (which are religious buildings!).

Anyway, what my point is: Now that there is no more possibility to get an overview of the pagoda field by climbing them (the country is very flat there) it might be a bit more "useful" to do a balloon ride.

You are aware of the fact that, aside from the Kyats, of course, the burmese only accept very nice and new dollar-bills? Some hostels accept payments in $ only.

>>1093771
Yes now that you mention currency, I am also at a loss - I've read one place that I should get crisp new 100$ bills (for moneychangers), another place that I should get 1$ bills instead (for hotels etc.). Should I do both?

Our budget doesn't really 'allow' the balloon ride desu, but we were wondering whether we should do it anywho - cut our budget short some place else, or whatnot. Think I'm leaning towards not ballooning bcus finances.

the SEA LP has transportation prices, durations and - not all has these - schedules. so wouldnt trust the schedules too much.
Looking up Myanmar travel books tomorrow.

Beaches in Myanmar? Any cool places to daze for a few days? Ngapali is currently the best idea we have here

>>1092906
Those have got to be the ugliest temples I've ever seen, looks like a wasp nest I cleaned out of my garage

>>1092906
you should try Airbnb

I'm in Myanmar now and the latest LP isn't very useful. Things change so rapidly that you have to ignore any information from more than a year or so ago. There's a repository that I found linked on here that had a (pirated free) version you could import into iBooks and read, so try to find that.

In general prices have risen across the board compared to what I'm reading from a few years ago. It's much more expensive to travel here than anywhere else I've been in SE Asia and there's no way of avoiding it.

>>1093771
Balloon rides are $320-380 and sell out days ahead of time even in less crowded times.

It's still possible to climb the temples. Everyone does it at sunrise/sunset.

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5MB, 4320x3240px

>>1093771
>>1093791
>>1094021

Me again. Looks like you are right about the climbing

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/myanmar/articles/myanmar-u-turn-on-bagan-temple-climb-ban/

Thanks fo the info, I just knew about the ban. So in that case there is a bunch of climbable pagodas, just follow the crowd in the evenings and you'll find it.

So about the dollarbills, I think we had a mixture of everything between 1 and 50. No rocket science, If the hostel wants 22$ you will give 22 or give 25 and get 3 back.

There are some moneychaning offices in the big cities, they would accept any bill. The larger the bill, the better the exchange rate, but 100 and 50 were treated equally. Pic realted.

In fact, if you need Kyats, there are enough ATMs by now working with credit cards were you can just get your money for free. Every larger city has some, so we never ran into cash problems. (In 2013 though, the system was so young they charged 5k MMK for getting money at the ATM and the maximum amount you could get was 15k MMK).

About the schedules: I can just say again that our LP was very precise, but I am sure they change quickly so maybe it was just luck. Another way to find out the schedules: When you arrive in the place, you automatically know where the bus terminal is. You can go there anytime and ask them about all the prices/times/destinations.

Beaches, I can't tell too much. Mgapali is the best "normal" destination I guess. The southern beaches seem to be heaven on earth, but they are not so easy to reach and it seems to me like they are really expensive down there. But I don't know much about the beaches. The weather was not that good back then so my burmese friend advised me to not go there.

>>1094137

oh, and no need to be shoked about the exchange rate, back then it was like 1:975 or something, so the rate of 970/960 was quite well and better than expected.

I am German, we were very surprised to see that the also accept €. Too bad we spent money beforehand to get our €s exchanged to $s.

I am not sure how serious they are about the €-bills, but I think they would have to look just as nice as the dollars.

Oh, and it's no joke, we once tried to pay with a okay-looking 20$-bill (perfectly fine for western standards) but they refused it first. They called the boss and he said he would accept it as 18$.

Ok i just read in our visa info That we Can be denied entry if we have no proof of our intentions to leave the country again. We have a flight ticket booked from vietnam 2,5 months later going home. Will This suffice as we intend to go through a land border to thailand to leave the country and thus wouldnt need to book any tickets for This purpose?

Also, exchanging money - do/dont? In AirPort, Yangon Or through Black market?

>>1093253
The local ferry still only takes a day, but it only goes a couple days a week (Wednesdays and Sundays I think).

>>1094598
I think the visa thing doesn't apply to tourists so much, we were never asked to show our return ticket.

For the money exchange, I would never go to the black market. There are enough real offices at the airports and in the city centers.