Travellers' reviews about Burma

Great destination - hopefully the political unrest settles soon - stunning trip at Inle lake.

Meeting people and seeing many aspects of their 'everyday life'. Perhaps the biggest factor was having local guides. This enabled us to experience things that we would never have done on our own.

We absolutely loved Myanmar and agreed it exceeded our expectations. Our highlights were visiting real local markets, fascinating local industries, visiting the cool hills of Pindaya and Pin oo Lwin, riding on long tails boats up and down Inle lake, travelling on Tri shaw and horse and carts, local trains and a wonderful boat cruise from Mandalay to Bagan. Cycling round Bagan was wonderful and made up for our cancelled balloon flight then ending our trip on beautiful Ngapali beach watching amazing sunsets and eating in the local fish restaurants was very special and a wonderful way to unwind after an amazing trip.

Burma is really different from the other south East Asian countries. The country is still pretty unspoilt. That makes the people so friendly, open and warm. Visiting Yangon, Mandalay, Inle Lake and Bagan was a great choice. We were glad to do Mandalay to Bagan overland to get even more understanding of the country. To do all this in 8 days was quite intensive but absolutely worth.

Everything was fine and as expected. The country is full of beautiful Pagodas, but the passengers are little bored. Remove some of the pagodas and give importance to some other aspects also

I requested specific hotels, destinations and sites and I am grateful for your input. the organisation you provided since landed in Yangon and until departure was perfect our guides: Soe in mandalay was a very knowledgeable chap with a great sense of humour and understanding. we enjoyed his company and explanations / views of the country past and now. definitely will keep in touch with him. Kinsoe in Bagan proved to be very aware of history facts and dates and made our discovery of the Bagan site very interesting as well. As for the chap in Yangon, I feel he has a lot to learn; his tour of the city was boring and apart from some historical facts, he was more interested in talking to the mates he met along the way and shopping for his kids than taking us around. we had to wait for him several times which is not acceptable. his suggestion of a restaurant for lunch was very very bad (and I mean bad) and his ' the company reserved you a special surprise in the afternoon not part of the tour' was part of the agenda anyway ! I did not even tell him I already knew; I dont think he would understand ! hotels: Belmond governor house was perfect; room, location, style, food, service...as expected By the red canal in mandalay is really a 3 stars disguised into a higher level. indian food very good, service slow and amenities were very basic for a hotel of this category. also very steep access to rooms , no handrails; very dangerous. very basic bathroom facilities. breakfast a disaster. The boat trip was superb; boat, accomodation, service, food, the crew and organisation were top. unfortunately the guide was very unprepared, his explanations disjointed and comments (when available)basic and very boring. everyone on board complained about his knowledge and communication skills) Hotel in Bagan was just above basic: had to complain on arrival: dirty room, internet not functionning, room door lock brocken, dirty bathroom. the grounds and steps leading to our room were not clean and unswept during the whole of our stay ! food very average, nylon table cloth with holes... not a 5 stars. service staff very friendly and wanting to please though. the hotel in Nagpali was excellent, both in location and service and hopefully will be preserved as is. food a bit expensive considering the quality and choice. summary: very enjoyable journey discovering Myanmar and thank you for the organisation. hope the demand and development dont ruin the landscape of the country in the years to come. found that the level of service demanding western prices was not always met, specially for the quality of food in some location. it was pleasing to get to know the locals, their views and aspirations and to witness the happiness of the people.

Overall our trip was beyond our expectations. I would definately recommend hot air ballooning over Bagan. The chosen accommodation was excellent. Transport was very comfortable and we experienced a great variety of locations .

Our trip was well managed by the agency. Everything happened according to schedule. Our drivers were friendly & helpful though one spoke no English at all. Our flights on Yardanarbon airlines were all late because of weather conditions but were safe and used new planes. Drivers were always waiting for us and delays did not spoil our trip. Hotels were as described in M D's info package. We stayed in beautiful places at Inle Lake, Ngapali & Bagan. Perhaps it might be worth spending more money to stay in better hotels in the cities. Highlights of our trip were Mandalay Hill, the Irrawaddy Boat trip to Bagan (in a tropical storm!), Inle Lake and Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon. The local agency & their employees did a good job for us.

It was well organised and executed. The transports were very very comfortable with nearly new vehicles. The guides took care of every thing that mattered.

30/1/16 Mandalay – Mingun - Mandalay Hotel M3 - good Guide waiting for us at airport, interesting trip to Mingun coming back on the river at sunset. A good day 31/1/16 Mandalay –Ava - Sagaing – Amarapura - Mandalay Hotel M3- good Interesting day with variety. U Bein bridge / sunset; a good end to the day 01/2/16 Mandalay – Pyin Oo Lwin – Gotheik – Hsipaw Mr Charles Hotel - good A fast drive to Pin Oo Lwin to catch the train on a busy stretch of road – not enjoyable. Fascinating and enjoyable to see life at the station whilst waiting for the train and the train ride was very interesting too. 02/2/16 Hsipaw tek Mr Charles Hotel - good The walks before and after the boat ride were fascinating [good local Shan guide]; good simple lunch; and the boat ride was enjoyable too. An excellent day. 03/2/16 Hsipaw – Pyin Oo Lwin – Mandalay - Monywa Hotel Chindwin – very good Drive from Hsipaw to Pyin Oo Lwin [POL] interesting. We spent too long time looking at colonial properties in POL, given that time was short and not nearly enough at the Botanical garden. Then the drive to Monywa was extremely long and tedious. We spent the last 2 hours driving in darkness. And it took this long without us visiting Thanboddhay pagoda or the standing Buddha. It was too much to do and too far for one day and the guide’s interest in colonial properties did not help. This day’s itinerary was poor. 04/2/16 Monywa – Hpo Win Daung – Pakokku – Bagan Bagan Princess Hotel – hotel seemed a little run down, but the staff were splendid Interesting trip to Hpo Win Daung. Enjoyable trip down the river to Bagan with sunset on boat. 05/2/16 Bagan Bagan Princess Hotel Interesting day among the temples. Visited the street market; Interesting cart ride around Bagan to see the sunset over the temples - beautiful 06/2/16 Bagan – Kalaw Thitawlay House – we stayed in the Kalaw Princess Hotel which was excellent We drove to Kalaw without time pressure and included a visit to a toddy palm facility. A good, interesting day. The cycle supplier, Naing Naing, visited us in the evening of 6th to brief us – very helpful. 07/2/16 Kalaw – cycle Pindaya – Inle Lake Hotel Brilliant – very impressive. The bike ride was excellent through rural areas with another excellent local guide. Pindaya was interesting, but the guide spent too long there, so we ended up driving in the dark again. Generally a good day apart from the drive in the dark. 08/2/16 Inle Lake – Indein Village – Inle Lake Hotel Brilliant Visited the Inle heritage hospitality school [not on the itinerary but would recommend it to others] where we had lunch. An excellent day. 09/2/16 Inle Lake – Heho fly to Yangon Mother’s Home Hotel A very satisfactory hotel with staff who were very keen to help. We visited a ‘paper’ making facility which was very interesting. Yangon - too long sitting in traffic queues looking at colonial buildings when it would have been better to walk either on the streets or around Kandawgyi Lake. Shwedagon pagoda interesting. A good day spoilt by sitting in traffic. 10/2/16 Yangon – Dhala Village – Yangon fly to Bangkok City Point Hotel – a quality hotel. A really fascinating visit to the village of Dhala and its market. The guide, Cho, was excellent – helpful, informative and quickly in tune with what we wanted to do. Finished the trip at Inya Lake for lunch. An excellent half day. 11/2/16 Bangkok fly to UK 1 Hotels – generally of a better standard than we had expected with lovely, friendly, helpful staff and we were very satisified. We did not need to bring towels as all hotels provided them. 2 Restaurants – we ate in various locations, rarely at the hotel where we were staying, and were delighted with the food. Our guide identified that we were willing to take some risks with what we ate and took us to local restaurants. Very satisfied. 3 Guide – You [30/1/16] A charming lady. She showed us as much as we wanted to see of the temples at Mingun, giving as much information as she could. She was worried that we did not get to Mandalay Hill, but it was not her fault. There simply wasn’t time available and we saw the sunset from our boat.. Very satisified. Arkar [31/1/16 – 9/2/16] was very knowledgeable and keen to show us all aspects of Buddhism and the many temples. He also had a great interest in historical matters, engineering and colonial buildings. He showed us a range of different types of food at different, reasonably priced restaurants and introduced us to road side snacks, which we would not have had the courage to undertake alone. He was poor at discussing the itinerary in advance and explaining when the itinerary needed to change due to unforeseen external factors eg travel time taking longer than we expected. This meant that minor issues of when we were going to stop to eat and have access to a toilet were often unclear. We felt that we were not involved in deciding the balance of ‘spending more time in one location compared with missing out on a temple somewhere else’ Arkar got better as the week progressed as we gave him this feedback. For example the day on Inle Lake we had an early lunch as we liked the setting of the heritage hospitality school. We spent more time in the boat which we thoroughly enjoyed and only made a brief stop at Nga Phe Chaung monastery. Reasonably satisfied Cho [10/2/16 Dhala Village] seemed knowledgeable and had a better understanding of how we, as a family, wanted to spend our day. He discussed the itinerary in advance and offered us choices wherever possible. He had a charming manner and we would recommend him. Very satisfied. 4 Transport – overall the organisation of transport was very efficient and good. All the motor vehicles were comfortable and very clean and the drivers were always punctual and friendly. The horse and cart trips were a pleasant change and the drivers were informative and friendly. All boat travel was comfortable and punctual with friendly staff. The bikes at Kalaw provided by Naing Naing were good and the guide was excellent and friendly. Naing Naing also provided a back up vehicle and had met us the night before in order to provide extra information. The trishaw drivers at Dhala were friendly and informative. Very satisfied. 5 Organisation – Very impressive. Everything was in place when we arrived at each new location. Very satisfied. 6 Best and worst: best - the bike ride; worst – the journey from Hsipaw to Monywa and too much time looking at Colonial buildings in Pyin Oo Lwin 8 Did we have sufficient information about Burma? – Mainly - the quality of hotels was far better than we expected; more advice on tipping would be helpful 9 Did it live up to expectations? Yes, in fact it was better. The Burmese population are very friendly, helpful and most welcoming 10 Overall what did we think of the trip? Extremely good; well organised and no problems at any stage, apart from the itinerary 3/2/16 as described. Very good recommendation by Dirk to fly to Bangkok and then to Mandalay and return from Yangon. It was sensible to start in Mandalay rather than Yangon. 11 Would we recommend this trip to friends? Yes we would recommend Evaneos without reservation. We have been very impressed. We would advise any friend to look more carefully at the detail in the daily itinerary than we did – for us we would reduce the overall distances travelled, number of temples visited and put more emphasis on trekking/cycling off the beaten track. 12 My email: masterskeithmasters@hotmail.com A query for you: We were very pleased with the first driver on our tour and are sad we did not give him a bigger tip – he drove for us from 30 January until 4 February. Is there any way you can help us get some more money to him please? Dear Marie, As you know I travelled to Myanmar with my family at the end of January. I received a proposed itinerary from Dirk Van der Stockt on 28 October 2015. It offered two options costing either $1699 or $1499. Part of the itinerary included day 12 Yangon – a half day visit to the village of Dhala. After some delay we agreed to pay the $1499 per person for the trip based on the original itinerary. On 20 January I found the visit to Dhala village had been removed from the itinerary. Dirk claimed it was to reduce costs. We paid $1499 per person, so there was no cost reduction. This resulted in us incurring extra costs of approx.$35, which should have been provided as part of our contract. What can you do to put this right please? I have attached further details of our correspondence if you need them.

Trip planned initially to our specifications and followed very well. Guides were not too indoctrinated to accommodate minor changes over the course of four locations over an 8-day period

The services provided were excellent, starting with the guides, all of whom had very good knowledge of their region, and were most helpful. The places we visited Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and Inle were all spectacular. All in all we were delighted with the holiday and could recommend it without hesitation.