Little Fishy Big Sea: Maungmakan Beach

After Mrauk U, we headed south to Maungmakan Beach. It took a couple of days to get there. We first took the boat down to Sittwe, and overnighted there. It could have been possible to avoid the overnight stay in Sittwe, but we were concerned about missing our flight, so decided to err on the side of caution. From Sittwe we flew to Yangon, and spent the night there. It’s difficult to make sameday connections when flying domestically in Myanmar. Finally, we flew to Dawei, and took a 45 minute moto-rickshaw ride to Maungmakan Beach.

Maungmakan Beach is known as the locals beach hangout. There are few tourists that travel out there. It is an extremely long beach with white sand on the foreshore and grey sand further out. In the main area, there are many beachside huts that serve fresh seafood. At the south end of the beach there is a dirty fishing village. The north end is deserted and had gorgeous white sand. Along the entire beach the waves are mild and there is minimal undertow, making it a perfect swimming spot.

Fishing boats at the village

The women in Myanmar dress conservatively, even when swimming. They swim fully clothed, wearing pants/capris and tshirts. K and I were not entirely comfortable swimming in our bikinis right in front of the locals. So, we either tried walking to a more deserted area of the beach, or emulating the locals and swimming fully clothed.