Here We Go Again!!!

Tomorrow I'm going to Japan!  After 2 weeks of furious planning, tomorrow is the day we leave.  Have I finished packing? Absolutely not.  Just started about 1 hour ago actually.

Wish me luck!!!

Our itinerary will bring us to Tokyo, Saku, Niigata, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, Magome/Tsumago, and Onomichi/Imabari.  Many hours of train and shinkasen travel await.  Funny thing is, when I was in Taiwan last year, I really wanted to take the bullet train, but chickened out.  Well, after this trip to Japan, I suspect that I will be sick and tired of train riding :p

Wish me luck!

Trip Report: Maungmakan Beach -> Yangon

Day 15: Yangon to Dawei to Maungmakan Beach 

•  Flew Air Mann Yadarnapon to Dawei.  Flight was also on time and had tasty pastries. 
•  Bargained a motorickshaw for 13000kyats to take us to Maungmakan beach, which was a 45 minute ride away 
•  Stayed at Coconut Guesthouse.  Duplex bungalows for $25USD/25000kyats per night, no breakfast or aircon.  Apparently in 2 months they will be getting a strong enough generator for aircon.  The aircon units are already all installed.  
• Lunch at one of the huts on the beach, no English signage or menu.  Just point at what you want to eat from the cooler and they’ll cook it for you!  Had fried squid and vegetables for 3000kyats and rice for 300kyats. 
• Dinner at the guesthouse- garlic pepper shrimp 5000kyats and rice 500kyats.  Guesthouse restaurant was more pricey, but so tasty! 

Day 16-19: Maungmakan beach

• Ate many more times at the same hut on the beach, because the food was so good and the lady there could speak at least some English.  Whole bbq fish 2000kyats, fried vegetables 1500 kyats, shrimp 4000kyats, young coconut water 500kyats, chicken skewers 2400kyat 
• Rented a motorbike from the guesthouse at 10000kyats/day.  Doubled on the motorbike and went to Nabule beach, which was gorgeous and completely empty, but also had a strong undertow.  Gas costs 700kyats for approx 750cc bottle at the roadside stands.  
•  Bought snacks from the market: bananas 500kyats, cookies 450 kyats, sweet buns 450kyats, large bag of fried beans 600kyats, 10 bags of chips for 450kyats, watermelon 850kyats 
•  Had breakfasts of noodles at the market for 300-500kyats

Day 20: Maungmakan to Yangon

• Booked transfer back to airport in Dawei for 15000kyats.  Transfer was by car and only took 20minutes.
• Taxi stand at Yangon airport quoted 10000kyats to Agga guesthouse this time, then later mentioned it was for an aircon car.  This was the first time that anyone had mentioned the price differential for aircon vs no aircon.  Not sure if they were trying to rip me off or not.  Anyhow, got a non-aircon taxi for 8000kyats. 
• Bought random souvenirs and snacks at Citymart.  Thought their prices were pretty good in general.

Day 21: Yangon to home

• Taxi back to airport 8000kyats 
•  Exchanged kyats back to USD at the airport.  There are multiple desks to choose from.  The best rate we found was 997kyats=1USD.  There are desks after you pass through immigration, so don’t worry about changing before you check in.

Summary

• In total, the 4 internal flights cost $478USD per person.  This was probably the only thing we paid in USD.
• For simplicity we paid for everything else in kyats.  Yes, you do end up paying a little bit more due to all the conversions etc... However, decided that the amount was low enough.  Also, you can abuse your kyats all you want – people will take the grossest looking kyats, but only pristine USD.  
• Breaking it down, it cost $50USD per person, per day, including internal flights.  Without the internal flights, it was just over $27USD per person, per day. 

Food in Maungmakan

Beach sellers selling snacks. Were too scared to try.

The food in Maungmakan was delicious.  I wish I took pictures of it!  We ate most of our meals at this hut on the beach.  The lady who ran it spoke a tiny bit of English, just enough that we were able to order food and know how much to pay.  The process at any of the huts are the same.  There are no menus.  You walk into the open kitchen, and pick what you would like to eat from the cooler.  We had stirfried squid, shrimp, baked fish, and baked crab.  The guesthouse also served food and we had the most delicious garlic shrimp and garlic squid.  My mouth is watering just thinking of the food!!!  The food was very different from the food in other parts of Myanmar, being that there were no curries.  As it was the end of the trip, we were getting more adventurous with our eating.  We ate noodles a couple of times at the market stalls.  The best bowl of noodles had a fish broth topped with pork blood and pork fat.  

Noodle stall in the market

Learn to Ride and Roadtrip to Nabule Beach

Nabule Beach

In Maungmakan, unless you know the Myanmar language, there is no public transportation.  While Maungmakan Beach was gorgeous, we wanted to travel further to other deserted beaches that we had heard of.  To do this, we needed to rent a motorbike.  It took some persuading from me, but finally K agreed to learn how to ride a motorbike.  The plan was for her to drive and for me to double on the back.  Why couldn’t I drive? Well, we knew that I couldn’t steer particularly well, after trying with the much lighter ebike in Bagan.  The guesthouse owner, who rented us the motorbike, kept on asking us ‘do you know how to ride a motorbike?’.  I think it was pretty obvious our lack of experience.  However, K jumped on the motorbike and did a test run down the driveway and back.  She seemed to get the hang of it, so I jumped on the back and we were off on an adventure to Nabule Beach.  

Empty red dirt roads

Just like everywhere else in Myanmar, the roads are not labelled.  And even if they were, we wouldn’t be able to read the Myanmar script.  The guesthouse had a rudimentary map that they provided to us.  We cross referenced with the other available references and developed a more specific set of directions to get there.  Nabule beach is located 25 km away from Maungmakan.   

Map we used to get to Nabule Beach

We knew this would be an all day trip, so first we hit the market and stocked up on fruit and snacks.  Then, we bought gas at a roadside stand.  Across Myanmar, people sell gas in glass bottles at the side of the road.  Finally, we were off on an adventure!  The road quality varied greatly on our journey.  There were paved sections, potholed sections, dirt sections, and loose gravel.  We finally made it to Nabule beach, and were delighted to have the entire golden sand beach to ourselves.  A bonus was the large shade trees at the beach’s edge that protected us from the midday rays.  The downside to Nabule was that the waves were quite large and there was a very strong undertow.  Have you been to the Pacific side of Cabo?  Well, the waves felt exactly like that.  I was too scared to go any further than my knees.  

 

The journey back followed the new ‘expressway’, built for the planned super port nearby.  Once this project goes through, the entire area will change with the increased traffic.  I am very thankful we were able to experience it now, in its pristine, secluded state.  

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. 

Fisherman putting their boat in the sea

Guy climbing up a palm tree.  No safety line.

Spent the day in the shade of a makeshift shelter