Myanmar - Getting Around

Transit, at least the mechanized means, in Myanmar has gotten better in the last few years. Now one can comfortably get around via minibus, train, modern aircraft and new, comfortable bus coaches. In Bagan, it is possible to find a guide with a Jeep or Land Rover.

Taxis have red license plates and can usually be found outside major hotels, but agree on the fare before setting off. Private cars with drivers go for about $50 a day, and motorcycles and bikes can be rented for $25 and pennies a day, respectively.

City buses are overly crowded and not recommended for Westerners, who tend to take up too much room and cause a terrible commotion if they don't understand something. MTT and perhaps a dozen other private companies operate buses from Yangon up-country. Buses to Mandalay take about 13 hours. Regular bus services today connect Yangon and Mandalay, Mandalay and Bagan, Bagan and Taunggyi, and Taunggyi and Mandalay.

The rail network in Myanmar is growing quickly (some say with the help of slave labor). The Yangon-Mandalay line is the trunk route in the country, with a number of branches. Special counters to help tourists have been opened at the stations in Yangon, Thazi and Mandalay. At present, there are about 2,739 miles of railway spreading across the country. About 1,000 additional miles are being constructed in states and divisions that were formerly under the control of rebel insurgents and dope traffickers.

The train station for overland destinations is between Sule Pagoda Road and Upper Pansodan Street across from Aung San Stadium in Yangon. Here, there are regular long-distance train connections with Mandalay, Prome, Thazi and Pegu. Regular express trains running daily between Yangon and Mandalay take about 12-14 hours. Visitors to Bangan and Inle Lake have to get off at the Thazi station and take a bus from there. To Bagan the bus trip takes about four hours, and from Thazi to Shwe Nyaung (Inle Lake) about five hours.

In addition to Myanmar Airways, two other air carriers serve Myanmar's domestic routes: Air Mandalay and Yangon Airways. As both are relative upstarts, it's difficult to appraise their safety levels. Myanmar Airways has rocketed their safety standards over the last few years and it's safe to assume that Air Mandalay and Yangon Airways subscribe to the same levels as the national carrier. The last crash of a Myanmar carrier was a Myanmar Airways F-27 that crash-landed at Myeik airport in July 1996. Domestic flights offered by the three carriers connect Yangon with the following cities: Bagan, Heho, Kawthoung, Mandalay, Myitkyina, Myeik and Tachilek.

Myanmar possesses hundreds of navigable rivers and streams and a huge deltaic region in the south below Yangon. Inland Water Transport operates a large network of waterways tansportation plans. Most tourists to Myanmar take a cruise down the Ayeyarwady River, a daylong trip from Mandalay to Bagan/Nyaung Oo. The journey takes 12 hours. In the Ayeyarwady Delta, travelers can take a boat to Pathein (Bassein). The trip from Yangon takes one day (16-20 hours). Other delta destinations are also possible, such as Labooda and Hpayapon. Boats depart from Lan Thit Street Jetty in Yangon.

Up the Lazy River

Myanmar not only has about 50 steam engines still in service, they still operate hundreds of ancient riverboats that go back as far as the 1880s. These paddlewheelers (now converted to diesel) chug up the 8,000 kilometers of navigable rivers in Myanmar, carrying passengers and freight. Many are used as ferryboats. There are now newer luxury versions, but the hardcore can still read their Rudyard Kipling poems on the deck of a slow-moving 19th-century paddleboat.

You might need permits to travel outside the standard tourist rut (Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan, Inle Lake, Taunggyi). Permits are letters generated from MTT and approved by the military. MTT or Yangon-based travel agencies will arrange for these. You will need to have a guide or driver and a pretty clear idea of where you want to go. You will not know which areas are specifically out of bounds until you apply to go to them. You can try to travel without a permit (many do), but be prepared to be turned back at any one of the military checkpoints throughout the county. Soldiers at checkpoints in partially controlled zones, like the Chin, Mon, Kayin or Shan states, will rarely bend the rules. You can, however, enter from Thailand illegally and take your chances with the insurgent checkpoints. You can fly into some areas much easier than by road. In many cases, the roads are controlled by insurgent armies. The need for permits and the areas that are considered dangerous or hot change regularly, so check with the local embassy or the MTT in Yangon.

You can fly in from Chiang Mai to Mandalay and Bagan. Pwin Ol Lwin, or Maymyo as it was formerly known, is an old British hill station that still has 153 horse-drawn carriages left over from colonial times. The Burma Road in the Shan hills is the major trade route with Yunnan in China.

The Golden Triangle area in Myanmar can be reached by train from Mandalay. You can also make the arduous 160-kilometer trip from Kengtung to Tachileik. Additionally, travelers have been able to get from Kengtung to Mai Sai in Thailand's Chiang Rai province. But the border is shut, and you'd probably get popped anyway.

Lashio is a mecca for adventurers, for this is where the Burma Road begins its long, winding path into China. Mogok is 115 kilometers from Mandalay and is the site of jade and ruby mines controlled by rebels on odd days, and the government on even days. You can see (and purchase) the fruits of their labors by posing as a buyer at the annual gem auction each February in Yangon.

Good maps are not available. Bartholomew, Nelles and Hildebrand are the best brands for maps of the country. The local MTT office in Athenian and Mandalay can provide street maps.

DP likes to group Myanmar in a group of countries that includes Turkey, Egypt, Cambodia, Russia, the Philippines, Israel and Colombia-countries that aggressively seek tourists even though they are, uh, well, kind of having a few problems in the hinterlands. Like Cambodia, if you stay on your leash and visit all the nice monuments, you will be fine. But if you head into the boonies, you are guaranteed to meet a lot of pissed-off folks. Those won't be rolled up election posters they're pointing at you.

Shan State (the Far North and Southeast)

So, where do you stay away from (or run to, depending on your taste in travel)? Well, start with any hilly, northern area bordering Thailand, China and Laos. This is where drugs are grown, sold and refined. (See "Drugs" for more than you ever wanted to know about the opium trade.) Shan state is home to the Shan, Kachin, Karen, Wa and other ethnic groups, all of whom have armies and control movement inside and across the borders. The mountainous areas are ideal for growing opium poppies. This region is headed by a narco government run by warlords with large armies.

Mon State (Southern Area)

The Mon and the Karen insurgents hide out in this strip of land that parallels the Thai border. Although there was a cease-fire in 1995 between the government and the Mon National Liberation Front, the Mon still duke it out with the Karen over control of the smuggling checkpoints into Thailand. Banditry along the highways by armed groups is prevalent in daylight.

Chin State

The ethnic Chin want their own remote mountainous country, and guess what they want to call it? Yep, Chinland. These folks need a little better feel for Marketing 101. The Chin are Tibeto-Burmese who are primarily animists. Of course, where there are happy animists, there are Christian missionaries handing out faded Ninja Turtle shirts and Adidas shorts. The government has also sent in Buddhist missionaries to tug their souls in another direction.

There are many people with Indian or Bengali ties, so the government is also actively persecuting the Muslims, forcing many to flee to neighboring India or Bangladesh.

Rakhine State

Rakhine state is stirred up by the activities of the Arakan Rohingya Islamic Front and the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, extra-agitated folks from among the quarter of a million Muslim refugees who live across the border (not by choice) in scenic, affluent Bangladesh.

Travel Restrictions

Traveling in Myanmar these days, although far less restrictive than in the past, is still like a bumper car ride. Just when you get out of first gear, you smack into a nasty little ethnic insurrection, a warlord state or a general's poppy field and have to double back to find some way around it. And just to add a little more confusion to the situation, package groups are permitted in some places where independent travelers are prohibited.

SLORC has a name for the indies: Foreign Independent Travelers (FIT). For everything naughty you can say about the government, you will indeed give them fits. They come up with some pretty cute acronyms, and this one is an accurate one.

Forget what you've read elsewhere; this is where you can and cannot go inside Myanmar-and how you can and cannot get there.

Kachin State

1. Both package tours and FIT are permitted to travel to Myitkyina either by plane or train.

2. Both package tours and FIT are allowed to Hopin, Mohnyin, Mogaung and Indawgyi by train. Prior permission is required to travel to these regions by car. Do not attempt to head out to these places by car unless you have written permission from the MTT or Ministry of Hotels and Tourism.

3. Package tours and FIT are allowed to travel to Jinghkrang, Myitsone, Waingmaw and Washaung in Myitkyina.

4. Package tours and FIT are no longer permitted (at press time) to go to Putao due to a pesky little secessionist war. Package tours could formerly get in by plane, with FIT having to sign up on a tour to get there. Putao should open up again after the body count. The problem here is with the Kachin Independent Army (KIA), a dwindling band of about 5,000 or so fighters. You'd want your own country, too, if you had mountain loads of jade in your backyard. Today, though, the KIA lives up to Myanmar's uncanny propensity for choosing for itself appropriate acronyms-it's mostly Killed in Action. But these folks remain infestive, nonetheless. Check with the MTT to see if the restriction has been lifted.

5. If Putao opens up, package tours visiting Manse, Mu Daung, Noi Nan, Machambaw, Hun Nan, Mulashidi, Ho Pa and Ko Pa can only do so through an authorized MTT tour supervised and guided by either a staff officer or an assistant manager of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism. A detailed itinerary to the Putao area has to be submitted to MHT in advance.

6. Package tours and FIT are allowed to Bamaw by plane or by boat.

Northern Shan State

Package tours and FIT are permitted to Lashio through the inland route by planes, trains and automobiles.

Southern Shan State

1. Package tours and FIT are permitted to travel to Taunggyi, Inlay, Pindaya, Kalaw and Yatsauk through the inland route by planes, trains and automobiles.

2. Package tours and FIT are permitted to travel to Kyaing Tong and Tachilek by plane only.

Kayah State

Foreigners, either on a package tour or traveling independently, cannot travel to any area within Kayah State.

Rakhine State

1. Package tours and FIT are allowed through the inland route to Sittway, Mrauk U, Ngapali, Thandwe, Gwa and Taungkoke by plane, train or automobile. Travel is not permitted to Ahm and Kyauktaw.

2. Package tours and FIT are permitted by car to Kantharyar via Ngathaing Kyaung-Gwa Road, and to Ngapal via Pyay-Taungkoke Road.

Kayin State

Package tours and FIT are permitted to Tharmin Nya, Pa-an and Hlaingbwe either by train or car.

Mon State

Package tours and FIT are no longer allowed to Kyaik Htiyo, Kyaik Hto, Thaton, Kyaik Maraw, Mawlamyaing, Balukyun, Thanbyuzayat and Kyaik Kami by either train or by car. The Christian Karens of KNU down there have been been getting their butts hammered by both SLORC troops and fighters of the government-backed Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a splinter group of the Karen National Union (KNU) that has been beating up on its Karen brothers with SLORC arms for the last couple of years. Recent fighting in early 1997 sent more than 90,000 refugees streaming across the border into Thailand's Tak Province. There are perhaps 11,000 KNU rebels slugging it out with about 17,000 SLORC troops in the region.

Tanintharyi Division

1. Package tours and FIT are allowed to Myeik, Dawei, Maungmagan, Kawthaung and Lanpi Kyun by either plane or boat.

2. Foreigners are not permitted to travel to Zadetgyi Kyun, either independently or as part of a tour package.

Yangon Division, Mandalay Division, Bago Division,

Magway Division and Ayeyarwady Division

Package tours and FIT are permitted without any restrictions to travel by boat or car within these divisions.

Sagaing Division

1. Package tours and FIT are allowed by car to Alaungdaw Kathapa, Po Win Taung, Monywa, Twin Taung, Butalin, Kyauk Ka, Yinmar Pin and Yeshantwin.

2. Package tours and FIT are allowed to Khamti by either plane or boat. Travel to any area outside Khamti is prohibited.

3. Package tours and FIT are allowed to Homalin by boat. Travel to any area outside Homalin is not permitted.

4. Package tours and FIT are allowed to Kale by plane. However, travel outside a four-mile radius of the town is prohibited.

Chin State

Foreign tourists, both tour groups and FIT, are prohibited from traveling anywhere in Chin State due to another annoying separatist blood feud, this time between SLORC and the Chin people of northwestern Myanmar. The Chin are of Tibeto-Burmese stock, and are primarily animists with ties to Bangladesh and India.

The Ayeyarwady River

Package tours and FIT are permitted to cruise along the Ayeyarwady River on the following routes: Mandalay/Bamaw/Mandalay; Mandalay/Bagan/Nyaung U/Mandalay; Yangon/Mandalay/Yangon; the delta regions and Mawlamyaing/Pa-an/Mawlamyaing.

Other Restrictions

Mogoke

Authorized travel and tour companies arranging package tours to Mogoke are required to make booking arrangements through the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. However, MTT-a division of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism-can make its own arrangements for package tours to Mogoke. Tours here can only be arranged by car, and travel to Hpakant is prohibited.

Border Crossings

At the time of this writing, independent travelers were not allowed to enter or leave Myanmar through any land border. The border at Tachilek is intermittently open to foreigners traveling to and from Thailand, but visitors are not permitted outside Tachilek and must return the way they came into the country. Package tourists have more options.

Northern Shan State

1. Visitors coming from China with a valid border pass are allowed to enter Myanmar through Muse, Namkhan, Kyu Koke and Kun-Lone checkpoints provided they are part of a package tour organized by authorized travel and tour companies. It is then possible to proceed by car up to Lashio.

2. Visitors entering Myanmar through the Lwe-je checkpoint with a valid border pass are permitted to continue on to Bamaw Township if they are members of a package tour organized by an authorized travel and tour company.

Southern Shan State

1. Visitors entering from Thailand with a valid border pass can enter Myanmar at Tachilek, but are restricted in their movements once there. Travel by road or plane to other parts of the country is prohibited.

2. Visitors entering through Wun Pone with a valid border pass are allowed only as far as Tachilek.

3. Visitors entering through Mai Lar are not permitted to visit Kyaing Tong. The government said it will give consideration to this restriction in the future.

Legal Border Pass Destinations

Foreign travelers on tour packages with valid visas and border passes entering Myanmar through a border checkpoint listed below are permitted to the areas mentioned here:

Muse, Namkhan, Kyu Koke and Kun Lone checkpoints

1. Package tours arranged by authorized travel and tour companies are allowed to enter through Muse, Namkhan, Kyu Koke and Kun Lone checkpoints and proceed on to Mandalay and Yangon via Lashio by plane, train or automobile.

Lwe-je

1. Package tours arranged by authorized travel and tour companies are allowed to enter through Lwe-je and proceed on to Mandalay and Yangon via Bamaw either by plane or boat.

The Name Game

Despite all the PC babble about Myanmar being the bad guys' name for Burma, don't believe it. Myanmar is the name of the country and Burmese (or Myanmars) the name of the people. Burmese is the language found around the capital city of Yangon and is spoken by ethnic Burmese. The region has been called Myanmar as far back as the 13th century, by Marco Polo, no less. It makes more sense to call the country a name other than just one of the many ethnic groups. Imagine if America were called India, after what was its largest ethnic group. All the generals were doing was a little colonial housecleaning when they renamed the country and many of its cities.