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| Central Fire Station |
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| Downtown Yangon in the evening with Sule pagoda in the distance |
Most travellers to Yangon generally stay in one of the three districts- Bahan/Dagon, Airport area, or Downtown. Bahan and Dagon are more upscale areas with nicer hotels. Many embassies are found there, and the famous Shwedagon Pagoda and Inya Lake are also found in this area.
Downtown Yangon is where there are more budget options. Many backpackers and budget travellers stay here. I found plenty of hostels, budget hotels, money changers, pharmacies, and street food options here. There are also many travel agents who do tour and bus/train/flight ticket bookings at a pretty low cost. Not only that, downtown Yangon is where the old British colonial-era buildings are located at. Majority of the attractions from the Yangon City Heritage List are located in this area. We stayed at East Hotel in Downtown Yangon, which was right opposite a big mall called Sule Square.
We found getting into and around Yangon to be surprisingly easy. There is a shuttle bus just outside the arrivals area of the airport to different parts of the city. I suggest asking in one of the help-desk counters at the airport on which bus route to take. We showed our hotel address to the information desk agents and they told us to take the Kabar Aye Pagoda Road Route (Red Route) and get down at Sule Square. Helpful bus passengers pointed out the stop to us when we got close. It cost us 500 Kyat per person (0.50 SGD) from the airport to our hotel, and took almost an hour. The airport is located in the north part of Yangon, towards the outskirts. To get the bus from downtown to the airport, wait at the bus stop right opposite the Yangon Central Fire Station. The frequency of buses is roughly 15-20 minutes per bus during the day time, but this goes down to 1 bus every hour after 8pm.
The buses are surprisingly comfortable. Even better than buses in some Indian cities! The front row seats are reserved for monks.
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| Airport shuttle bus- Just outside the Arrivals area |
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| Inside the Airport Bus. The buses are clean and cheap. |
One thing I liked about Yangon was how cheap & reliable taxis and public buses are. Flag-down taxis are available everywhere and they cost around 1500-3000 Kyats (1.5-3 SGD) for distances between 1-5km, and rates can be bargained a little. Grab is a popular taxi app in Yangon. Rates are fixed but quite reasonable. We got a cheap prepaid sim card from the airport for 2800 Kyats (2.8 SGD) which gave us 1GB of data. This was useful for booking grab taxis and finding our way around.
Apart from taxis, public buses run by the Yangon Bus Service (YBS) are also available and they are much cheaper. Most rides don't cost more than 500 Kyat. A bus ride from Sule Pagoda to Shwedagon Pagoda (about 4 km) cost us only 200 Kyat per person (0.20 SGD). The buses are modern, clean, air-conditioned, and fairly comfortable. We asked the locals which bus to take to wherever we wanted to go. Most of the buses have numbers written in English, but some older buses have numbers written in the Burmese language. People in Yangon are very helpful and friendly, so we had no trouble finding our way around.
Another good way of getting around is by walking. I was surprised by how wide and well maintained the main roads of Yangon are. Well maintained for South East Asia standards anyway. Every road, street, and lane has street signs and I found getting around using a map easy. Yangon is well organized for a still developing city. We walked practically everywhere. Walking around is a fun way to discover hidden treasures in the city. Just make sure to wear good quality shoes!
Story time!
Here is something that happened to my mum and I, which really made me see Yangon people in a new light. We were flying to Bagan from Yangon on our second day in Myanmar. Our flight was at 7AM from Yangon International Airport to Nyaung U (Bagan). We checked out of our hotel at 5AM and headed to the airport bus stop opposite the fire station to take the airport bus. Apart from a few early risers, the normally chaotic streets were empty. We waited at the bus stop for almost 30 minutes and still no bus. A couple of taxi drivers came by and asked us if we wanted to take a taxi. But they quoted 8-9000 Kyat (8-9 SGD) which we found a bit expensive considering that we could take the bus for only 1000 Kyat. The taxi drivers were insistent but polite and we did not feel particularly threatened by them, although they were quite burly.
Suddenly a man approached us and in hesitant Tamil (no idea how he knew we spoke Tamil) asked if we were from India. We were surprised to hear him speak Tamil and we answered in the affirmative. He asked where we were going, and we told him that we were waiting for the airport bus. He told us that the next bus would come only at 6AM. It was already 5:30 AM by then, and we were getting a little anxious because we did not want to miss our flight. He then walked away and a few minutes later he came back with a Burmese friend of his.
He said the Burmese man was a taxi driver and would take us to the airport for 4500 Kyats (4.5 SGD). We were taken aback by this offer because everyone else quoted almost double. The Tamil man said he was also going towards the airport and offered to share the cost with us. Since we were getting late, we decided to take up his offer.
Throughout the journey the Tamil man kept talking to us- telling us about his roots in India, how his family settled in Myanmar, his life in Myanmar, and his visits to India. It was very interesting to talk to him about his life. It was a serendipitous encounter. As we reached the airport, he revealed to us that he came with us all the way to the airport only to make sure we got there safely, and that his workplace was not near the airport. We were absolutely shocked and humbled when he said that. It was such a sweet gesture from a total stranger!
We had many similar encounters like this during our short trip to Myanmar. We found the people of Myanmar, whether Burmese or other ethnicity to be very sweet and helpful. It made me think of how they are portrayed in the media and how my opinion of them was shaped by media reports. What I saw on the ground came as a surprise to me. In all my travels, I could even say that the most genuinely nice people I have met are from Myanmar. Not once were we scammed or lied to. Maybe we just got lucky, I don't know.
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