Come & Travel with Us

A Lovely Myanmar Trip

We had a wonderful “eight-day-seven-night” time in Myanmar. This trip was much above our expectations. We engaged “One Stop Travel & Tours, Myanmar” to take care of all our travelling needs and had a wonderful time visiting four major Myanmar cities.

Eight days & seven nights in Myanmar

The moment we touched down in Yangon our first tour guide was already waiting for us at the airport arrival gate. After Yangon, we flew to Inle lake and our second guide was waiting us at the  arrival gate. This also happened in Bagan and Mandalay. On the final day (8th day), our fourth guide made sure we entered Mandalay International airport safely before she left. There was no “gaps” when we felt lost and not know where to go or what to do next. Our guides were with us all the time, taking good care of us, preempting our needs and making us comfortable.

Picking a local travel agency

While researching for a trip to Myanmar we found several good reviews on the internet from tourists using local (Myanmar) travel agencies. This definitely boosted our confidence in going with a local agency. After some searching, we found a reliable local agency and managed to save a huge amount of money as compared with going with a Singapore tour agency.

We liked to travel DIY, but Myanmar would not be a comfortable country to do much DIY travelling. Firstly as tourists, we could not rent a car to self drive around the country, any car rental would require to include a driver. Secondly Myanmar was a third world country so going by public mass transportation (buses) were out for us. It would not be possible for mum ( 80 year-old) to scramble up and down buses and cramping with other bus passengers. Besides we read alot about the uncomfortable long distance bus travelling and many late arrival and missing vehicles from reviews on the internet.  What about taxis-ing around within cities and between cities?  After much cost calculation we decided to go with a local tour agency and got them to handle everything except for food and accommodation. The cost was not much more than going on our own using taxis or renting a chauffered rental car and paying our own entrance fees into tourist attractions. With a local tour agency we got a guide, a driver and a MPV van with us all the time.

A customised trip for four different persons

We did not want a standard itinerary as the four of us had very different interests and priorities. Yat Thong and I were into photography, Lin Ying our daughter found local food important and my mum needed a non-strenuous and comfortable trip. So I scrutinised the itinerary and “One Stop Travel & Tours, Myanmar” let me customised it for four different personalities!

Crisp new US notes only

We were informed to bring only new and crisp US notes to Myanmar. So before leaving Singapore, I sourced out new/crisp US notes to take with us. In Myanmar all our notes were accepted except for two! These two notes had a tiny wrinkle at one of their corners and they got rejected at our 3rd Hotel in Bagan! What was with Myanmarese’s obession with new crisp US notes? Luckily we brought enough US notes.

Cost of travelling in Myanmar

Myanmar was a relatively inexpensive country to travel in comfort. The hotel prices varied drastically, the high end hotels (5-stars) were exorbitantly high priced. We did not go for these high-end hotels but instead went for 4-stars hotels which were still beautiful, comfortable and located at the locations we needed.

This 8 days trip was very enjoyable and memorable to us. Of the four “cities” (Yangon, Inle Lake, Bagan and Mandalay) Inle Lake and Bagan were most captivating, unique, unforgettable.

Ruins at Inle Lake

Sunrise in Bagan

The entire cost of our trip was S$6000 for four people for 8days/7nights. The cost covered return international flights, three domestic flights, guides, land/lake transfers, foods, tips, souvenirs, insurance, mobile data plan, etc etc. The breakdown is below