Trips to Myanmar, 2016
I made my first Myanmar visit when I was visiting Chiang Rai, the border of Thailand in early 2016, realising that there were a 24-hour walk-in visa (I called it the "entrance fee" because no papers or documents were issued, and the border officials only took my photo with an iPad.) After a 2-hour walk in Tachileik, I had a rough idea of having another trip which came true in September the same year.
There were some reasons for me to visit Myanmar, but one of them was due to the opening up of the country to allow democratic elections and freedom. Before and after this opening, Myanmar had a lot of strict restrictions on press and Internet. It was once a great moment to access Facebook and other websites freely.
The country has been poor with endless civil wars and military dictatorship for years. In order to develop, they desperately need help from other countries and China has long provided a lot of infrastructures (like the airport in their capital), vehicles (many used buses from Japan and Korea) and technologies (not many people can afford Samsung and even Apple products). But Myanmar is not alone when you see Cambodia and Laos.
If you ask me which country is easy to visit when you want to have your first solo trip: Myanmar for sure (at that time) apart from Japan.
(I use past tense here because I am not sure of the situation right now under military government).
Hostels, at least, for oversea tourists, grew drastically and their facilities were up to standard, with free WiFi, breakfast, personal plugs and lamps so they were really competitive with Japan's and much better than other countries like UK. Hospitality was so great because the staff helped you book trains, coaches (these were for foreigners so that passengers might be provided toiletries for red-eye journey, and even personal television), tours and anything you thought of. Backpackers most of the time travelled together when they were staying so that they could hire a driver or book tours with discounts. You didn't need to plan beforehand because you only had to meet backpackers.
I also travelled alone in some cities especially Yangon. I was able to get a bike to ride in other urban or rural areas from the hostels. It was safe although the road quality was problematic and there might not be reliable local bus services available.
Myanmar doesn't adopt the Arabic numeral system. They use their own language so travelling by bus is not easy until you are willing to learn, but the process won't take long as you can search these numbers. Look at the card provided by the hostel I stayed in Yangon.
As of 2016, Google Maps lacked a lot of transport and shop information in this country. The only way to get used to the transport system in Yangon (besides asking pedestrians on the street), is to be familiar with one of the routes first (say when you visit the pagoda there), and observe other bus routes on the journey instead of web surfing on your smartphone. Traffic congestion was so common like Bangkok so you would have sufficient time to understand various bus routes.
Myanmar was improving. At that time they introduced BRT with air conditioning and contactless travel card like Oyster in London or Octopus in Hong Kong, instead of paying cash to a rude staff member who collected the money. Besides, according to the local media in English, they had an idea of fixing traffic jam by decluttering bus routes to running only on a few roads with the additional benefits of more frequent services.
The country has been taken over by the military government again. Abolishing democracy and arresting pro-democratic activists will undermine the future of the nation.
