Whatever impression that you might have about Myanmar, put it forward in this insightful and in-depth tour of 16 days. Read the world's largest book in Mandalay, watch sunset over the Irrawaddy River while boating to Bagan, climb up the sacred mountain Mt.Popa, easy trek up to hill tribes in Kalaw, take a boat ride in Inle Lake, have some free days in beautiful beach of Ngapali. With passion and professional guiding, you are about to see the real side of Myanmar that others don't ever see.
Highlights
- Mandalay, Bagan, Inwa and Yangon, 4 former capitals viewed in different angles
- Cruising along the Irrawaddy River on a deluxe cruise
- Guided trekking to pristine forest and laid-back hill tribes in Kalaw
- Slow yet fascinating life over the surface of Inle Lake
- Palm-tree-fringed Ngapli Beach, nominated as World's Best Beaches by CNN
Journey Route
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98.8% positive customer reviews among 10,000+
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Excellent planned and executed Myanmar excursion
Asia Highlights and their local Myanmar partner "mAsia" did an excellent job in planning and execution of a one week trip to Myanmar.The various tour guides and drivers had good knowledge and good command over English. More
Gerd,
Jan 2018
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Trip-of-a-lifetime
In addition, I want to specifically mention the guides provided in certain locations. Rum, in Siem Reap, made the most memorable experience possible. His positivity was contagious - even when it felt like 1000 degrees and we were tired. He brought it all to life, and created a couple days of Ankor Wat, etc. that we will never forget! He heard my daughter's request for specific Cambodian food, and changed our itinerary to go to a village and eat at a locally known shop. He brought the dessert she asked about to us in the car! Overall, he and his driver "Lucky" were a reason to go to Siem Reap. In addition, the other guides (minus one which was switched out immediately) were stupendous. Mon in Bangkok was friendly and provided a great day there; Eak in Chiang Mai gave us a world-class food-tour and day touring the city and its surrounding temples with lots of laughs; Tommy in Hanoi kept us from getting killed in the traffic and gave a stupendous food and architecture/history tour - so very friendly and funny; the fishing village tour in Hoi An, as well as the side-car tour in Saigon, were both unforgettable! Thank you Sharon, and Asia Highlights. Would definitely use again for future trips! More
Teri Simpson,
Apr 2023
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Cambodia and Vietnam adventure!
Our guide in Cambodia, Meas Darapolaith (Pol), was absolutely amazing. He was knowledgeable, friendly and so helpful. His English was excellent and he shared important insights about history and the magnificent sites we visited. We highly recommend him! More
Jennifer Roth Krieger,
Apr 2023
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My daughter and I wanted to discover SE…
My daughter and I wanted to discover SE Asia. Being the first in that region, we wanted to use a tour service company. We ended up using Asia Highlights. From the beginning we were impressed with their services. We left home with of mind because all the pre-travel arrangements were taking care and communicate to us efficiently. All our questions were answered promptly. Once in the countries, we were welcome by our excellent tour guides. Everything was taking care for us. We did not have one issue. They selected the right tours guides for us, they were highly knowledgeable and so much attentive to our needs. We had Dhat in Vietnam and Borin in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I highly recommend Asia Highlights. I came back home so much rested, and with plenty of wonderful pictures and memories. I will definitely use Asia Highlights again for my next trip to Asia. More
Isabelle Dessaux,
Apr 2023
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Fabulous tour and guide in Cambodia
We have been touring Cambodia, guided by Borin ( and driver 007) for the last 2 days. What a fabulous experience! Borin has been a wonderful guide, the best so far in Southeast Asia, explaining the history and culture of Cambodia through his tours of the temples in and around Angkor, as well as the Landmine museum. He has answered all our questions, made sure we were comfortable, and that we have had great food. 007 made sure we always had enough water and cool towels for our face/neck.We highly recommend Borin as a tour guide for Cambodia!! More
Monica,
Mar 2023
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Best Travel Service for Asia Travel
Alisa Liu was in charge of making the arrangements and she helped us from the start to make all of the arrangements and also helped us when we had questions and requested some adjustments. Her service is of the highest professional level. We are 100% confident that our trip will be perfect. We’re also 100% confident that, if anything comes up during our trip, that Alisa will be there to guide us through and take care of us. We won’t even consider using another agency for travel around Asia and we would like to have Alisa work for us again. More
Leo Pospichal,
Mar 2023
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Tour of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand
The tour guides and drivers were another high point. All were very good, friendly, knowledgeable and spoke English well. There were two that I want to call out for their excellence. Chan Sovannarith in Siem Reap was our guide in Cambodia. He really made the experience special. His knowledge, willingness to answer all my questions, helpfulness and general attitude made him fun to be around. In order to praise the second exceptional guide I have to explain about an unfortunate occurrence that I had. I'm normally a very active senior, but after leaving Cambodia for Laos I was suddenly struck by the most intense back pain I've ever experienced, couldn't even roll over in bed (turned out to be sciatica). The guide, Mr. Sonophet, really went the extra mile. He went with my traveling companion and bought a back brace and medications for me. When that didn't help much he took me to a clinic where I was seen by a doctor, given a shot and pain meds. He hand-made a walking stick for me that I'm still using! He made it possible for me to somewhat participate in the activities, i.e. a bed on the boat down the river. When it was time to move on to Bangkok he got me a wheelchair at the airport. I can't thank him enough for these kindnesses! This problem lasted for the remainder of the trip, through Bangkok and Phuket and these guides were also very helpful getting wheelchairs, etc. It was a terrible disappointment to have this wonderful trip disrupted, but it would have been SO much worse without the great help that I received from the guides and my poor travel companion! More
Deb M,
Mar 2023
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In good hands with Sam
Sam Ol took very good care of us - lots of information, listened to and answered all our questions, was passionate about the places we visited and about his people and country. He was kind, had a great sense of humor, and made sure we felt safe and comfortable at all times. He helped us to fall in love with Cambodia in 3 short days. More
Carol Jones,
Feb 2023
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Best tour guide in Cambodia
When we first arrived at the airport in Siem Riep it was so nice to be greeted by Mr Sam Ol. We instantly fell at home when we saw his friendly smile. We were impressed by his great English and knowledge of the temples. On the tour to the temples Sam took care of us every step of the way. He took awesome pictures of us. It felt like we were on a tour given by our brother who is also a professional photographer. Also, we appreciate his humor as well as the fact he had an answer for every question we had. I give Sam 5 stars, best tour guide ever :) More
Len S,
Feb 2023
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Mr. Sam
Mr. Sam our guide in Cambodia, he and the driver out standing service they went above and beyond touring, my wife so amazed beautiful country, we're planning back here near the futures. Thank Mr. Sam,We'll feedback the whole trip next week when we be home in US More
Pho Lover,
Feb 2023
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Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand
We are still in the middle of our trip, but we are just finishing up our time in Cambodia and our guide, Borin, has been AMAZING!!! He has truly made our time here unforgettable and I plan on referring all of my friends and family to come visit this beautiful country! Thank you, Borin, for everything you did to make our trip so fantastic! More
Danielle Blount,
Feb 2023
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Excellent service and Wonderful Guides
All of our guides have been terrific. Mr. Sam in Siem Reip was especially wonderful. Both he and our driver were polite, safe knowledgable and informative. Sam made our trip memorable and enioyable. We will definitely recommend Sam and Asia Highlights to our friends. More
Kaaren,
Feb 2023
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Great tour guide Charity at Siem Reap
Our experience in Siem Reap could not have been any better thanks to our outstanding and cheerful guide, Charity. Her very good English speaking made it so easy to learn so much from her. She understood and answers all of our questions.She was relaxed and very knowledgeable. She went out out her way to help us make amazing pano photos of the cotton trees at Siem Reap and on our sunset cruise. She also advised us on Chanrey Tree restaurant—what we found to be the very best vegan restaurant on our first three weeks of our Asia tour. So glad to have vegan meals with very little oil!!! We are not supposed to have oil and is very hard to find vegan with no oil. Went went back the next night. More
Barbara Cornyn,
Jan 2023
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Best guide and driver in Cambodia
Mr Rum takes his profession very seriously and enriches the visits with his depth of knowledge and his interesting and relevant stories. He is a great story teller. More importantly, he is a nice person who we very much enjoyed getting to know in our short time together. Both he and Thary have winning smiles. They are easy to be around and fun to spend time with. It’s not surprising that Mr Rum has maintained contact and friendships with many previous clients. More
John Mullin,
Jan 2023
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Charity and Cambodia were amazing!
We had a fantastic time in Siem Reap. Charity was our tour guide and was the best! She brought knowledge and enthusiasm as she took us around. She was friendly, warm and open making our tour and experience in Siem Reap so wonderful. She gave us awesome suggestions for us to do at the end of the day such as go see a dance performance or visit the night market as well as an early morning activities like watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon. It was magical and we are so grateful to Charity for making this such a memorable trip. She also gave us great suggestion for food and went far and beyond to make sure our vegetarian and food requirements were met. Our driver and car was fantastic as well. We had the best time in Cambodia and would love to visit again. We recommend visiting and having Charity as their tour guide to anyone who has the opportunity to come! More
Prema,
Jan 2023
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Amazing tour of Cambodia with excellent…
Amazing tour of Cambodia with excellent guide Luch.. Luch was very knowledgeable and took an extra mile to explain us the Angkorwat sculptures.. the private car was very comfortable.. well planned .. we loved Cambodia and would definitely recommend my friends.. Asia highlights are the best More
Koustuv Sarkar,
Jan 2023
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Our rep in Cambodia Chan Sovannarith…
Our rep in Cambodia Chan Sovannarith was very attentive and accommodated my daughter not feeling well by taking us to a chemist to get medication for her. I highly recommend Chan as a rep with Asian highlights he did an excellent job when taking us back to the airport he literally waited to make sure we were all set for our flight to Chang Mai in Thailand. I felt safe knowing he was there incase there were issues. Again, great rep. Thank you!! More
Karen Brooks,
Dec 2022
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We enjoyed our trip VERY much
We enjoyed our trip very much. Our guide, Mr. Polrith is very knowledgeable and provided insightful information about the history, culture and religions of the country. Temples of Cambodia are amazing. They are more beautiful than you can imagine. Thank you so much Mr.Polrith and see you next time More
Tugba Balc,
Dec 2022
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A truly magical experience
You measure the quality of a tour company with how they handle the bumps along the way. Encountering unexpected baggage fees from Cambodia Angkor Air in Siem Reap.Albee without hesitation agreed to cover this cost. More
Bob Bosshard,
Mar 2020
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Great trip with Asia Highlights
We had already booked two trips in China with China Highlights. Both trips were a great experience. So when planning our trip to Cambodia we immediately thought of Asia Highlights because they offer a trip to Vietnam More
Frank & Nadia,
Nov 2019
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Itinerary in Detail
Mingelaba! Flying into Mandalay and you will be warmly greeted. Transfer to hotel and relax for the rest of today.
Mandalay is the last royal capital and it was founded by King Mindon in 1857 in attempt to fulfill a Buddhist prophecy that a great city will be established in the 2,400th jubilee of Buddhism at the foot of the hill that is Mandalay Hill.
Start today with a visit to Kuthodaw Pagoda and the World's Largest Book , located at the north-western corner of the palace, where you can see hundreds of small tablets revolving around a main pagoda and each tablet tells a piece of life story of Buddha.
Driving west out of Mandalay, you will reach Mahagandayon Monastery before lunchtime. Thousands of monks line up in silence to receive food, which makes an impressively solemn sight. Have lunch at a riveside restaurant.
Travel across the river and you will visit Inwa Ancient City with its Inwa Palace and the still-living monastery for numbers of monks, Bagarya Monastery.
As the sun slowly sets, you will take a boat trip to watch the teak wood bridge U Bein Bridge soaked in beautiful light.
Local people get up early for a holy ceremony at Mahamuni Pagoda, as early as at 0400am before the sun comes up. Include yourself, why not? Get to the pagoda before the daily Face-Washing Ritual starts. You will see villagers bringing their offersing, chanting and sitting in the main chamber as a presiding abbot cleanses the face of the giant Buddha image. This ritual goes on for 1 hour and then you will return to hotel for breakfast and check out.
Around 0900am, set out to Saigaing Pier, one hour away from Mandalay. Board your cruise and enjoy a cocktail welcome by the crew.
A delicious lunch will be served on board at 0100pm while you are approaching to Yandabo Village. An English-speaking tour guide of the cruise will take you onshore for a sightseeing in the village.
Despit of its size, Yandabo Village has an important role in Myanmar's history for it is the location where The Treaty of Yandabo (which ended the First Anglo-Burmese War) was signed on 24th of February 1826. This treaty forced Burma to open up to the British colonists. Nowadays it is just a peaceful village of 300 houses and most dwellers are potters. You will have a chance to see the process of pottery before returning to the cruise.
The cruise reaches Shwe Nann Tint in the evening. Moor near the village and enjoy a starry night on the cruise.
Have a fresh coffee on the sundeck. When the ship is moving slowly onto Bagan, an outline of the ancient city merges in the morning mist. Get onto the shore for a short visit at a riverfront village. At 0930am, you will disembark at the pier of Bagan, where you will meet up your private tour guide and transfer.
In the afternoon, visit Shwezigon Pagoda, which is the first Burmese-style pagoda and all pagodas across Myanmar are built based on its grandiose pattern. Constructed in 1060, it is still the most worshiped shrine in Nyuang U of Bagan. Take a look at what's inside a villager's dinner basket at Nyuang U Market before getting back to your hotel.
Today you may have a late start since we only have one major site to cover: the Bagan Archaeological Zone.
The wide-sprawling complex covers a land of 40 sq miles and consists of over 2,000 temples, pagodas and towers. Built by different kings during mid-to-late 9th century, most temples and pagodas are left hollow and un-attended yet some are still in use as spiritual centers. Your local tour guide will pick some temples for you to visit, including the most famous Ananda Temple, Bupaya Pagoda, Dhammayangyi Temple and Htilominlo Temple. After lunch at a local NGO-run restaurant, the trip continues. At the evening, you will take an Ox Cart Ride to soak up in the beautiful sunset.
One of the most-practiced religions in Myanmar, besides Hindu and Buddhism, is Nat Worship. Nat Worship predates Buddhism and it explained that everything has its own spirit. King Anawrahta of Bagan, who founded the first Burmese empire during his regime from 1044-1077, set up the official institution of 37 nats, some of which are souls of those who died tragically and remain unsettled, roaming the earth.
During today's 1 ? hours of driving, you will have the chance to explore the rural life of Myanmar. At a local village, you will see palm-tree climbers get up to the treetop to collect palm juice for making sugar; then you will see how locals extract oil from peanuts and sesames in old-fashioned way.
After we arrive at Mountain Popa, you will visit a sanctuary of the 37 nats and learn about interesting stories. Later, climb up 777 stairsteps to reach the summit where Popa Taungkalat Monastery awaits. The mountain is 1518 metres above sea level and views at hilltop takes in the Bagan plain with numerous temples.
Lunch will be served at a mountain top resort facing Mt.Popa. Get back to Bagan in the afternoon.
Fly to Heho, the airport city for Inle Lake in Taunggyi District, Shan State. Transfer to Kalaw and check in hotel. Free to walk around this peaceful town.
Located at an elevation of 1320 metres, the former British hill station Kalaw enjoys a mild and cool climate and offers perfect trekking with natural landscape and laid-back hill tribes. A trek in Kalaw is like traveling back in time to see what life was like without electricity, internet, expresso machine, cars and drinkable tapping water.
At sunrise, have a fresh coffee and breakfast at your hotel before we hit the road. Trekking 9km from Kalaw gets you to our first destination Ywa Thit Village, home to the humble Palaung People. The Palaung is a Mon-Khmer ethnic group living in Myanmar, Thailand and south-western part of China and they live mainly on agriculture and weaving.
Going through the forest in the afternoon provides you a nice journey to Kalaw Reservoir. The reservoir was built in the 1920's and some endangered bird species have been found and recorded here, including red-headed vulture, Mrs.Hume's pheasant, oriental pied hornbill and sarus crane.
Stretch your legs after today's trekking on the way to Inle Lake, which is about 1 ? hours by car.
Ever wonder how the villagers living in the floating houses get their daily suppliers? Today you will check out the 5-Day Market of the lake.
Your journey goes on after a lunch in a floating restaurant, next stop is Phaungdaw Oo Pagoda, the most worshipped shrine of the lake. During festivals, four Buddha images will be carried by boat on a river parade over the lake.
As your boat gets into some smaller waterways, you will have a chance to spot those legendary fishermen who row their flat-bottomed boats with only one leg. Learn about how the locals grow tomoatoes, lentils and other vegetables in the floating gardens. Get back to your hotel and rest at leisure.
A narrow and twist creek connects Indein Village with the massive Inle Lake and it makes a great day trip to the famous Indein Pagoda Complex.
Paddling a canoe into the complex brings you into a fascinating world: farmers tendering the floating gardens by both side of the creek, villagers loading up goods to their boats and children over the floating houses waving hands to you from afar. The first-reached site is Nyaung Ohak, a hidden locale with hundreds of brick pagodas. Take an easy walk to Shwe Inn Dain Pagoda (Shwe Inn Thein), which is scarterred with over 1,000 pagodas.
Have lunch in a floating restaurant and return to your hotel in the early afternoon.
Fly to Thandwe and we have arranged you a transfer to your hotel. Free at leisure for the rest of today.
Burmese people are relatively shy and they avoid too much body exposal or affection display in public. It is also nice to respect their culture and lifestyles while sunbathing on the beach.
Enjoy your free days in Ngapali Beach!
Have some free time in Ngapali Beach and then fly to Yangon. On the way from the airport to downtown, you will make a stop at Aung San Suu Kyi's House, which is the witness of her unjustice capture of over 15 years.
Have lunch in a local restaurant and return to your hotel for a rest. Feel free to wonder around the streets. Visit U Thant House, here you will learn about anecdotes regarding this former UN secretary.
Get to the icon of Yangon, Shwedagon Pagoda before sunset, which is the best time for an amazing view of its gold-and-jew-layerred stupa.
Usually people don't see Yangon as a metropolise as the city is rather laid-back compared to Bangkok, Singapore or Ho Chi Minh City. Today take a train ride around the city to observe the cityscape.
Take a fun ride on Yangon Circular Train and you will be granted a great opportunity to watch the local commuters on their ways to school, workplaces or markets. After 30 minutes, get off at a local market in the Insein Station and saunter through lines of veggie and fruit vendors, eventually meet your private transfer at the exit.
Get back to downtown for a simple lunch at a local restaruant before your visit to the National Museum of Myanmar. A good collection including historic relics and household items is on display at this museum, providing an outline of the country.
Proceed to Bogyoke Aung San Market, which is named after General Aung San. No matter you want to do some memorabilia or just browsering, this place can be an intriguing experience.
The last stop will be Chaukhtatyi Paya, widely known of the gigantic reclining Buddha.
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Our Service Includes:
- Private transfers and English-speaking tour guide
- All guided sightseeing as detailed in the itinerary
- Hotel accommodation mentioned in the itinerary
- Breakfasts at hotels and lunches for every guided day
- Governmental taxes
Tour code: ah-10
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Why Travel with Asia Highlights (98.8% positive customer reviews among 10,000+)
- Unique experiences tailored to your interests: Enjoy a premium trip that goes beyond the typical tourist attractions.
- Hassle-free travel and peace of mind: Every aspect of your trip will be carefully planned and organized by your 1:1 travel consultant.
- Experienced and knowledgeable guides: Your guides will be local and love to work for travelers' smiles.
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