I’m so happy I’ve visited Myanmar. It’s a beautiful country and a great place to explore.

People are friendly, helpful and keen to make a good impression. There’s always someone smiling and waving at you or asking for a photo. And there’s no hassle, so you can happily engage with locals as they’re really just being nice.

I was surprised at how easy it was to travel and get around different places. There’s a good level of infrastructure and things work very well. Hotels were good, planes reliable and WiFi fast in most places.

Things are changing fast, so this was a good time to visit. You can see that places like Bagan and Inle Lake will soon be too touristy. On the other hand, some things get easier, as there are ATMs easily available and credit cards are accepted. Even online information can’t keep up with the speed of change, so some things were different from what I had read.

I think this was a good time to visit Myanmar – I’m keen to see how the country changes (and what happens politically), but I’m happy to have got a glimpse of its old ways.

HOW TO DO IT:

Itinerary planning:

I went to the most popular places, but spent a good amount of time in each. I spent:

• 4 days in Yangon (at the beginning and end of the trip)
• 2 days in Mandalay
• 4 days in Bagan
• 4 days in Inle Lake

That was a good range of places and a good amount of time. I wasn’t very lucky with the weather in Mandalay so I didn’t particularly enjoy it.

Travelling solo:

I knew Myanmar was a good place to travel alone, but it was better than I imagined. It’s really safe and there’s not really any hassle. But what made the biggest different was how easy it was to explore, either independently or in tours. Places are easy to navigate, people are helpful and things work well, so it’s an ideal place to discover by yourself.

Food:

Food in Myanmar is really delicious – you can get great curries and a wide range of dishes made with local ingredients. Especially the salads are really unique and yummy. It’s very easy to find veggie dishes as every restaurant has a good selection and there are lots of great local vegetables.

Getting around:

I chose to fly around as distances in Myanmar are huge, and I wasn’t really keen on spending ages on buses or trains. I found flying a good option, the service always worked well and tickets are not very expensive. I flew with Golden Myanmar and AirKBZ.

In cities you can get around by taxi, or in smaller towns by bike or e-bike. Everywhere I went it was easy to navigate and you can actually do a lot on foot too. I downloaded maps of all the places I visited onto Google Maps which was really useful.

Money:

People say Myanmar is more expensive than most places in Southeast Asia, but in comparison to the UK it’s still really cheap. A good hotel room will cost £15 (always including breakfast), a meal £3-4.

Tipping is not a part of Burmese culture but it’s always appreciated. ATMs have only been around for a few years, but are already easily found in all tourist destinations, which is a better option than carrying all your money in US$ everywhere.

There are lots of exchange places and most hotels can change money too. Nowadays you can pay everything in Kyat, so dollars aren’t really needed anymore.