The decades-long travel boycott on Myanmar was lifted in 2011 after Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest. That's good news for American travellers who like adventuring to the world's most exotic corners. Keep in mind, though, that most parts of Myanmar are not set up for tourists. You'll have difficulties locating hotels in Myanmar on your own in most parts of the country.
Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar's biggest city and its capital until 2006, has the largest extant number of colonial-era buildings of any city in Southeast Asia. The city's skyline is dominated by the fabulous Great Dagon Pagoda, a gilded stupa that's still in active use as a site for religious worship. The shrine contains eight strands of hair from the original Buddha as well as artifacts from the Bodhisattva's successors. Every dawn and every dusk, the Pagoda's plaza is crowded with thousands of prostrate worshipers. An exact replica of the structure called the Uppatasanti Pagoda has been erected in Naypyidaw, the new capital.
Chinese investment has turned Mandalay, Myanmar's last imperial capital, into a surprisingly modern city. Mandalay is probably the easiest place to discover Myanmar hotels at reasonable prices. The city provides a perfect base for day trips into Sagaing and the surrounding countryside.
Amarapura, once a separate city and now a Mandalay suburb, is the place where you'll find the 1.2-kilometre teakwood bridge over Lake Taungthaman. This bridge is one of the most photographed sites in all of Myanmar.
Sagaing is the country's religious center with numerous Buddhist pagodas, monasteries, and temples. Farther to the west lies Monywa, home to the Thanbokde Pagoda, which is said to contain 500,000 separate images of the Buddha. The Phowin Taung temple complex, on the opposite side of the Chindwin River, is located over a series of sandstone hills. These hills have been honeycombed with man-made caves, alcoves, and niches that have been carved with Buddhist images.
Myanmar has a wildly diverse landscape that ranges from white-sand beaches on the Andaman coast to the peaks of the Eastern Himalayas. Although to date, no Myanmar hotel packages or other tourist infrastructure is in place, the country's potential as a top eco-tourism destination is enormous.
The best way to explore Myanmar is to find a cheap Myanmar hotel deal in Mandalay, and use that lodging as a base for day trips out into the countryside. Expedia can simplify the process of tracking down cheap hotel deals in Myanmar by first helping you search for the best rooms at special discount rates and then helping you book reservations for great Myanmar hotel deals.
