Myanmar - Back at last to Mandalay

"If you've 'eard the East a-callin', you won't never 'eed naught else."

No! you won't 'eed nothin' else

But them spicy garlic smells,

An' the sunshine an' the palm-trees an' the tinkly temple-bells;

On the road to Mandalay ...

Mandalay by Rudyard Kipling [1]

BANGKOK, Thailand - The dateline should read Putao, Myanmar, billed as the country's northernmost town, where the Himalayas are a stunning backdrop to an exclusive resort served only by air from Yangon and Mandalay.

Your correspondent's local travel agent ruled that out. He might get him a room at his favored hotel there in about two weeks - not before. What about Yangon, say the famed Karaweik Palace? "You'll have to plan two months ahead for that one," he insisted.

Myanmar's return to the fold of international relations has prompted a surge in visitors that is forcing would-be tourists to book well ahead instead of relying on the easily-found space at near-empty hotels that has been the case for the past several decades.

The number of foreign visitors passing through Yangon International Airport jumped 21.8% last year to nearly 360,000, Myanmar Times reported this month. Tom Bishop, who runs DTC Travel in Bangkok, reckons there has been a 12-fold jump in tourists to Myanmar in the past eight months.

High-profile changes in the country's domestic and external political relations - among them the release from house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the December visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are removing doubts many would-be visitors had about spending cash in the formerly military-ruled state, known for its brutal suppression of dissidents, most recently in putting down the 2007 "Saffron" revolution.

They are now flocking, consciences free, to see Myanmar's remarkable sights, whether in the form of the Shwedagon Pagoda's glittering beauty in the former capital, Yangon, ancient semi-ruined temples in Bagan, towering mountains in the north, or tropical seas and near-empty white-sand beaches in the southeast and west.

Businessmen are also grabbing any available airplane seats as the strength of United States and European-led sanctions against the now nominally civilian-led government crumbles. Once in Yangon or the new capital, Naypyidaw, they are finding a leaner bureaucracy, fewer obstructions in they way of licenses, and less need for back-handers, according to one European business owner who declined to be identified in spite of the change in political climate.

A dearth of international connections direct to Yangon or elsewhere in Myanmar means Bangkok remains the leading departure point, a boon for the likes of DTC's Bishop.

Last week, "we booked more room nights in Myanmar than for all of Thailand," he said. "It's amazing."

Even Malaysians are beating a path to his door, although Kuala Lumpur at present is one of the few other departure points for Myanmar.

An agreement to operate daily flights between Yangon and Dhaka in Bangladesh was signed last week, Myanmar Times reported on Monday. Myanmar is DTC's top travel promotion this year. Travel guide company Lonely Planet pitches the country as the second-top must-see place on the planet.

"It is a whole new diverse destination," says Bishop. "Culture, history, religion; river and sea cruises, fishing, diving - the Mergui archipelago - look at it. Untouched for 40 years - perfect, pristine. Not even the oil companies have touched it - yet."

Not to mention mountain climbing, skiing and river-rafting based around eco-resorts in the north, jungle-trekking, and tours of World War II battle sites and war cemeteries that dot the former British colony. "In the '80s it was Thailand, a decade later Cambodia, then Vietnam. Now it is Myanmar's decade," he said.

For now, finding hotel space is the first big problem, with top-end accommodation such as Traders, owned by Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok's Shangri La group, well-booked in advance. Rooms at the growing number of two- and three-star hotels are more easily come by, says Bishop, but not always to the liking of the better-heeled travelers who dominate his customers, their back-packing days behind them.

The surge in demand is driving up prices. Four-star accommodation that a year ago cost US$80 a night can now set a visitor back US$150 to $350. An evening at a popular Yangon restaurant, with a floor show included, has more than doubled in price in the same period.

Huge increases in state-set fuel prices are also forcing up costs. This month, petrol prices rose overnight by 34%; electricity prices in November were 40% up on a year earlier, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The onslaught of visitors is exposing the country's dilapidated infrastructure, particularly for those taking advantage of the freedom to travel beyond Yangon and main destinations such as Mandalay (some areas still require special permits). Space on domestic flights is hard to find, even though foreigners have priority for seats - a sore point with locals.

Maung Maung Oakka, who helps to organize trips to and from Myanmar, said in Bangkok at the weekend that he had been shocked recently to find more than a third of seats on buses on a long-haul run north to Mandalay, normally the sole preserve of locals, occupied by foreign visitors (his preferred travel choice, airplane, was fully taken).

A proliferation of new private bus companies with modern coaches shows some entrepreneurs have already spotted the opportunity [2] and internal air travel will improve as local airlines boost capacity and airports are upgraded.

Mandalay airport, the country's largest and billed as "international", is for the moment still closed to such business except for flights from Kunming, in the neighboring Chinese province of Yunnan. China led the world in visitors to Myanmar last year, its 65,835 travelers up 33% on the year before, closely followed by Thailand, with 61,696 and Malaysia's 23,287, according to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism.

Roads are meanwhile being built and improved. Among them, the link between Myeik, better known as Mergui, and Dawei - site of a proposed US$60 billion port and industrial project in the southeast of the country led by Thailand's biggest construction company, Italian-Thai Development Pcl.

Myeik is a jumping-off point for the little-developed 800-island archipelago enthused over by Bishop and seen as a tourist and diving destination that will outshine anything Thailand has to offer. The opening of road links between Thailand and Myanmar - "inevitable, and maybe within six months", according to the European businessman - will boost traffic there. Ital-Thai is already at work on one such highway to Dawei.

Foreign governments are already throwing money at the country - though still reckoned among the world's most corrupt - to improve historic sites. The Italian government this month pledged 400,000 euros (US$520,000) to help UNESCO, the United Nations cultural body, in "preservation of Myanmar's cultural heritage". Temple-strewn Bagan, and Srekitra Pyu city - the ancient city-state of Sri Ksetra, north of Yangon - are the nominated focus of attention.

While foreigners are flooding into Myanmar, the traffic is two-way, with folk from Myanmar increasingly willing and able to take a look outside their country.

Large groups now traipse after flag-bearing tour guides as they wander around Bangkok's fancy shopping malls and take in the sleazier sites available in the coastal city of Pattaya. "That will change," says Bishop. "it is just like the Chinese 10 year ago - first the group travelers visiting the main destinations; before long they will be doing their own thing, seeing more of the country and visiting more countries."

Their purchasing power is already being recognized - thanks to some influential phone calls, a group of about 140 Myanmarese had the river to themselves last November when a government warning on the strength of flood waters in Bangkok's Chao Phraya otherwise closed the watery thoroughfare to river cruises.

Thailand also continues to host Myanmar-related tourism of a quite different sort - visits by well-meaning donors who slip cash to guards at grimly crowded border camps to hear the experiences of refugees from long-running conflicts between the Myanmar government and various ethnic groups.

Ceasefire agreements are raising the prospect - if still slight - that those refugees may yet enjoy the new freedoms of their own country that are so exciting travelers from further afield.

Meanwhile, ill-prepared would-be visitors to Myanmar can spend time hunting around Bangkok bookshops for an up-to-date travel guide to the country. Last weekend, at least, more than one usually well-stocked store had run out of copies from any publisher. [3]

Notes
1. For full poem see here.
2. See here.
3. For another problem facing visitors, see here.

Chris Stewart

Asia Times 

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