River Cruises

Hi, I was thinking about going to Myanmar in May. My mother and I were thinking about doing a 3 or 4 day cruise from Mandalay to Bagan or the other way. When I looked some up online, they all seemed to be outrageously priced - like $1500-$3000 in USD!! Are there any that are considerably cheaper?? If we did not do the cruise, how far is it from Bagan to Manadalay - a short drive, long drive, too far to drive....Any suggestions how to get from Mandalay or Bagan to Thailand? By plane, only one airline seemed to connect the two, and it only flies one way, Chaing Mai to Mandalay, not back. One final thing - is it going to be too hot in May?? Thanks so much.

River Cruises

May is pretty hot.. but also fairly dry in Bagan and Mandalay. Yangon is more humid.. so you feel the heat more.. also more rain at that time...

Only mandalay air connects directly in to Mandalay from Chiang Mai.. (USD 97.00)... Other flights (airlines) use Yangon only at this time.

Return flight goes via Yangon. This is also common for internal flights that they do a triangle route.

Cheapest airline to fly into and out of Myanmar on is airasia.. If you buy the tickets a couple of months in advance you can fly return from Bangkok to Yangon for about USD 100.00.

Roads in Myanmar are not good.. so road transport is very tiring and slow.

Mandalay to Bagan.. most people take the boat.. about USD 25.00... One day trip.... you can fly for about the same...

The airport in Mandalay is about 40 km from the city... USD 14.00 taxi...

At Bagan it%26#39;s close to the city.......

There is only one ';cruise'; on that part of the river that I%26#39;m aware off.. and yes, it%26#39;s expensive.... There%26#39;s another one on the delta.. said to be better.. but again it%26#39;s something like USD 250 per night per person...

You really do need to do some reading if you are serious about a visit.... safe journey.

River Cruises

Have used ';Road to Mandalay'; cruises twice some years ago - very upmarket ex-Rhine cruiser run by Orient Express.

Since then have done the Mandalay- Bagan route twice on the Pandaw

which I would highly recommend - also heard good reports on the original Pandaw 1947 boat.

Try www.Pandaw.com for their itinerary etc and any of the decent travel agents in Yangon can price boat packages to include flights from Yangon.

Only query - May??? It will be very hot in Bagan and you will catch the start of the Monsoon in Yangon.

Myanmar is one of our favourite countries , with wonderful people - do go.