Luxury Travel to Myanmar(Burma)

Think Angkor Wat without the crowds for, Bagan, though not recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site due to 'haphazardly restored ancient stupas...ignoring original architectural styles'* is still a sight to behold.

Take an early morning balloon tour over Bagan, a horse cart ride through the temples and then interact with the young monks in the monasteries. From Bagan, continue on to Mount Popa, a hundred miles from Bagan, with a complete climatic turnaround. Believed by locals to be the habitat of nats(spirits), the mystical silhouette of Mount Popa, with its gold-spired monastery hinged at the top, seems like an almost believable abode for otherworldly beings. You will be based at the Popa Mountain Resort where you'll get (should you be so strategically placed) a view of Mount Popa and that golden-spired monastery. The climb up Mount Popa isn't easy- reputedly 777 stairs to reach the monastery, should you be so inclined.

An extension available is to continue your journey to Mrauk-U and to the Chin villages, where the tattoo people are based. Accommodations in the Chin villages( where you will spend 3 nights) are reduced to the most basic of amenities - the comfort and luxury of five-star commodes usually being the first to go when exploring less-developed areas. You'll interact with the tattoo people and various other ethnic groups in the area as accompanied by local guides who know the place and have a good rapport with the local people. A definite divergence from the tourist-beaten track, with very few in the way of foreigners coming to the villages. We're not promising 'first contact' with obscure tribes but rather a refreshing change from the perfectly curated tour experience, safe from behind the protective walls of a luxury hotel. There are many possibilities to immerse yourself in local village life during the few days that you will be there( or we could always arrange for you to go on a boat cruise on the Chin river).

From Chin state, venture along to the beach town of Ngapali where you'll find yourself comfortably ensconced again in a luxury beach hotel.  The road from Chin state to Ngapali itself is another instruction in diverging from the tourist track- very recently opened, few foreigners have been known to go down this route. Take time out to enjoy the beaches- another facet of your experience in Myanmar. And what a trip it would have been( even thus far)- from the archaeological ruins of Bagan to mystical Mount Popa, the ascetic few days spent in the Chin villages and back to luxurious commodes on a beach in Burma. As you continue your journey around Burma, you'd witness the leg-rowers of Inle Lake and spend time in a luxury safari lodge in the remote state of Kachin. Such diverse journeys constituting a modern-day Odyssey within the geographical constraints of one country- Burma has much to offer to the intrepid traveller.

Myanmar isn't a typical luxury destination, nor a soft introduction to Asia in the way that the sanitized environs of Singapore or the luxurious-exoticism of Thailand is. Flights within Myanmar can be erratic, yet those looking for culture and places few have trodden are likely to be well-rewarded. Urbane Nomads offers private jet travel to Myanmar and tours that combine Thailand with Myanmar, or, for a more niche and unusual combination- India and Myanmar, a combination that elicits the cultural and social influences and trajectories of the two countries.

Sample Itinerary

*Tourtellot, Jonathan, Dictators 'Defacing' Famed Burma Temples, Editor Says. National Geographic Traveler, 2004-09-03