The Perfect Beach

PHOTO ALBUM - Mandalay, Mawlamyine, Hpa-an, The Perfect Beach

Our final stop in Myanmar was the beach. Unfortunately, to get to the beach involved having to obtain a permit in Yangon to visit this area of the country. In 2008,a cyclone hit the river delta you go through to get to the Bay of Bengal coast, and ever since they've required foreigners to obtain a permit to travel through that area. To get the permit, we had to copy a letter they gave us stating that we promised not to participate in any political activity while at the beach. Not a problem, as we’re not sure what “political activity” was available for us to partake. We shouldn't have bothered, since the permit was never checked, but it was interesting how the bus operators took our passports to checkpoints a couple different times on the bus trips (this was not typical on any other bus trips we took).  It was also interesting to observe that each time our passports were given to a government official for processing, some “tea money” (not much different than a bribe) was given to the official by our bus attendant.  

After a 6 hour ride on another bus with leg room meant for elementary school children, we arrived at the beach, not really knowing what to expect. We were more than pleasantly surprised. For 2 ½ days, we had 9 miles of endless, fine sand, clear blue seas, and virtually no one around. It was quiet, the perfect air temperature, and there was a constant breeze that kept us from ever getting sweaty when we basked in the sun. And again, no one was there. We stayed in brand new, well-kept room just a hundred yards off the beach. Breakfast was brought to our balcony every morning. Every night for dinner, we'd go to the guesthouse restaurant, sit at a table literally on the beach, watch the sun set, and eat the most delicious BBQ'd fish (fresh from the sea) that was made by our own personal chef, since, again, no one else was around. We even got a personal conversation with the chef every night after dinner.  We couldn't have asked for a better way to end our visit to Myanmar.

You might have noticed we haven’t yet provided the name of the perfect beach in our blog.  Since we liked it without people there, we decided to do our part to leave it that way. If you want to go, send us an email...and if we like you, we just might let you in on the secret...

Yes, that is an ox-cart.