Travel Guide: 10 Days in Magical Myanmar

Bourdain said of Bagan, "You'd expect this, an ancient city of nearly unparalleled size and beauty to be overrun with tourists, souvenir shops, snack bars, tours on tape. But no... You'll encounter some Western travelers at Bagan's temple sites for sure... But for the most part you're far more likely to bump into a goat than a foreigner."

Bourdain’s visit to Myanmar happened in 2013, just two years after the country opened its borders following six decades of isolation. Five years later, Myanmar’s tourism infrastructure is much more developed, but we still found the country more enchanting and less traveled than anywhere we’d been before.

Our 10 days in Myanmar stand out among all our travels as a truly special experience. In Yangon, we went entire days without seeing another tourist outside our hostel. In Bagan, we celebrated the Thingyan / New Year’s / Water Festival in an intense water fight with locals for four days straight, and explored miles of abandoned temples by dirt bike on roads all our own. And through it all, we learned important lessons about the positive impact of (safely) visiting countries undergoing political, ethnic, or economic strife.

We have so many stories to share from Myanmar which will get their own posts, but in the meantime we’ve put together the travel guide below to walk you through our 10-day itinerary and to help you navigate your own adventure to this treasure of a country.

When we went: Mid-April, which is the hottest time of year and thus low tourist season. We encountered daily temperatures in the 90s and low 100s (Fahrenheit) in Yangon, Bagan, and Mandalay, and slightly cooler temps in Inle Lake. The four-day Water Festival happens in April in several South Asian countries. Depending on what you’re looking for, you could either choose to avoid local festivals, or you could view them as more reason to go. There are cons — such as crowds, wild street parties, and potentially stores and government-run tourist sites being closed — and pros, such as crowds, wild street parties, and experiencing the way locals celebrate a national observance while joining in on the fun. Thingyan will definitely get its own post, but for now we’ll say that we feel incredibly lucky to have taken part in the festival, especially in Bagan rather than in a major city.

Costs: Costs for daily goods, food, drinks, and lodging in Myanmar are in line with what you’d expect throughout SE Asia. We were surprised to find prices a bit higher than other more on the beaten path destinations like Vietnam and Thailand, however. When budgeting, one thing to keep in mind is that you’ll likely have to take multiple flights and bus trips to get from place to place within Myanmar itself, and will also need to hire drivers or guides to take you to some of the major tourist sites. When hiring a driver from one specific place to another, or for a full day tour, we always recommend researching or asking your hotel how much you should expect to pay beforehand so that you can go in knowing what to bargain for.

Use the table of contents below to jump around and explore our favorite parts of Myanmar!

GETTING THERE & AROUND

We spent two nights in Yangon, three nights in Bagan, three nights in Inle Lake, and two nights in Mandalay.

Our Burmese itinerary: Yangon > Bagan > Inle Lake > Mandalay

We flew directly into Yangon from Singapore, and pre-arranged a driver to pick us up from the airport through Booking.com at the same time we booked our hostel. This cost about $15 USD, which is a steep price for Myanmar, but we sometimes prefer to pre-arrange drivers when flying into a new country for the first time, unsure of exactly what the situation will be like at the airport. We normally find that pre-booking is totally unnecessary — there are always lines of drivers waiting at the airport to drive visitors into the main city for just a few dollars — but it can be worth it just for the peace of mind.

Prices are negotiable as well. One thing that made us laugh in Yangon was the fact that any taxi ride cost either 2,000 or 3,000 kyat ($2-$3) no matter how far you were going. For a super short trip, we knew to propose 2,000, and for a long trip, 3,000 always did the trick.

At the time we visited, flights within Myanmar were not directly bookable online, so we had pre-booked our flight from Yangon to Bagan through our hostel owner as well, and paid him directly for it when we arrived. He literally hand wrote the plane tickets!

In Bagan, the best way to get around is by e-bike. These are pretty much the same as motorbikes, just electronic and a little less powerful because they don’t want tourists getting hurt — there are no good hospitals anywhere nearby. E-bikes are super easy to find — there are rental stations outside all the major hostels and hotels.

The rest of the trip, we booked buses from place to place, so from Bagan to Inle Lake (a full day ~8 hr drive plus getting stuck in the Water Festival), and from Inle Lake to Mandalay (~6 hr drive), then flew out of Mandalay at the end of our stay. Within Inle Lake, we rode bikes and also hired a tour guide to take us out by boat to the lake villages. In Mandalay, we hired an all-day driver to take us around to the surrounding towns and cultural sites.

DAY BY DAY ITINERARY

Yangon

Day 1: Started out the day in Singapore, nervously excited to kick the adventure portion of our 3.5-month trip into high gear. Arrived in Yangon around midday and ohhh boi it was HOT — about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Checked in to our hostel, and while the room was nothing special at all, the host was one of the nicest and most helpful of our entire trip. He recommended a lunch spot across the street called Shan Secret and we grabbed some quick Shan noodles and fried rice. Then it was time to explore Yangon on foot. The heat was stifling, especially mixed with the exhaust of heavy traffic and smells of street food sitting out since morning. The streets seemed dirty and the colonial-style buildings were rundown — covered in electrical wires, foliage, and satellites. Highlights of our first day exploring include:

Sule Pagoda, where a local student gave us a tour of the entire temple, showing us how to do the traditional water-pouring ceremony on one of the shrines. Turns out we were both born on Tuesdays, which means we have the same shrine position at all the temples, same lucky number (8), color (green), and animal (lion)! Apparently, people born on the same day also shouldn’t end up together romantically but hey...we seem to be doin’ alright. We were the only tourists in sight, which drew some stares as we walked around the temple, hot tiles burning our bare feet.

Walked down to The Strand, the street that runs along the river, and stopped for a much-needed drink at the 5-star Strand Hotel, which stands out from everything in Yangon in terms of its luxury.
Continued venturing a long way down The Strand to Botahtaung Pagoda, which the student guide had recommended to us. Definitely an even more local scene...no other tourists anywhere, just prayer ceremonies going on at this temple, which was cool to see.
It was nearing evening so we decided to grab a taxi and head to Yangon’s main attraction, Shweddagon Pagoda, because it’s best seen at golden hour and sunset. GUYS, this is not your average everyday pagoda. It’s actually a giant complex located on top of a hill and featuring dozens of stupas plated in real gold. The main central stupa is 326 ft tall and coated in diamonds and rubies. There were definitely more tourist groups here, but there was still plenty of room to walk around and take in the beauty. We were completely awestruck and wandered the complex until sundown.

Shwedagon at golden hour. Absolutely unbelievable.

From there, we had to find the exact entrance where we had left our shoes and then wandered down the hill, through monastery housing, to get back out to the street where we grabbed a taxi to dinner. We hit up Min Lan Seafood Restaurant, which is one of the spots Bourdain ate at in Yangon. We were happy to see that tons of locals were gathered on the outdoor patio, which typically means the food is delish. Again, no other tourists in sight. Sam ate the infamous prawn curry, which was nice and spicy, and Ray got a cuttlefish curry, which ended up being kind of weird and rubbery and altogether TOO spicy. Showered and passed out back at our hostel that night.

Day 2: Our hostel stay included free breakfasts, which were FIRE compared to your average continental. The first morning was traditional, homemade Shan noodle soup which was so yum! And the super nice host walked around during breakfast giving everyone personalized recommendations for the day. Highlights included:

Chauk Htat Gyi Buddha Temple: This was the last temple left on our bucket list for Yangon, and is known for its giant reclining Buddha statue. From the photos, we actually weren’t sure how cool it would be and had second thoughts because it’s a bit outside of town, but with taxi rides priced at $3 max we decided we might as well check it out. Really glad we did! The Buddha is more gargantuan than we ever imagined at 217 ft long and 52 ft high, and even though it’s really quick to see, it’s definitely worth it to witness its resting majesty.

Biiiiiiig Buddha, big buddha, big buddha. Uh huh, big buddha.

Rangoon Tea House: Must-try spot for lunch! Unlike most of Yangon, this place is more on the upscale side, but they do all of the local Burmese recipes really well. Myanmar is known for its highly-customizable teas, where you can choose between like 20 different levels of sweetness, milk, and hot or cold. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of tea leaf salad, mohinga — traditional breakfast stew of catfish and lemongrass broth — and of course the yummy teas.

Bogyoke Aung San Market: One of the biggest indoor bazaars in Yangon, with stalls catering to locals and tourists alike. We had fun wandering for a bit, but a lot of the stalls were already closed down for the start of the New Years festival, so things were pretty quiet. Ray did purchase a decorative cane ball, which we saw local kids playing with all over the streets. We witnessed a New Years dance party beginning outside, and some kids even playfully shot us with water guns while we were inside the market...a tiny taste of the crazy water fights to come in our near future.
Aung Mingalar Restaurant: Another one from the Bourdain episode because sometimes you just gotta follow in the footsteps of greatness. This one claims to have the best Shan noodles. It’s a small outdoor covered restaurant with a mix of locals and tourists alike. Sam got the soupy noodles and Ray got the dry kind — both bomb!
Sakura Tower: This 20-story tower has a rooftop bar that’s supposed to be a scenic place to grab drinks on those hot Yangon nights. However, it was closed, likely due to New Years festivities, so we went back to our trusty Strand Hotel for a nightcap instead.

Bagan

Day 3: This day began with a delicious Indian breakfast of chapati and curry from our hostel. Seriously bless up to this place for its next level breakfasts. After that, it was time to head to the airport and make our way to Bagan. We boarded a tiny plane for the quick flight, and the second we unboarded at the small airport in 100+ degree heat we knew things had just gotten real...it was time to explore the place we came for. The place we had dreamed about ever since we first saw it in photos and documentaries. We checked in at Ostello Bello hostel, took a quick nap, rented an e-bike and were off on our way! The rundown:

We were IMMEDIATELY tossed into the crazy world that is Thingyan / New Years / Water Festival in Bagan. Outside our hostel, a permanent water fight raged on 24/7 all three days we were there, and the second we hopped on our e-bike to ride into the ancient city, we learned that these parties were lined up all along the roads throughout town, complete with stages, music, kiddie pools, hoses, buckets, and kids who splashed (AKA DOUSED) anyone and everyone who drove by...regardless of whether that person was on foot, a scooter, a truck, or anything in between. Ray had to adapt to driving our e-bike while being constantly hosed down, which often just involved slowing to a stop at each of the water parties and letting it happen. Though it was really aggressive at times, it was actually somewhat a blessing considering the extreme heat.

We rode around until sundown, stopping to explore every giant temple we saw and constantly eyeing another one in the distance that we wanted to hit next. On the New Years holiday, there are fewer international tourists in Myanmar, but more local Burmese citizens make a visit to Bagan to see the ancient temples, so there were people there who had never seen a foreign tourist before. This led to tonssss of people asking for selfies with us, which we found funny. We didn’t find a temple to climb for sunset the first night, but watched the beautiful red sun setting over a field of stupas and pagodas as we rode back to town. Ended the night playing trivia at our hostel, and won a round of drinks!

Bagan Day 1. Totally overwhelmed by the scope of the ancient city at our fingertips, and the size of the temples themselves. Also totally soaked from water fights.

Day 4: Signed up for the free tour provided by our hostel in the morning, which ended up being one of the most powerful experiences of our entire trip thanks to our tour guide, Christopher. He grew up in Bagan, had impressive viewership of every Western movie and TV show, and led a tour that was a million times better than we ever expected. The tour group included about 20 people of all ages and nationalities, and initially we were afraid we wouldn’t enjoy our day as much hanging out with a group rather than adventuring on our own. We quickly realized we were wrong.

Christopher’s tour included so much historical background on Myanmar and the temples we visited, time with local villagers to try thanaka (their traditional sunscreen / face paint) and local palm wine (quite the…pungent…refreshment), lunch at a great local restaurant, and most importantly, tons of education on Myanmar’s current political situation, and all the ways tourism helps support the economy and thus the hopeful advancement of democracy.

We stuck with the group all day and saw three big temples we hadn’t visited the previous night, while also gaining incredibly enlightening insights into Myanmar from all aspects. Christopher definitely stands to go big places in his lifetime, but if you’re in Bagan and happen upon the chance to take a tour with him, TAKE IT!

Christopher (in the blue hat) and his tour group with some curious local tourists passing by.

After grabbing afternoon beers at our hostel, we hopped back on our e-bike to adventure before sunset. This time, we took one of the local kids up on his offer to guide us atop a pagoda to watch the sunset. It was a small pagoda, but still a beautiful view and sunset over the fields of stupas on stupas on stupas. To repay him, we looked through his cloth paintings and bought a couple as gifts for family back home.

Day 5: Had high ambitions of making it out for sunrise...which was a total fail. When that alarm went off, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it. Bagan at sunrise is iconic, but we weren’t there during the infamous hot air balloon season, so we chose to stick to sunsets instead.

We slept in, got breakfast at our hostel, and immediately set out for another day of Lara Crofting it up. We went more into the interior area of Old Bagan this day, finding some really cool remote areas full of temples and nearly no other tourists. Alas, we found the golden fleece that every Bagan visitor aims to discover...a large temple that hadn’t yet been closed up, meaning it was still climbable for sunset. At the time we found it, there was one other couple on top. We navigated our way up tiny, dark, bug-filled staircases and passageways to emerge into the sunlight on top, and reveled in that magical moment for a while, marking the temple on our map so we could remember how to return.

Drove over to the river and saw the Bupaya Pagoda, which was where alllll the Burmese crowds were, so we quickly saw the pagoda and got outta there.

After lunch, beers, and a water fight back at our hostel, we hit the ol’ dusty trail again. Explored Minnanthu Village, which was another very cool, remote part of Bagan with big temples.

We went back to our super secret temple we thought we had been the only ones to discover, and found about 50 other people there for sunset. We climbed up and got a good spot, but other tourists were way above us on the main stupa of the temple, a treacherous climb up and also dangerous to the temple itself. The sunset was a bit cloudy that night, but still gorgeous and pink over all of the surrounding pagodas.

Sunset view from the top of the climbable pagoda we discovered.

Enjoyed dinner and concerts on all of the Thingyan stages back by the hostel.

Inle Lake / Nyaung Shwe

Day 6: Boarded our shared shuttle bus to Inle Lake at 7am. The normally 8-hour ride ended up taking 11 hours because we got stuck in Water Festival traffic all along the way. At one point we were literally stuck in the middle of a huge crowd of people dancing and water fighting in front of a concert stage for over an hour. Once we got out of the crowds and into the mountains it was a huge relief, and also some beautiful surroundings including farms, palm trees, and flowers everywhere. By the time we got to our hotel in Inle Lake it was late evening. We went out for some bomb Indian food at a place called Dosa King and then called it a day.

Day 7: Got our included breakfast buffet at the hotel and then left at 7:30am for an all day boat trip on the lake. Our driver barely spoke any English, which made for a quiet day, but it was super peaceful out on the shallow lake among the purple flowers and fishermen.

Inle Lake tours follow a pretty set itinerary which is rather touristy — a lotus weaving shop, a silversmith, a cigar maker. All of them felt like they were producing outdated crafts by hand simply for the novelty to tourists, and all of the stops felt like gift shops where we were intended to buy something. The only one where we purchased anything was the cigar shop, where you could pick out 20 different small cigars (like the size of a joint) rolled in leaves and packaged in beautifully carved and painted wood boxes. We taste (smoke?) tested the cigars and got them as gifts for several family members and friends!

Then came the weirdest stop of the day...the long necked women. We’ve all seen photos of this cultural tradition — the women with golden rings stacked around their necks, artificially elongating them. This stop on the tour made us feel super awkward and sad. The neck rings are no longer a common practice, but two “long-necked women” just sit there all day on a bench for tourists to stop by and take photos. We said hello to the women to be polite, but it made us feel really uncomfortable to treat people as a tourist attraction, so we quickly hopped back on the boat and took no photos.

Some of our favorite stops on the lake were In Dein, a separate village further up the river that has a really cool pagoda complex made of tons of small, uniquely colored stupas, and Jumping Cat Monastery. Overall, it was a relaxing and nice day just motoring around the lake seeing how people live their lives in the floating villages.

Hit up a restaurant in town called Beyond Taste for dinner, because it had good ratings and the name made us lol. Turns out the view from the second floor open-air dining area was beautiful at golden hour, and the food was really delicious — lentil soup, watercress salad, braised fish curry, and mojitos.

Day 8: Once we’d done the lake tour, the only thing really left to do in the area was to ride bikes to a local winery called Red Mountain about 2 miles outside of town, which was supposed to have nice views. The bikes we rented were really shitty, so the ride ended up being a struggle.

We got to the winery and were literally the only people in the tasting room. While the view was pretty, the wine...you guys...was the weirdest and shittiest wine we’ve ever tasted. We’ve had our $3 Trader Joe’s wine bottle days. To this day, we’re more of $12 bottle folks and really are not picky at all. But y’all...this wine was so off putting we don’t even know how to describe what was wrong with it. Kind of….musty? Surprise surprise...we still drank our whole flights.

Terrible wine, very cute kitty that we fell in love with and wanted to take home.

After the less than satisfying wine tasting, we decided to continue biking another four miles to a lake village called Maing Thauk. Not tons to do here. It was really just one wooden walkway out over the water with restaurants on either side, so we stopped at one for beer and french fries before biking back.

Indian food seemed to be the specialty in the area so we hit up the Indian place right next door to our hotel, Innlay Hut, for dinner. Little did we know we were in for one of the most delicious but strange meals of our lives. The Indian food here (and all throughout town, really) was so fire, but the owner...ok...how do we even explain. A young guy who was absolutely OBSESSED with Eminem. Like, we’re talking Eminem playing over the speakers and Eminen and Detroit decor all over the restaurant alongside traditional Burmese paintings, which was quite the mashup. And then this guy’s overall attitude was something else. He dressed like Eminem, tried to act hard as fuck, had a “Fuck Trump” sign hanging in the front of the restaurant, and shared a very emphatic story about telling an old couple to fuck off out of his restaurant because they were offended. VERY different from anyone else we met in Myanmar — what a bloke.

Mandalay

Day 9: After breakfast at the hotel, it was time for another bus to Mandalay. It was a big bus with comfy seats this time, and about a 7 hour ride. We were shocked by how much more modern Mandalay felt compared to Yangon. It had tall buildings and actual storefronts with neon signs compared to Yangon’s rundown colonial buildings and street-side bazaars and food stalls.

We wandered around looking for a place to eat dinner, and settled on an outdoor barbecue joint because it was poppin’ with locals. We had no idea how to order for the longest time, until someone eventually showed us that you had to go inside, pick out your meats and veggies, and then they grill them for you outside. The food was awesome, and they had some scratch ticket promo going on where they just kept serving us free beers. We’ll take it!

Day 10: Booked an all day driving tour of the “Four Cities” surrounding Mandalay. First was Amarapura, where we toured a woodworking shop, a silk weaving shop, a huge monastery that houses 1,200 monks, and a beautiful pagoda that had intricate and colorful glass mosaic work. Ray got to go inside the center room to see the gold Buddha statue...but women aren’t allowed so Sam didn’t get to.

Next we crossed the river to Sagaing Hill, which is also known as “Little Bagan” because it’s filled with tons of gold and white pagodas. Really beautiful looking, with more colorful tiled pagodas and sweeping views of the surrounding hills.

Then came the pagoda Sam had been looking forward to, called Mya Thein Dan or Hsinbyume Pagoda, which is about 45 minutes further up the river in a town called Mingun. This pagoda is huge and white, with wavy structures all around the base, making it look like a giant cake. Definitely towards the top of our very long list of amazing pagodas and temples in Myanmar.

Next on the tour would have been a town called Ava, but when we arrived at the gates we learned that you can only tour Ava by horse cart, which would have been an extra 30,000 kyat and two hours, so we decided to skip it.

Last came U-Bein Bridge. This long bridge is best seen at sunset, but since we skipped Ava we arrived way early. It’s pretty much just a really long wooden bridge, which we walked in the midday heat along with bunches of other locals and tourists.

U-Bein Bridge, the bridge responsible for breaking one of Sam’s favorite sandals.

Got back to our hotel early and enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the rooftop infinity pool.

Day 11: Said goodbye to Myanmar and flew out to our next stop, Thailand, which has plenty of its own stories to tell!

ACCOMMODATIONS

We stayed in hostels in Yangon and Bagan and hotels in Inle Lake and Mandalay. We enjoyed all of the places we stayed in Myanmar for different reasons — recommendations below! You can book any of these places on Booking.com, and get $25 off when you use our link.

Shwe Yo Vintage Hostel

No. 65 Shwe Taung Tan St, Yangon 11131, Myanmar (Burma) | Booking.com

We probably got the worst room possible at this place — first floor, right next to the lobby, dark and dank with no windows, which really bums us out. However, we would 10000% recommend this place if you visit Yangon! The host was one of the most kind and helpful of our entire trip. People (including us) naturally show up a little anxious in Myanmar because you can’t book your own flights, buses, etc. — and in this day and age we just can’t survive without digital proof of things! But this man’s calm demeanor immediately brings everyone’s worries down a notch. He kindly and sweetly helps everyone book and confirm their transportation, serves the absolute best breakfasts which are included with your stay (we’re talking Shan noodle soup, chapati and curry...not your average fruit and pastries here!), hosts fun community events daily, and walks around during breakfast giving recommendations and making sure everyone has what they need for the day. We’re sure the other rooms are better than the one we got, and the hospitality alone makes this place worth it.

Ostello Bello Hostel Bagan

Kayay St, New Bagan, Myanmar (Burma), Booking.com | Booking.com

The best hostel in Bagan! Ostello Bello has a community-centric, have fun vibe AND you can also get your quiet time if you wish...unless you’re there during 24/7 water fight parties like we were :) We appreciated the fun atmosphere, nightly events, outdoor seating area, pre-arranged Bagan tours, and more.

Inle Apex Hotel

No. 54, Win Quarter, Phaung Taw Side Road, Nyaung Shwe, Southern Shan State, Nyaung Shwe, 11221, Myanmar | Booking.com

Nyaung Shwe, the town where you’ll most likely stay to access Inle Lake, is an interesting place. It’s primarily comprised of hotels and restaurants, and during the time of year we were there, very few tourists occupying said establishments. We chose Inle Apex for no particular reason — we have a feeling all of the accommodations are quite similar in Nyaung Shwe — but found our stay perfectly pleasant and the staff super hospitable. Inle Apex offered a pretty nice breakfast buffet daily which was included with our stay, and it made us laugh because we were one of the only tables dining there, so the staff would literally watch us eat, refill our coffee almost every time we took a sip, and take each plate away as soon as we finished the last bite. Can’t complain about the prompt service!

Hotel Yadanarbon Mandalay

No. 125, 31st St., Bet: 76th and 77th St., Chan Aye Thar San township, Mandalay, 12345, Myanmar | Booking.com

Much like the scene in Nyaung Shwe, if you’re looking for middle-ground accommodations that aren’t super luxury or budget, most of the hotels are likely pretty similar. The biggest perk of Yadanarbon? The rooftop infinity pool. It was so refreshing to return to after days adventuring in the scorching heat, and inspired many a photo shoot. One weird thing...apparently the hotel is government-owned, and we had a local driver actually bitch us out on the street for booking a day tour through the hotel because we were supporting the rich, military-controlled government. Now, this was an in-our-faces example of the very real, very much ongoing political strife and government corruption in Myanmar which affects its citizens on a daily basis. The pros, cons, and realities of visiting a country in turmoil deserves its own post, but for now we’ll just give you a heads up that this hotel, and likely many other hotels and businesses, have government ties and may be resented by Burmese locals for that reason.

FOOD & DRINKS

Overall, Myanmar didn’t make our list of best cuisine in SE Asia. We loved the Burmese restaurants in San Francisco where we had just moved from, but didn’t find the food in Myanmar itself to quite stack up — likely because most of it caters to tourists. We ate at SO many restaurants as part of our day tours there that all offered the same exact combo of Chinese food, American food, and Burmese curries, which we got so tired of.

There were a few gems, however — including both local and upscale spots in Yangon, Indian food in Inle Lake, and barbecue in Mandalay.

The Strand Hotel

92 Strand Rd, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) | Website

While we didn’t eat at The Strand, we stopped there for drinks a couple times, finding it a welcome oasis of luxury and air conditioning as we wandered the hot, dirty streets of Yangon. It’s a beautiful 5-star hotel that’s worth exploring if you’re in Yangon — and definitely grab a refreshing cocktail at the bar, or check out the restaurant and let us know how it is!

Min Lan Seafood Restaurant

Shin Saw Pu Rd, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) | Website

Followed in the footsteps of Bourdain to find this place near Shwedagon Pagoda, and we were happy to see that tons of locals were gathered on the outdoor patio, which typically means the food is delish. Sam ate the infamous prawn curry, which was nice and spicy, and Ray got a cuttlefish curry, which ended up being kind of weird and rubbery and altogether TOO spicy. Definitely a solid local hang if you make the right ordering decisions.

Rangoon Tea House

Ground Floor, 77-79, Pansodan Street (Lower Middle Block, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) | Website

One of our favorite meals in Myanmar and a must-try spot for lunch in Yangon! Unlike most of Yangon, this place is more on the upscale and trendy side, but they do all of the local Burmese recipes really well. Myanmar is known for its highly-customizable teas, where you can choose between like 20 different levels of sweetness, milk, and hot or cold. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of tea leaf salad, mohinga — traditional breakfast stew of catfish and lemongrass broth — and of course the yummy teas.

Our favorite Burmese meal! Mohinga, tea leaf salad, and tea galore.

Aung Mingalar Shan Noodle Restaurant

Corner or Nawaday Street, Bo Yar Nyunt Rd, Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)

Another one from the Bourdain episode. This one claims to have the best Shan noodles. It’s a small outdoor covered restaurant with a mix of locals and tourists alike. Sam got the soupy noodles and Ray got the dry kind — both bomb!

Dosa King

MM, 30 Yone Gyi St, Nyaung Shwe 11221, Myanmar (Burma) | Website

Some of the best food we ate in Myanmar ended up being Indian food, and Nyaung Shwe (near Inle Lake) had the best of the best! We forget what we got at Dosa King but it was definitely a chicken dish and a veggie dish (always our go-to), and everything was delicious plus the staff was super friendly.

Innlay Hut

Kyauk Taing Ashae St, Nyaung Shwe, Myanmar (Burma)

Little did we know we were in for one of the most delicious but strange meals of our lives. The Indian food here was so fire, but the owner...ok...how do we even explain. A young guy who was absolutely OBSESSED with Eminem. Like, we’re talking Eminem playing over the speakers and Eminen and Detroit decor all over the restaurant alongside traditional Burmese paintings, which was quite the mashup. And then this guy’s overall attitude was something else. He dressed like Eminem, tried to act hard as fuck, had a “Fuck Trump” sign hanging in the front of the restaurant, and shared a very emphatic story about telling an old couple to fuck off out of his restaurant because they were offended. VERY different from anyone else we met in Myanmar and an unforgettable dining experience. A little much, but the Indian food was even better than Dosa King and 100% worth it.