Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Pasta Fresca
30 Khine Shwe War St 09 4224 45138 (turn inland off Main Rd down
the track past the Alliance Resort and follow the signs).
A very unexpected find in determin-
edly local Chaung Tha, this little garden restaurant is run by a charming Italian mother-and-
son team with excellent, authentic pizza and home-made pasta at bargain prices (most mains
K5500).
Daily from around 7pm; also open for lunch if people show up.
ShwePyaeAung
MainRd 0949721897.
Oneofthestringofidentikitseafoodrestaurants
along the main road serving up well-prepared fish, prawns, crab, squid, octopus, oysters and
abalone, plus a few meat dishes.
Daily 10am-11pm.
ShweYaMinn
ShweYaMinnHotel,MainRd 04242126.
ChaungTha'sbest-lookingres-
taurant, with smooth service, cheap beer and well-prepared versions of all the usual seafood
dishes plus one of the village's biggest selections of meat and veg curries, noodles and so on
(mains K4000-5000).
Daily 7am-11pm.
DIRECTORY
Banks
There are no banks or ATMs in Chaung Tha, although you might be able to change
money at one of the larger hotels. Bring all the cash you'll need.
Internet
A few hotels (including
Shwe Ya Minn
) have wi-fi, and there's internet access at
the
Hotel Ayeyarwady
(K1000/hr; open until 11pm).
Swimming pools
The nicest pools open to non-guests are those at the
Hotel Max
and
Belle
Resort
(both K5000/day, although the latter is open to non-guests only if hotel occupancy
levels aren't too high).
Ngwe Saung
Crashed-out
NGWE SAUNG
(“Silver Beach”; pronounced, approximately, “Nway Song”)
sees far more foreign visitors than nearby Chaung Tha, and with good reason thanks to its
fine swathe of wide golden sand stretching north and south of the small village for kilometre
afterkilometre,withaseriesofmainlyupmarketresorts(plusacoupleofgoodbudgetplaces)
hidden at discreet intervals among the endless palms backdropping the beach. Ongoing de-
velopment is steadily changing the face of the village, while road improvements mean that
the journey from Yangon can now be made in less than five hours, putting the beach firmly
on the map both of foreign tourists and wealthy Burmese fleeing the congested capital. But
for now, at least, Ngwe Saung retains its somnolent atmosphere and feeling of a place where
the clock is stuck permanently at four o'clock on a Sunday afternoon.
Towards the northern end of the beach, compact
Ngwe Saung village
is as lively as things
ever get hereabouts, stuffed with a good collection of restaurants, handicrafts shops and
stalls piled high with huge mounds of dried fish. The coast
north of the village
has been
mainly gobbled up with a collection of generally lacklustre resorts enclosed within fortress-
