Basics - The Rough Guide to Myanmar - page 35

GETTING THERE
Travelling to Myanmar used to be a question of flying into Yangon or catching one
of the few international flights to Mandalay. Then, in 2013, four of the five border
crossings between Myanmar and Thailand opened fully to independent foreign travel-
lers,creatingsomeinterestingpossibilitiestoenterMyanmaroverland,especiallyinthe
south of the country.
For the time being, however, most visitors arrive at the ageing Yangon International Air-
port on regional flights from around Asia. The least expensive way to get here is to travel
through a regional hub. Bangkok and Singapore are the best options, with regular low-cost
flightstobothYangonand MandalayInternationalAirport .Flightpricesareslightlyhigh-
er during the winter peak season (December to February) and over the Thingyan Water
Festival , or Burmese New Year, which falls in April each year.
There are plans afoot to build a new international airport 80km east of Yangon, near the
town of Bago, but at the time of writing these were firmly stuck on the drawing board, and
it seems that the airports in Yangon and Mandalay will need to handle the rapidly increasing
volume of visitors on their own for the time being.
Whichever way you arrive in Myanmar, it helps to have a valid visa before boarding your
flight or arriving at the border, as the country's visa-on-arrival system is in its infancy. At the
time of research the overland border crossings from Thailand had been reliably open for a
year, but there's always a chance that this will change. Make sure to check the latest inform-
ation before relying on a particular crossing.
A BETTER KIND OF TRAVEL
At Rough Guides we are passionately committed to travel. We believe it helps us under-
stand the world we live in and the people we share it with - and of course tourism is vital
to many developing economies. But the scale of modern tourism has also damaged some
places irreparably,andclimate changeisaccelerated bymostformsoftransport,especially
flying. All Rough Guides' flights are carbon-offset, and every year we donate money to a
variety of environmental charities.
Flights from the UK and Ireland
At the time of writing there were no direct flights from the UK and Ireland to Myanmar. The
most convenient (and frequently the cheapest) indirect flights transit through Bangkok (11hr
30min), Kuala Lumpur (12hr 30min) or Singapore (12hr 50min), with daily flights from
each of the three cities directly to Yangon, as well as from Bangkok direct to Mandalay. Air