Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DESTINATION
AIR
BOAT
BUS
$80; 12hr;
4.30am
Kawthoung
$111; 80min; 2 daily
N/A
K9000-11,000; 9-12hr;
5am
Mawlamyine
N/A
N/A
Myeik
$71; 35min; 2 daily $35; 4hr; 4.30am N/A
$126; 70min; 2
daily
K13,000; around 16hr;
4pm
Yangon
N/A
Getting Around
The centre of Dawei is accessible on foot.
Dawei's
airport
is about 2 miles northeast of town; a motorcycle taxi should run about
K2000. Dawei's
bus station
is located northeast of the airport; a
thoun bein
to/from here
will run about K5000.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Myeik
059 / POPULATION C200,000
Myeik - known to the colonials as Mergui and locally as Beik (Myeik is the written
rather than the spoken form) - sits on a peninsula that juts out into the Andaman Sea. Be-
cause of its location roughly halfway between the Middle East and China, not to mention
the safe harbour offered by the peninsula and facing islands, Myeik became an important
international port over 500 years ago.
The Portuguese were allegedly the first Europeans to visit Myeik, while the Siamese,
who ruled the area during the 17th century, installed Englishman Samuel White as har-
bourmaster. White proceeded to plunder visiting ships at will and to tax the local popula-
tion for every shilling he could squeeze out of them, exploits described in Maurice Col-
lis's 1936 biography of the man,
Siamese White
. The British eventually re-occupied the
city following the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1826, so that along with Sittwe, Myeik
became one of the first cities in Myanmar to become part of British India. The city con-
tinued to retain its international roots into the 20th century, as this 1901 British census of
Myeik indicates:
A considerable proportion of the population in the town and mines is Baba or half-
Chinese, the men retaining the pig-tail but talking Burmese or Siamese […] Of the Mus-
