Burma travel lessons learned

Taking my three-year-old to Burma (Myanmar*) felt like the biggest travel challenge we’d tackled in a while. Our biggest family travel challenge of all, if I’m honest.

After the early days of working out how to master travel with a baby at all, then trying our hand at a cruise, long-haul flights to the Caribbean and USA, this was heading further off the beaten track. 

In the heat. With a three-year-old. So, as ever, I’ve been looking back at the lessons I’ve learned about travelling to Burma with kids (or my one, at least) from internal flights to food.

For more tips on planning a trip to Burma, check out this post, as well as my 12 reasons to visit Burma

Flying in Burma

I’d heard mixed reports about Burma’s domestic airlines, but in the end the flights were all very smooth – with a few unexpected twists. On Air KBZ, as well as your boarding pass, you get a coloured sticker depending which flight you’re taking.

With small airports and often single gates for multiple flights, it means the airline staff can scan the room and spot anyone who should be getting on the plane. And once everyone is, the plane takes off – we were quite often airborne 10-15 minutes early, the bonus of quiet skies.

Then you can play hunt the luggage at the other end. With no carousels, bags sometimes came in to the same room as passengers, sometimes to an adjoining room and on one occasion, made their way outside. Don’t be surprised if you have to go through immigration either, despite being on a domestic flight in an airport that’s very definitely not international…

My daughter is not cut out for fame

The Burmese people love kids. Which is fantastic for families as it’s such a child-friendly destination – but throw in a small blonde girl with big blue eyes and it’s safe to say she was the centre of attention pretty much everywhere.

I was pretty taken aback when even the monks were coming up asking for photos with her on their mobiles…

She is very definitely not cut out for fame, refusing to pose for a single picture, and developing a sixth sense about when someone was trying to sneak a shot.

Most people were very respectful once we’d said no, but it was a relief to escape to some of the quieter temples in Bagan for example.

Medium spicy is spicier than you think

Burmese food isn’t (always) blow your head off spicy – perhaps that lulled me into a false sense of security when I ordered a squid salad, was asked how spicy I wanted it and asked for medium.

Then discovered after the first mouthful that each squid ring was plastered with chilli seeds… Enough said.

Preschoolers can live on air (nearly)

Having ‘practised’ eating noodles at home with my fussy girl, she then flatly refused to touch them for 99% of the trip – or pretty much anything else.

It turns out you can live on rice, fruit and fruit juice (with some occasional bread) if you’re three.

Fortunately some of the hotels also had some western dishes on the menu – I’d love her to be adventurous and trying weird and wonderful things, but I was so relieved she was getting some food, pizza, pasta and cocoa pops seemed a fair compromise.

(From experience, it’s pointless thinking she’ll eat when she’s hungry enough – she won’t change her mind, she will get cross…)

Temple floors get hot

Well, obviously. I’m used to kicking off my sandals and wandering in to different temples. Minnie, with her soft little girl feet, sprang around squeaking hot hot hot hot and needed carrying half the time. Good job they’re shady inside…

Kids see things differently

Sitting in our boat on Inle Lake, the silvery calm water reflecting the mountains, the fishermen carrying on hundreds of years of tradition with their basket-style nets and leg-rowing technique – I was mesmerised, marvelling at the fact I finally got to see this sight for myself.

Then a little voice in front of me said, ‘Mummy, I’m bored’.

From Minnie’s point of view, she was simply sitting around doing nothing. A good reminder that kids just don’t always see things the same way.

So when we headed out to the stupas of In Dein, another magical spot for me, I realised I needed to make it interesting for her, telling her a story woven around our journey and what we saw. Happy daughter, gold star for me.

Modernisation is coming

Before we left, I’d read repeatedly that ATMs wouldn’t work, credit cards couldn’t be relied on and you should take enough dollars to change for kyat for the whole trip.

While that’s still a good suggestion (and my Mastercard credit card was particularly unreliable about working even if Visa did), there’s more chance you can use cards in bigger hotels and tourist areas.

The same goes for Wifi – we stuck to top end hotels, admittedly, but the wifi worked brilliantly in them all. Only one was restricted to lobby/restaurant and went down after a storm.

Pools are essential

One reason I’d stuck to pricier hotels was that I knew we’d want aircon and a pool – it was the hottest part of the year in Burma, so we’d want to shelter inside for at least part of the day with some cool air.

And after a morning out exploring, a dip in the pool was pretty much all Minnie wanted – not to mention a great way to stop her getting overwhelmed after busy days.

You never know until you try

My guiding principle for travel with my daughter: you really don’t know if you can do it until you try. As well as worries about whether it would be too hot for her (40C is not cold in anyone’s book), I wasn’t sure what she’d think of our two days mostly exploring temples.

In the end, she had a (mostly) great time: commandeering the torch from our guide, spotting lots of Buddhas, making friends with some novice monks and their cats, and enjoying a puppet show over lunch one day.

Was she quiet, entirely well-behaved and fascinated by the intricacies of temple design and Indian vs Chinese influenced Buddhas? Obviously not, she’s three. And I’ve had worse cases of selective hearing/general stroppiness on a beach in Cornwall.

I needed more time!

I think I say this after every trip. With two weeks to explore, and knowing that packing the itinerary would only backfire, I still think we fitted a lot in.

But I’d happily go back again tomorrow for another fortnight to see some more of the spots we missed around Inle Lake, the places I couldn’t get to at all, and an extra few days chilling out at Ngapali Beach.

 

All images copyright MummyTravels

*My sister-in-law who comes from the country calls it Burma, so for simplicity so do I.

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