ANA Flight NH1011 - Chicago-ORD to Tokyo-NRT - B777-300ER



Our first international flight of our first journey felt like it might never arrive when we booked it a few months ago, but, like all things time related, it was here in a flash. Our first segment, from Chicago-ORD to Tokyo-NRT was merely a stopover on our way to Yangon, Myanmar-RGN. Because ANA has only 1 daily flight to Yangon (around 11am), there’s no international arrival from the US that would allow us to catch it.

As we headed to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, we were musing that this was actually both of our first west-bound trip across the Pacific Ocean. We have flown Hong Kong to Chicago and Tokyo to Newark before, but never the opposite direction. The best part about flying economy on a long haul west-bound flight is that you’re almost always better off not going to sleep at all, a plus when it would be uncomfortable if you felt like you needed to get at least a few hours.

Would it stay light the entire flight? We were scheduled to depart Chicago about an hour before sunset, so could we reasonably be able to keep up with the setting sun, chasing it all the way to Japan? Spoiler alert: this didn’t happen. It stayed light outside for the majority of our flight, but somewhere over the Pacific, we witnessed the sunset for the final time and continued on in the dark.



CHECK-IN

ANA departs from Terminal 1 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. They share a rather small area with Lufthansa and I could imagine how it could get quite cramped on busy days with full flights. Fortunately for us, our flight was probably at about 50% capacity and we arrived somewhat late–about 1 hour before boarding. The check-in agent was very helpful and even offered to change our seats so that we had a better chance to spread out a bit on the flight. Once he saw that our final destination was Yangon, Myanmar-RGN, he asked to see our visas and actually studied them quite closely to make sure that we wouldn’t have an issue later. I’m thankful for this since I’m sure many people have been burned in the past due to not closely following the rules.






Chicago O’Hare: United country

BOARDING

Boarding time was scheduled for 4:45pm, about 30 minutes before scheduled takeoff, and it began promptly.







After boarding the aircraft, what we had already guessed from looking at the seating chart earlier in the day was confirmed: the plane was rather empty. There were plenty of open seats in the back and plenty of room to spread out. Actually, this was the emptiest international flight I’ve been on in recent years (ever?).

Boarding was extremely fast and smooth, likely a result of the passenger-light flight.


JA-731A, built in 2004

After settling into our seat, the overhead monitors displayed the horrible news: time to destination was a dreaded 13 hr 18 mins.





Our departure was delayed appx 15 mins due to runway congestion but we were off shortly and the time was easily made up en route.


A KLM Boeing 747 right behind us waiting to takeoff


Takeoff over cold and snow covered Chicago

And finally, blue skies:



THE SEAT

The Boeing 777-300ER that we were on had 4 cabins, First, Business, Premium Economy and Economy:



One of 52 flat bed business seats:



The premium economy seats looked significantly wider and more cushioned than where we were headed.


Premium Economy Seats

Economy was a slightly unusual 3x4x2 configuration, which actually isn’t bad because it gives you a good option of securing a window and aisle if traveling in pairs; I probably like it more than the 3x3x3 that they could have done. Either way, we could have easily spread out and jumped on a full 4 seats each to ourselves, but I strategically didn’t want to get any sleep, so we settled on a 3 seater to get a little extra room to spread out without having to compromise a window seat.


Economy exit row


While this picture was taken while still boarding, it didn’t look much fuller upon take off



The best news of this plane: the fixed-recline seats. I think that most people are opposed to these because they limit your overall recline compared to a traditional seat and the amount that you’re able to recline is taken away from your legroom. But I’m a huge fan of these. These seats allow you to recline without infringing on your neighbor’s space and–most importantly–without anyone jerking back a seat in your personal space either. I’d rather have to suffer the consequences of my own recline than have the guy in front of me abruptly decide it’s time for a snooze and knock out my knees, drink and laptop in the process.

Overall, I have no complaints about the seats — they didn’t seem as cramped as other Asian carriers. But, maybe that’s because the flight was essentially empty.

MEAL SERVICE-DINNER

A few minutes after reaching 10k feet, the flight attendants came around with hot towels for us to freshen up.



Next up: beverage and snack service.


Rice crackers and a drink

For the dinner service, we had 2 types of choices:

- Vegetable curry and steamed rice
– Creamy seafood with saffron rice

McCown had the vegetable curry; it was served with a side of soba noodles (with a packet of sauce) and fruit (pineapple, cantaloupe). I thought the vegetable curry entrée with mushrooms, onions and butternut squash was great. It was actually somewhat on the sweet side.


Vegetable curry

I went with the creamy seafood route which came with a few pieces of roasted chicken breast, bell peppers and onions, and sides of charcuterie, mozzarella and tomato salad and a crab salad. This seems to have been the Western meal choice. The mozzarella was great and quite flavorful. The crab salad was ok — slightly intimidating to begin with since it’s seafood on an airplane. As far as the creamy seafood entrée goes, I was pleasantly surprised. The shrimp, calamari and scallops were pretty decent and while the creamy sauce was a little disconcerting at first, it all came together quite well in the end. In all, the seafood was rather non-seafoody.




Creamy seafood with saffron rice


Washing it down with an Asahi topped it all off quite well

For dessert, about 1.5 hours after departure and while expecting some sort of stale pastry, the flight attendants whisked around passing out single-serving-sized Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream containers. Again, a nice surprise.

Shortly after dinner, the flight attendants came around asking everyone to completely lower their window shades. I guess no one else has the same strategy to stay up for the entire flight as me? I’m not really sure why not, it’s about 8pm Chicago time and when we land in Tokyo it will be time for bed– doesn’t seem like a great idea to sleep for 10 hours before landing.

ENTERTAINMENT-IFE

The fantastic selection of movies included many new releases that were Oscar-nominated in 2015 (The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Birdman). The monitor featured a good-sized screen + a USB port to keep all the other gadgets charged up. There’s also a regular power outlet under every seat, too. Control was by either a touch screen or remote.



About 3 hours after departure, they flipped the last switched and totally dimmed the cabin, now it’s really a challenge to fight the urge to sleep.


We spent the whole flight chasing the sunset

I knocked out no fewer than 5 movies before the lights were back on about 7.5 hours after dimming them.

MEAL SERVICE-“BREAKFAST”/REFRESHMENT

With the lights back on in the cabin, the flight attendants briskly made their way distributing hot towels as everyone work up for the “breakfast” service.

I’m more confused as ever to as what meal they’re serving us here, while it’s about 4am Chicago time, it’s also about 6pm Tokyo time so not really sure why “breakfast” is the appropriate meal—eh, oh well, I’m fully prepared to eat it. The second most confusing part about this meal were the choices:

-“chicken mustard cream stew”
-“steamed cod with red bell pepper sauce”

I found it increasingly odd that neither seemed to be a direct “Western” or “Japanese” choice.

While both choices were edible but slightly sketchy, the one redeeming factor was that they were served with yogurt, sliced fruit and coffee. Guess it was “breakfast” after all?


Mmmm…breakfast

SERVICE

The service was, as you might expect from an Asian carrier with a trans-Pacific route, fantastic. Everyone was polite, courteous and very attentive. This was why we actively sought to avoid United for the same route; the Asian carriers seem to provide a much more enjoyable experience.

For those who might be interested in some of the other details of our trip:

After seeing some amazing pictures from our wedding photographer (he left on a 2 week trip to Burma the day after shooting our wedding), we knew we'd have to make this one a priority.

We settled on the (somewhat generic) touristy routing of:

• By train: Yangon --> Mandalay
  
• By ferry: Mandalay --> Bagan
  
• By plane: Bagan --> Inle Lake
  

We ended up (after making a last minute change) booking our route from Chicago-ORD --> Tokyo-NRT on ANA and then Tokyo-NRT --> Yangon-RGN on ANA. Here's some info that I complied during the booking process as we tried to learn all of our options: TRAVELING TO MYANMAR USING MILES AND POINTS.

Again, the goal of this first post is to flesh it out as we go and include a TOC to the future posts but, in the meantime, here are a few pictures from our trip (which is ongoing):


These busy streets of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, are full of color + smiling people wearing vibrant longyis + lots and lots of traffic!




We happened to be at the river for rush hour-- so many people flooding in, popping onto boats and heading back across the river for the night. Such a fun (and chaotic!) treat to see.








All settled in for our 16+ hour overnight train trip through the countryside of Myanmar!




We were lucky enough to visit a Burmese monastery at lunchtime and watching the monks file in was an extraordinary and peaceful sight.


Literally snapped this quick pic on the side of the road as we passed rice paddies on our arrival to Inle Lake. Our stay at Inle Lake has way surpassed our expectations, with so many breathtakingly beautiful views and, more importantly, beautiful, smiling people.


Ah yes, the 2 horsepower electronic bike, a real lady magnet.... #moped


The Intha fishermen on Inle Lake wrap their back leg around the oar to row, then use this huge net to catch the lake fish. All while standing on one leg at the stern of their wooden boat...pretty amazing!






I call this one McCown on safari in Burma...really trying to blend in

Myanmar is a country that I am dying to get to!

Great TR!

I am guessing this is a DSLR camera, what type?

Great trip report. Loved it. It brought back a lot of memories. This was my first time traveling completely around the world in one trip.

The day before I was due to fly to Tokyo from Minneapolis was the LAX attacks. So Delta was looking for volunteers to be bumped. As I live in Minneapolis I volunteered for $1000. I also asked them, to keep the journey moving, to route me through Amsterdam and on to Bangkok with KLM, which they happily did. I spent 36 hours in Amsterdam, which was nice, I had some family come to visit me from Breda for the day. Then I flew on to Bangkok and further to Yangon where I began my journey. Coming home, I flew from Bangkok to Tokyo and on to Minneapolis, thus completing my round-the-world journey. (MSP-AMS-BKK-NRT-MSP).

I spent a month traveling through Myanmar back in 2013 and absolutely fell in love with the country and the people It's a shame that they had to endure so much hardship for so long under the military rule. However, I am heartened by the relinquishment of control to the Democratic party that is headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. The people just

For me, this trip was very interesting. I spent a number of days in Yangon and then traveled by car to Mt Kyaiktiyo and then back to Yangon before taking an absolutely horrid overnight bus ride to Bagan. The seats were built for the short stature of the Burmese & Asian people, not for 6+ foot peoples. From Bagan I flew with Air Mandalay to Lake Inle and spent some time there, getting a chance to see the Balloon Festival in Taunggyi and the caves of Buddha icons at Pindaya. Then I took yet another overnight bus to Hsipaw, which wasn't as bad because there were not so many people and I could stretch out. I spent some time hiking around Hsipaw before slowly making my way to Mandalay where I flew back to Bagan with Yangon Airways. I spent a couple more days in Bagan before taking the ferry back to Mandalay and then back to Bangkok.

This trip yielded the following:
MSP-AMS-BKK-NRT-MSP
DMK-RGN
NYU-HEH
MDP-NYU
MDL-DMK
BKK-CNX-BKK

All my aviation stats for the trip:
http://globe-trekking.com/vluchtgege...uchtinfo/vbijreizen_reis2.php?id=1

Airlines:
Air Mandalay
Delta Air Lines
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Thai AirAsia
Thai Airways International
Yangon Airways

Aircraft types:
Airbus A320-200
Airbus A330-300
ATR-42-300
ATR-72-500
Boeing 747-400
Boeing 777-200ER
Boeing 777-200LR
Boeing 777-300

And a few photos....
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...41830.13926947&type=1&l=027f66a095

sorry, didn't mean to "hijack" your thread...... I just absolutely LOVED this country and this experience so much. Everyone should visit before it changes too much!

[Edited 2015-03-30 09:30:14]

Amazing TR. ANA looks intresting with it's more up straight seats .Was Mynamar expensive? Anyways thanks for a great TR  

On US airlines no way do you get modern up to date movies in economy. This in addition to crappy food.

I wonder whether JAL is as good as ANA.

All my Japanese co workers 20 years ago would fly ANA over JAL.

Did you require any vaccinations for Myannar?

You had to spend the night in Tokyo?

At an airport hotel?

Were you bored during the 13 hours?

Nice report. Thanks.

Quoting JMGRIFFIN (Thread starter): Chicago time, it’s also about 6pm Tokyo time so not really sure why “breakfast” is the appropriate meal—eh, oh well,

That is always something I didnt understand. NW and CO use to serve breakfast upon landing in Japan despite the fact is was 6pm. I think meals should reflect time at arrival, not departure.

Quoting Cipango (Reply 2): I am guessing this is a DSLR camera, what type?

Hi, I'm shooting a new Canon 6D, my first full frame DSLR and I'm still not entirely sure what I'm doing with it but I'm enjoying learning! Some of the photos were with a point and shoot Canon S100 and simply a GoPro Hero4.

Quoting A333MSPtoAMS (Reply 3): Great trip report. Loved it. It brought back a lot of memories. This was my first time traveling completely around the world in one trip.

Thanks!

Quoting lesfalls (Reply 4): Amazing TR. ANA looks intresting with it's more up straight seats .Was Mynamar expensive? Anyways thanks for a great TR

Myanmar is getting "expensive" as in relative to Myanmar a few years or months ago. We found the food values all of the country to be phenomenal, for example a bowl of Shan Noodles with chicken for $1.25 USD in Yangon at a highly rated and reputable place on TripAdvisor. A miniature feast with beers on a busy touristy street with lots of barbecue was about $9.50 USD The lodging is starting to climb with tourist demand, we paid about $180 US per night for a huge "villa" right on Inle Lake and this was on the very high end for the country. Western chains are virtually non-existent at the moment but starting to popup, for example Novotel has just appeared on Inle Lake and I'd imagine the others aren't far behind.

Quoting lychemsa (Reply 5): On US airlines no way do you get modern up to date movies in economy. This in addition to crappy food. I wonder whether JAL is as good as ANA. All my Japanese co workers 20 years ago would fly ANA over JAL. Did you require any vaccinations for Myannar? You had to spend the night in Tokyo? At an airport hotel? Were you bored during the 13 hours? Nice report. Thanks.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. We didn't really need any extra vaccinations above what would be required normal for places like Thailand, Indonesia or the Maldives etc... We chose to take malaria pills for the duration of the trip but I don't think it was a huge risk to not take it, we might have just been overly cautious. Yes, we ended up being forced into an overnight layover in Tokyo and stayed at the Radisson Narita. The layover was a short one and gave us just long enough to check-in, sleep for a few hours and then head back to the airport.

Nice report!

Often when I'm passing through O'Hare I have seen the ANA 777-300 parked. What a bird.

It looks like you had a really nice flight with ANA, and the food and service looks to be really good. Great photos from your trip!

Thanks for sharing.

Matthew (767747)

KAL Lounge Review – Tokyo Nartia-NRT Terminal 1




Korean Airlines Business Class Lounge
Tokyo Narita International Airport
Terminal 1, Gate 26
7:45am – 8:50pm

For our 1 night layover in Japan following our flight from Chicago to Tokyo on ANA, we stayed at the Radisson Narita that I booked using Orbucks that I earned from booking other flights and hotels over the past few months. The hotel was fine, but the shuttle service ran every 60-70 mins. For us, this meant we’d need to err on the side of caution and take the earlier shuttle the morning of our flight to Yangon, which resulted in a decent chunk of time at Narita.

I checked my Priority Pass app to see which of the Tokyo lounges participate and found that, of the 6 lounges available in the program, 4 were land-side and the 5th was a United Club and thus ineligible, leaving the KAL Business Class Lounge the only viable option.

This lounge appears to serve all SkyTeam airlines for Terminal 1 and Priority Pass and Airport Angel so that us non-alliance elites and non-premium cabin travelers can get in.





Fortunately, entering with a guest (usually a $25 charge) was free at this particular lounge.


KAL Lounge Tokyo-Nartia


Plenty of seating


KAL Lounge Tokyo-Nartia

The best part of the lounge was probably the location with a great view of a main runway and plenty of seats right up at the window:


Vietnam Airlines taxiing to runway


ANA taking off


Garuda Indonesia pushing from the gate

The food options when we arrived–a little too late for breakfast and a little too early for lunch–left a bit to be desired, so don’t count on full meal when stopping by.


Food choices: a little sparse, maybe a virtue of the time of day?

There were a few ramen noodle choices, a sticky rice ball with sauce in the middle, a sticky rice triangle wrapped in seaweed paper and a few choices like croissants and crackers.


Sticky rice balls! Not necessarily my idea of a hearty snack but it’ll have to do….

As far as alcohol, Kirin Ichiban and another beer were on draft in addition to wine and liquor. They, of course, had a soda fountain with Coke, Coke Zero, green tea etc… and canned fruit juices.



The best part was the espresso machine, which turned out a perfect cappuccino.

BOTTOM LINE: Stop by if it’s free for you (i.e. Priority Pass holders or SkyTeam premium passengers) but don’t count on much in the way of food; you’ll want to grab something heartier elsewhere.

Thanks for showing me Myanmar, I don't really know much of this country.

ANA looks lovely. And I would be very happy in that lounge, I would gorge on all the sticky rice balls!

Cheers  

Hi JMGRIFFIN

Great report on ANA! I had the opportunity to fly on them once to Japan and I enjoyed my experience as well. Comfy seats, nice foods, and attentive service throughout, looks like they did a pretty well job on the trans-pacific. That being said I am always amazed that ANA has that 3-4-2 configuration on their latest Dreamliner, a configuration that many airlines would prefer not to go with.

Also enjoyed the pictures from your holiday in Myanmar, which is not something we can see in this forum every time. Thanks a lot for sharing this report with us!

Best Regards,
Dirktraveller

Quoting aerdingus (Reply 10): Thanks for showing me Myanmar, I don't really know much of this country.

Quoting dirktraveller (Reply 11): Also enjoyed the pictures from your holiday in Myanmar, which is not something we can see in this forum every time. Thanks a lot for sharing this report with us!

No problem, glad you're enjoying them! Thanks for the kind words!

Great report, JMGRIFFIN!

I loved the photos of Myanmar. We were in Sangkhla Buri in Thailand last year and drove up to the Myanmar border next to the Three Pagodas. Unfortunately it was closed that day, it was very hot and we had to get back on our way toward Bangkok. So I have been "at" Myanmar but not "in" Myanmar!

Someday I hope to make it all the way. Mandalay looks great and I like those Asian spots that have not been too westernized yet. I loved Phnom Penh a few years ago for that reason.

ANA is great, too. We got to enjoy the Dreaminer in C from NRT-SJC as part of that trip. Great service and food!

Hey you went to my country!

Hope you had an awesome time! I miss Bagan! (I don't miss the dreaded train ride tho. Done it twice in highschool.)

Hit me up if you ever come down to HOU!

Quoting kurt (Reply 13): Great report, JMGRIFFIN! I loved the photos of Myanmar. We were in Sangkhla Buri in Thailand last year and drove up to the Myanmar border next to the Three Pagodas. Unfortunately it was closed that day, it was very hot and we had to get back on our way toward Bangkok. So I have been "at" Myanmar but not "in" Myanmar! Someday I hope to make it all the way. Mandalay looks great and I like those Asian spots that have not been too westernized yet. I loved Phnom Penh a few years ago for that reason.

Thanks! We were thinking of hitting Cambodia on this trip but didn't have enough time, hopefully on the next round as it sounds like a good spot to hit sooner rather than later.

Quoting tmoney (Reply 14): Hey you went to my country! Hope you had an awesome time! I miss Bagan! (I don't miss the dreaded train ride tho. Done it twice in highschool.) Hit me up if you ever come down to HOU!

Bagan was great, the temples are simply stunning!

No idea if you guys want to keep seeing pictures from our vacation but if you do, here's another installment!

Let's Go: Yangon, Myanmar



Yangon is a city in the throes of growing, busting at the seams with young locals eager to learn more about the world outside its borders and more tourists than ever before.




City streets are filled with street eats, smiling faces and bright colors.

Myanmar welcomes about 1 million tourists each year and, compared to its neighbor Thailand’s many millions of annual visitors, that’s a drop in the bucket – but, only a hand full of Burmese cities and towns are set up for tourists and Western hotel chains have barely scratched the surface of the country (we think that’s a good thing). So, while Thailand’s many visitors are spread out among hundreds of secluded resorts, Myanmar’s eager travelers are swarming Mandalay’s U Bein Bridge – all together – while it bends at the weight of its newfound fame. Construction is ubiquitous everywhere in Yangon, though, so more hotels and tourist infrastructure are fast approaching. It’s been said many times before, but Myanmar is changing rapidly, and we tourists are tripping over ourselves to be the first to see its evolution.


Karaweik Hall is a palace barge built in the 1970’s which now houses a dinner theater.

Because Yangon is the country’s largest city, it is the most natural springboard for entering the country and one of the only cities capable of landing international flights. While most people land in Yangon one afternoon and are gone by the next morning, we spent four nights there (4.5 full days) and were able to see the main attractions as well as get to know city life in a little more detail than most.




This street cart specializes in making betel quids — small parcels that typically contain areca nuts wrapped in a betel leaf and coated with lime.


Burmese puppets line street markets and are intricately designed and decorated.


Our visit to Htwe Oo Myanmar, a puppet show housed in the house of a Burmese family, ended in my learning how to be a puppeteer, too!

Myanmar’s largest city is a good bit different than most other large Asian cities because the Western tourists are few and far between (they’ve all taken off for Inle Lake and Bagan ASAP) and Western culture has not taken its toll on the city’s locals just yet. Although we did see a few T-shirts and jeans, the vast majority of Burmese (men, women + children) are still wearing traditional thanaka on their faces and sporting longyis. The thanaka ubiquitously worn on women and children’s cheeks and foreheads is a yellow-white paste made from tree bark mixed with water. This paste is then rubbed into a circle or square on each cheek – or just hurriedly whisked on in no pattern at all – and both protects the wearer from the hot sun as a sort of natural sunscreen and is seen as a sign of beauty. Longyis — maxi skirts to us Americans — are traditional Burmese clothing that keep you cool (and conservative) and, thankfully, Western trends haven’t taken over just yet, so almost everyone you see is donning a longyi. It’s a bit perplexing for a Westerner (given the 103 degree highs on most days) to see everyone wearing long, heavy-looking “skirts”, but the Burmese are much more conservative and men, women and children all wear longyis or pants to their ankles. And, it turns out they are surprisingly cool with great air flow, so no wonder they continue to wear these beautiful garments instead of a much blander & duller jeans option.

Speaking of longyis, having grown tired of my own maxi skirts, I thought I’d wear a longyi one day to mix it up a bit (and I’d read that the Burmese appreciated travelers wearing longyis). Jeffrey had purchased a longyi when we visited the Shwedagon Pagoda, so I thought I’d just wear his instead of buying another one. I asked the front desk staff at our hotel to help me tie it (I’d noticed that men tie their longyis in a big knot in the front and women seem to drape theirs more elegantly). We barely made it a block down the street before just about everyone was laughing as I walked by. Finally, an older woman grabbed my arm and, in her best English, half-scolds, half-mocks me, telling me that my longyi was for men, not for woman. Yikes. Apparently, I had failed to notice that men’s longyis were all plaid patterns of more masculine colors, while women’s longyis were predominantly floral patterned and always brightly colored. I was committing a humongous faux pas and didn’t even realized it until the muted giggles couldn’t go unnoticed any longer. We dashed into the next shopping center and I was embarrassingly looking around for the stash of longyis. Before I could find them, the store employees (giggling, of course), called me over to tell me I was wearing a man’s longyi, not a woman’s. Double yikes. Finally, I purchased a women’s longyi in a beautiful royal blue color and had help tying it on. However, after it inevitably loosened by lunchtime, the women at our restaurant giggled that I had it tied incorrectly. I just couldn’t win with the longyis so, for the rest of our trip, only wore my longyi when visiting the pagodas.


Good thing Jeffrey snapped a quick picture…

The people, especially the little ones, are overwhelmingly friendly – they shout “hello!” as soon as they see you coming and flash the brightest, most genuine smiles of any city I’ve ever visited.





They are unabashedly so pleased to see you, making you feel very welcome. They’re so eager to see you that many of them stop and ask to take photos with you – or some others just whip out their cell phones to catch you on video as you pass by.

Although Jeffrey and I usually rent a car no matter which country we’re visiting, I’ve never been so thankful to depend solely on walking and public transportation than in Yangon. In plenty of places, we’ve been astounded by the crazy drivers and the gridlocked traffic, but Yangon takes the cake.



The city seems to be growing faster than the roads can keep up and, coupled with the change from driving on the left (US style) to driving on the left (British style) in the early 2000s (with road infrastructure staying the same…), every time I got into a taxi I thought it may be my last few minutes on Earth. In fact, we were even in a wreck with a taxi driver!! Since we’ve been here, we’ve also seen a motorbike wreck and a very, very close call between a motorbike and a pickup truck. There are hardly any traffic lights and no stop signs, so 4-way intersections are just an anything-goes game of chicken.

Take a look at the guide below for where to eat, drink and sleep while in Yangon, then be on the lookout for more detailed posts about Yangon’s most popular attractions: the stunning Shwedagon Pagoda and the Circle Train.

Eat

It seems that, at every turn you take, there’s another street food vendor cooking up a hot meal along the city streets of Yangon. I know some travelers are wary of street food, but we’ve found it to be the best introduction to a city and its people. We’ve tried street food in every city we’ve visited and almost always preferred the street food to the fancy #1-rated restaurant on Trip Advisor – and, the best part, never once gotten sick from something we’ve tried (knock on LOTS of wood).

BBQ is king on the streets of Yangon and each street peddler has a cart filled with all sorts of meats and vegetables on a stick. Once you pick out your choice, they’ll grill it up for you right on the spot so its phenomenal smoky flavor is just as fresh as can be.


A BBQ cart on 19th Street – you pick your skewers!

Our favorite street food, though, was found on 19th Street and was surprisingly a vegetarian dish, but filled with more flavor than even the smoky meat could offer. A woman was cooking up a dish of corn kernels, kidney beans and some mysterious spicy green topping that tasted a bit like an olive tapenade with a kick. Whatever it was, it added a glorious spice to an otherwise bland dish and we went back to her cart again and again for quick snacks each day.


Our favorite street food cart in Yangon

While Yangon offers many restaurants and eateries in every corner of its city, we recommend getting your fill of street food while you’re here. And, for the price of about 500 k – 1,500 k (less than $1.50!), you can fill up on local flavor.

If you’re just not so into street food, no problem. 999 Shan Noodle House comes highly recommended so we had to give it a shot. Their noodles were the best we’ve tasted in Myanmar and, while it’s very popular with tourists, the prices are shockingly low.


Lunch at 999 Shan Noodle House

Drink

19th Street, again, is the best place to grab a Myanmar Beer and people watch. Every tourist in the city makes it here, but so do the locals so it’s not a tourist trap but rather a place to see busy city life after sunset.

The street markets set up selling everything under the sun from umbrellas (although we didn’t see a single drop of rain in the dry season) to fish heads to flip flops of all colors. If you’re lucky, a man with a guitar will come past your table to serenade you, but he won’t be as pushy as the table musicians you’ve met in the past.

Sleep

We really loved our hotel: Hotel Grand United 21st Downtown.



It’s definitely not the nicest hotel in the city, but it was just what we needed to get a full night’s rest before heading out on foot for another day of exploring. The location was fantastic– just steps away from the bustling 19th Street (the only “night life” in the city) and very close to the river which had scores of activity no matter what time of day you visited. Hotel Grand United has three hotels in Yangon and its original one (Hotel Grand United Ahlone) is a nicer hotel with a bigger gym and even a sauna but the location is not great at all. The hotel’s rooftop, where breakfast, lunch and dinner were served, but guests were welcomed to spend the morning or afternoon there, too, was the best part of the hotel, with a fantastic view of the pagoda at nighttime and a bird’s eye view of the bustling city streets and nearby port.


Hotel Grand United’s rooftop


Hotel Grand United’s rooftop view


Hotel Grand United’s rooftop view

Another important factor was that our hotel’s wifi, although by no means up to Western standards, worked just fine for us to be able to do the work we needed to complete.

If your idea of vacation is more relaxing-by-the-pool than hoofing-it-on-the-street, then… first of all, why are you in Yangon? There’s plenty of better options for resort life in Myanmar (with a beach nearby!). Even so, the Belmond Governor’s Residence was formerly home to the ruler of Myanmar’s southern states.


Belmond Governor’s Residence


Relaxing at the Belmond Governor’s Residence

The two-story, colonial-style mansion was built in the 1920s but today is a 5 Star hotel. The lush greenery, whirling fans, Dutch architecture and dark mahogany staircase add to its old-time charm while providing much-needed respite from the blazing afternoon sun, and hotel guests were lounging care-free by the pool. Prices there are 5 Star prices, too, a far cry from the street food prices just a few steps away.

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Hi JMGRIFFIN!,

Great TR and excellent pictures. Congratulations to you and Mrs. on your wedding. I wonder how you picked Myamar (Burma) to go for your trip? Anyways, it looks like you guys had a wonderful time.

Quoting JMGRIFFIN (Thread starter): I could imagine how it could get quite cramped on busy days with full flights

Not exactly, they open check in pretty early so there is really no line no matter how full the flight is. The most I had is 3 people in front of me.

Quoting JMGRIFFIN (Thread starter): Boarding was extremely fast and smooth, likely a result of the passenger-light flight

NH is just very efficient, they do not play the game with rows or groups, just have everyone line up and off they go.

Quoting JMGRIFFIN (Thread starter): After settling into our seat, the overhead monitors displayed the horrible news: time to destination was a dreaded 13 hr 18 mins.

It could be troubling the first time, but after a few of Asian flights 13 hrs is a breeze.

Quoting JMGRIFFIN (Thread starter): I think that most people are opposed to these because they limit your overall recline compared to a traditional seat and the amount that you’re able to recline is taken away from your legroom. But I’m a huge fan of these.

I guess they are opposed when you get 30 inches, but ANA gives you 34 inches of space so no issues there. I actually like them very much mostly for the reasons you stated.

Quoting JMGRIFFIN (Thread starter): I’m more confused as ever to as what meal they’re serving us here, while it’s about 4am Chicago time, it’s also about 6pm Tokyo time so not really sure why “breakfast” is the appropriate meal

I wonder that too, but I think it goes by how many hours you've been flying not what time is at either end of your flight.

I absolutely love ANA service as even in economy you feel very welcome.

This is by far my favorite trip report. What a read and what an adventure you had!

Extremely interesting report. I'm glad you enjoyed ANA... I had a very enjoyable flight with them back in 2005 and hope to fly them again someday.

I'm actually heading to Myanmar in June during a "last-hurrah" SE Asia backpacking jaunt with some college buddies before we all start working. We are really crushed for time, and will only have 2 nights in Yangon and 2 nights in Bagan. Any "must-see" sights that we need to make sure to cover while there? We are flying between Yangon and Bagan. I'm even more excited than before after seeing your pics. Thank you!

Great report so far. Lucky the NH flight to NRT was so empty. Looks like you had a good time in Burma. Did you do the balloons in Bagan? They were amazing.

Quoting JMGRIFFIN (Thread starter): I’m more confused as ever to as what meal they’re serving us here, while it’s about 4am Chicago time, it’s also about 6pm Tokyo time so not really sure why “breakfast” is the appropriate meal—eh, oh well, I’m fully prepared to eat it. The second most confusing part about this meal were the choices: -“chicken mustard cream stew” -“steamed cod with red bell pepper sauce”

I've always been confused why they call this breakfast. At least NH serves real food then - I read a report yesterday on UA I think, and they actually had omlettes and cereal?! Crazy! I've never seen that meal on daytime Asia-Europe routes named as breakfast. An oddity of USA-Asia flights I guess, maybe down to crossing the dateline?

Quoting JMGRIFFIN (Reply 9): Food choices: a little sparse, maybe a virtue of the time of day?

Thats the same weak catering I remember having there a few years ago at lunch. Lucky, i LOVE the onigri they had!

Quoting luv2fly (Reply 18): This is by far my favorite trip report. What a read and what an adventure you had!

Wow, from a user that's been around for 12+ years I take this as quite the compliment! Thanks!!!

Quoting MHTripple7 (Reply 19): I'm actually heading to Myanmar in June during a "last-hurrah" SE Asia backpacking jaunt with some college buddies before we all start working. We are really crushed for time, and will only have 2 nights in Yangon and 2 nights in Bagan. Any "must-see" sights that we need to make sure to cover while there? We are flying between Yangon and Bagan. I'm even more excited than before after seeing your pics. Thank you!

Let me give that one some more thought as we write up the trip reports from the various cities we visited in Myanmar. I personally hate it when someone says "aww, you need at least 2 weeks in [insert city name here] to do it properly!". You have the time that you have and you can easily see a HUGE section of Myanmar in just 3-4 days, you just have to really make the best use of every minute. I'll follow up in a few days with some suggestions.

Quoting JMGRIFFIN (Reply 21): Let me give that one some more thought as we write up the trip reports from the various cities we visited in Myanmar. I personally hate it when someone says "aww, you need at least 2 weeks in [insert city name here] to do it properly!". You have the time that you have and you can easily see a HUGE section of Myanmar in just 3-4 days, you just have to really make the best use of every minute. I'll follow up in a few days with some suggestions.

Great, thank you! No rush at all, but I look forward to seeing your suggestions.

WOW!!! What a fantastic, phenomenal report. I love you two's adventurous spirit! My wife and I did Bali and Thailand last fall - your TR is making me wish we'd done Myanmar instead. Guess that's a reason to return to SE Asia! Your observations remind me of visiting Saigon back in 2006 - sure there were some western tourists there but they were still relatively few and far between - which made it so much more authentic. I'm bookmarking this for our future use. Seriously this is the most insightful TR I've read on a.net. Bravo!

Quoting 9w748capt (Reply 23): I'm bookmarking this for our future use. Seriously this is the most insightful TR I've read on a.net. Bravo!

Wow! Thanks for much for the kind words!

Wow. Amazing report!

Reminded me of my trip to Myanmar last year. I had almost the same itinerary as yours with the exception of Mandalay.

In Bagan, we had a great time getting out on scooters before sunrise and climbing to the tops of deserted temples to watch the sun rise. It feels really good to have visited the place before it gets overwhelmed with tourists (which it inevitably will, given all that it has to offer).

Another interesting event in our trip was our near death experience on our Air Mandalay flight. We were flying Bagan-Mandalay-Inle and we ran into some pretty strong thunderstorms while landing into Mandalay and we were about 1000 feet over the ground in our approach when we were hit by a strong gust of crosswind flipping us almost 90 degrees, immediately followed by a down draft. Pilot managed to recover maybe about 200 feet above the ground and go around. When we landed, the pilot walked out of the cabin, he was sweating - he knew he was almost a goner that day!

The pilot interestingly was the same guy you see on their inflight magazine - I think he is their Chief Pilot.

Anyway great report (and pics) and thanks for the reminder of one of the most amazing trips I had last year.