Hotels and guides in Bagan swamped as tourists pour in to ancient city

Pix : Bagan//wikipedia.com

This may be the season to be happy but local hoteliers and tourist guides are finding it hard to manage the foreign tourists flocking in droves to Myanmar's ancient city of Bagan, Eleven Media online reports.

Sources from the tourism industry said it would be difficult to get a room and a tour guide in the city especially this November. Some tour companies have even stopped accepting bookings.

The number of tourist arrivals in Bagan has increased by 57 per cent from 120,000 last year, Minister of Hotels and Tourism Htay Aung said.

Located in central Myanmar, Bagan is a popular tourist destination with more than 2,000 pagodas and temples from the 9th to 13th centuries to visit.

The Bagan Tour Guide Association said most tour guides work as "throughout guides" who accompany tourists during the entire tour, which could include visits to cities outside of Bagan. He also said more locals are now being hired as guides by Yangon-based companies.

-- The Nation 2012-11-02

I'm curious to know how easy it is to get off the beaten track in Myanmar. It seems the Rangoon/Mandalay/Bagan/Inle Lake areas are frequented by nearly all tourists who visit. Usually when this happens - too many tourists - the place turns sour, like Pattaya and Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang in Laos.

I'm curious to know how easy it is to get off the beaten track in Myanmar.

A few people hire cars with a driver/tour guide and plan their own itinerary. Obviously more expensive. Some even use the bus lines to get around and go it alone without local assistance.

Generally speaking, they won't let you get on a bus that goes to a restricted area and there are vehicle checkpoints to prevent people from making that mistake.