Kawthoung to Rangoon by Ferry/Air

[harleyclarkey]

We are just back after another great trip through Burma. This time we entered through Kawthoung (Kawthaung) and some of the following may be of interest or some help.

Ranong to Kawthoung is a simple affair by getting a speed boat (the larger ones are for Visa runs) for 350 baht. After motoring past the, bored, soldiers on the Thai island it is a quick run to the pier at Kawthoung. We didn't get off at the main pier but some (slippery!) steps some way down. As you get off don't be fooled by no officials being present. The Immigration office is to the left and about 200m along the pier and again on youir left. You can't miss it. We already had our visas for onward travel. Without an embassey visa you will NOT get out of Kawthoung. You may notice the Honey Hotel as you step ashore. This was quoted to us at $25 and looked good enough for a night.

Immigration was fairly quick and friendly. Our "helper" handed in our passports and told us to wait a while. After 25 minutes I asked him what the story was as our passports were still in the corner on the officers desk and another "guide" was stamping and piling on passports from the Visa express boat which came in long after we were there. He told us to wait. Another 15 minutes and I had enough. I, politely, asked the officer when our 2 passpoorts would be stamped as we already had our visas from Bangkok and all the others who arrived after us were stamped. The senior guy very kindly said something to his junior and hey presto.....in 4 minutes he handed us our passports. Keep and eye on this. I shook hands and thanked him. Our "helper" tagged along with us and after the immigration debacle we politely told him we can handle it from here on. He wasn't too pleased! Be careful.

Ther are 3 ferry services up the coast calling to Myeik and stopping at Dawai. ...Hi Fi, Fortune Express and the Aravadey. (spelling??!). They do NOT run every day and this is weather dependent so be prepared to spend an extra day in Myeik. As you walk along the pier to Immigration on the other side of the road on a corner are two of the ferry booking offices. For the third put your back to Immigration and you are facing a road with a grass divider. Go up 50m, turn first left (after Sun Far Agency...very good and very helpful and one girl speaks really good English) and the office is on the right 25m up. They disp[lay the times for their next boat on a board outside along with the price. We paid $45...locals $9. Take plenty of copies of your passport page and your visa page as theses are required for all travel in this area and the booking agents need a copy.

We stayed in the very clean and new Garden Hotel about 2 km up the hill. The restaurant here was very good. Someone recommended the Idea restaurant...this was a near death experience in the toilets and the sight of the kitchen and so we left before eating! Don't!!

Our boat by Arravady (spelling?) left at 04.00 and there was no formalities boarding and we were asked for nothing but our tickets by the police and immigration. They already had the copies of our passports and visas. There was 1 other foreigner on the boat. We had seats beside the exit door. The boat was crammed and all on on level and two cabins, and where I sat was like a blast freezer as the air con unit blew it right onto me. We also has 2 hours of monk incantations on the TV before it blasted some programme out for the rest of the 10 hour journey. It didn't take the 6-7 hours as we were told. You can go onto the deck but it is noisy. We didn't seee much of any island and so in this respect it was disappointing as we sped past.

Myeik is a lovely town and we enjoyed our 2 nights there. The area you see as you arrive is only part of the story. Up the hill to the right of the clock tower, and behind the market, is a whole other part and interesting. We were met by a man called "James" who speaks perfect English. He will steer you to the Flying Swan (??) Hotel where we ended up.

There are many other hotels around. This was $40 for an air con room and as was usual terrible value. The room was basic and not clean and breakfast is an egg and some awful bread. No tea..only coffee. The owner and his daughter are very warm, helpful and friendly people. . James has some connection with the hotel and will then offer to take you, by his sons motorbike, on a tour. I paid $15 for about 4 hours. He piled on to the small bike as well so we three set off on an uncomfortable trip to a cashew factory (very interesting), the local lake, two shipyards (interesting but a far too long way away) and other town sights. I wasn't impressed when he asked me for some more money for his sons motor bike rental!! Again be careful though he seems a very nice guy.

Do not miss having cakes and tea/coffee at the YYA Bakery. Super clean and super cakes/savouries and free fast wi-fi. We ate at the excellent and local Schwe Yaa Zuu. From the market go to Strand road (by the water) turn right, walk to the fork and veer left. The restaurant is on the right abiout 100m along. You can't missit as it's full with locals.

The boat to Dawai, $25, was at 11.30 but it arrived late. This time it was Fortune Express and a similar boat but it had a seperate upper saloon which is far better than the Arravadey line. Don't be surprised when they tell you you have arrived and you see only a pier. Dawai is actually about 30-35kms inland and a truck is waiting for you to take you to the outskirts of Dawai. It is about $2 to go the 5 minutes to the town centre from the drop off point. It is walkable....go to the main road, turn right and keep on for 10-15 minutes until the second (?) crossroads with lights. .

There are many hotel but there is but one place to stay in Dawai. The excellent, new and spotless and comfortable Zayar Htet San. It is right beside the Diamond and Crown hotels. By a long shot this is the best and great value at $40 for an air con room with a decent enough breakfast. The best place to eat for us was the hotel/guest house to the right 100m up from the Zayar. Lovely garden or indoor dining and not expensive. We also ate in Miss You restaurant and it wasn't good with comical service.

We, again, really liked Dawai for it friendliness and lack of any tourist trappings. The people, like at Myeik, are lovely, smiling and helpful. We felt very comfortable indeed in these two towns and would recommend them as places to stay and not pass through. Just watch prices as there can be a tendency to charge 2-3 times the local rate for fruits, etc. In nearly all cases this wasn't so as we got to know the prices fairly quickly and just offered the right amount. Try out one of the horse drawn carts for a nice leisurely pace around town.

We flew, $77 by KBZ Air, to Rangoon as we didn't fancy the long uncomfortable bus ride.

[SeaVisionBurma]

Fantastic trip report, and some excellent information there - cheers for posting.

Fortune Express definitely the better option for the trip - foreigners nearly always get to sit upstairs in the "VIP" section.

Glad to hear you liked Myeik - its a great little town seldom visited by outsiders.

Any photos?

[craigt3365]

Yes, very good trip report. Thanks for sharing!

[phuketrichard]

great report,Thanks,

so in hind site with the air fare at $192 from Kaw to Yangoon, and having to go to Bangkok to get ur visa an than go back down south, was it worth it?

Seems that part of Burma is very expensive

[abhaya]

Kyeizu tin ba de!

[Halfaboy]

Thank you for taking the effort. Lots of interesting information. I have bookmarked this post under 'Myanmar' in my 'travel bookmark'.

Good job !

[Asur]

Nice report! Thanx a lot!
I wanna make visarun from Phuket to Ranong-Kawthoung on motorbike on 3rd March and stay in Burma for night or more (and explore all around!). But later will try to cross whole country

[Jimjim]

I wouldn't call it "very expensive" but it seems the hotel prices are more expensive than hotels of similar quality you can find in the heart of Bangkok, going off your description of them. Traveling in rural areas of Thailand that are similar to that you can get simple rooms much, much cheaper than that. Still, it's not a ton of money but I was a bit surprised by that.

[harleyclarkey]

great report,Thanks,

so in hind site with the air fare at $192 from Kaw to Yangoon, and having to go to Bangkok to get ur visa an than go back down south, was it worth it?

Seems that part of Burma is very expensive

For sure to see a country waking up with very few tourists around it is worth it. I can't imagine it staying innocent, if you like, for a lot longer. The prices here are a bit cheaper for the hotels and restaurants about the same than the North and West of the coiuntry. Our hotel in Kawthoung was $40 (decent enough but basic room..but maybe best hotel in town), Myeik $40 (poor hotel with no facilities at all and poor room, there are better) and Dawai (lovely new spotless hotel and for sure best in town) $40. Odd that $40!! I have found that restaurants haven't jacked up their prices like the hotels...some of which are scandelous.

We got our visa in Bangkok, then took a bus to Ranong and then the ferry to Kawthoung. All in all very easy. We stayed two nights in Ranong as we also liked this town.

We only flew the Dawai to Rangoon leg for $77 each.

Edited February 17, 2014 by harleyclarkey

[harleyclarkey]

Fantastic trip report, and some excellent information there - cheers for posting.

Fortune Express definitely the better option for the trip - foreigners nearly always get to sit upstairs in the "VIP" section.

Glad to hear you liked Myeik - its a great little town seldom visited by outsiders.

Any photos?

I have...loads! I took 2 hours of HD video and 1,350 photos of the whole trip. Memories...memories!

I will try to upload those for the trip but my new laptop is giving me hell with destination folders and user set up.

[Ulic]

Thanks for taking the time to post. I was thinking of going but will now pass. The 45$ for tourists, 9$ for locals for the boat trip and the relatively

poor value of the hotels made the decision simple. Thanks again.

[phuketrichard]

agree, just to much travelliing for 2 towns.

will fly Phuket-Bangkok- Manadaly

I styaed at the honey back in late 90's and think it was around $400 baht/night,

was in Kawthoung in jan and the hotel does not look like anything had been done since

Edited February 18, 2014 by phuketrichard

[harleyclarkey]

Kyeizu tin ba de!

kyo zo ba de!!