New Myawady to Kawkareik bypass road - can travel everyday

[Tomtomtom69]

Hi everyone,

I just came back from an overland trip from Bangkok to Mu-se on the Chinese border via Mae Sot/Myawady, passing through Naydyidaw, Mandalay and Mu-se, before heading back to Myawady via Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay, Yangon and Hpa-an. Both on the outbound journey from Myawady and the return to the border I used the new bypass road, which although it hasn't been completed or officially opened yet, can be used everyday, provided you travel according to the following times/circumstances:

While a share taxi may work, if you have to wait a long time for passengers it's better to go for a private transfer, which is not all that expensive either. Having said that, it shouldn't take too long to get a few passengers together if you start early. Now that the bridge opens up at 5.30am Thai time (5am Myanmar time) you can even avoid staying overnight in Myawady if you want. Myawady features some nice temples but it's not the most attractive place to spend a night, although there are a few OK hotels if you're stuck such as the Myawady Hotel, the Riverview Hotel right next to the river separating Myanmar from Thailand and the newish Lawka Hotel, which I would not recommend without earplugs as the karoake there goes on practically all night long.

In any case to head west, you should leave Myawady between roughly 4.30am and 6.30am in order to pass the barrier at the start of the bypass before 7am. After this time, Thai road construction crews begin their work, and as such they won't allow vehicles other than maybe motorcycles and scooters across. It's also said that you can cross between 5pm and 6pm? but that's a bit of a question mark since the Gyaing river bridge west of Kawkareik will be closed after around 6pm, hence you would be forced to stay overnight in Kawkareik, which is an even worse place to spend the night than Myawady. Apparently you can also pass the new road between 11.30am and 1pm during the lunch break, but this is also a bit uncertain. As such nearly all drivers pass through the road in the early morning hours only.

If you are coming from Hpa-an, then you should depart Hpa-an between around 4-5.15am, since the Gyaing river bridge opens at 5am and it takes an hour to reach it from Hpa-an, plus it takes a total of 75-90 mins to reach the start of the new bypass road.

A few Malaysian businessmen also travelled the new road on the same day as me in the early morning of the 6th of February, normally a day where traffic on the old mountain road goes west. I started from Hpa-an, whereas they had stayed the night in Kawkareik and started from there.

Along the way child soldiers and young men belonging to the KNU militia might ask your driver for a small amount of money, but you shouldn't be too alarmed by these guys as the drivers know how to deal with them and reportedly they'll be gone once the new road opens officially.

By taking the new road, travel times between Myawady and Hpa-an can be cut down from the current 5 hours to around 2.5-3 hours. Once the new road is fully completed, a further reduction of up to 30 minutes may be possible as the sections near Kawkareik are currently a bit slow due to needing to negotiate creeks below bridges still under construction. Even so, it takes little more than 30-40 minutes to pass through the road, compared with a slow 2.5-3 hours on the old road and that's assuming there's no major traffic jam or road construction going on there.

Currently the new road is scheduled to open around June and there is a rumor that Thai registered cars may be permitted to enter Myanmar without a tour after this time and travel to all unrestricted areas of the country but no specific details are available yet.

[craigt3365]

Very interesting info. Thanks!!

[Tomtomtom69]

More info on the new road from this article below. However, I think that nowadays many ordinary vehicles are using the new road, and they have nothing to do with the "permitted vehicle types" as the article suggests.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/govt-karen-rebels-collecting-illegal-tolls-asia-highway-reports.html