Myiek-brief guide to travel

Myiek is the larges, busiest city in Southern Myanmar and It is right on the center of Archipelago Mergui, what makes it the base for island hopping and exploration. There is no direct road or flight from Thailand. Therefore, you might need to travel over land from Yangon 18 hours direct, Dawei 5 hour or Kawthaung ( Phuket) 12 hours or take a domestic flight from Yangon. It makes Myiek sound like a remote travel destination but we ensure you that after, visiting the places we recommend, you will leave the city with many memories and lot of positive energy.

Myiek City Centre

Myiek is visibly a port city, much busier than Dawei or Kawthaung. The city has it own center with the square shape the myanmar style market place, the church and many government buildings. The city is quite large,it might take few hours walking up and down the hill to tour around. Some of the oldest and the historical places are up on the city hills. There is big Christian church, Pagoda with monastery in the old town. The government buildings and cheaper hotels with classical architecture are located one or few road next to the Kannar rd. The main busy day city life, however, seems to be around Kannar road, The first part of the Kannar rd starts with dock for large fishing boats and some logistic facilities on the right. The second and the middle part is about 1 km long and has few smaller docks for long tail boats on the left and many shops and restaurants, some hotels on the right. The third part ends up with 1 km sidewalk on the left with the view on the sea and lot of small local restaurant and streets food places on the right.

Myiek outskirts

Myiek like the others big city hubs has great and very decertified suburbs. There seems to be residential area with international schools and hotels on the North from the city. Few roads will take you outside of the city and if you take one, you will pass some villages, monasteries and farms. There is a very big bus station and the airport area on the south part. Near the bus station approaching the city from on the right side of Myaya Ni street, there is a village, which we strongly recommend to see. It is like the different town in the city. Most of the houses are old wooden build, all roads are narrow and only few are finish with cement. The village accommodates the generations of grandparents, parents and children living in the house together. The walk in this area will leave you like moving to the past area.

Islands of Archipelago Mergui

Myiek that is just in the center and it is the closest city to the Archipelago Mergui, The archipelago consists of more than 800 islands, varying in size from very small to hundreds of square kilometers, all lying in the Andaman Sea off the western shore of the Malay. For decades archipelago was completely shut for tourist and only available for the army and local fisherman. The area was only opened up to foreign tourism in 2014. The archipelago’s isolation is such that much of it has not even yet been thoroughly explored.The biggest and closest islands have villages and regular contact with Myiek but distance and smaller islands are unpopulated and unexplored by people. The islands themselves, various animals thrive, including deer, monkeys, tropical birds including hornbills, and wild swine. There are even unconfirmed reports of Sumatran rhinoceros on Lanbi, one of the bigger islands, but this has been widely discredited. It The best diving conditions exist from December to April, with whale sharks and manta rays visiting from February to May.

How long to stay and where to stay?

We recommend to stay at least 3 days. One day for city sightseeing, the second day for Island trip        (the nearest one) and the third day for extra activity like hiking, fishing, snorkeling or diving. It is not possible for foreigners to stay on any island so far . There are some packages arranged by few travel companies, which allow to stay in a special resorts but going on one day trip and staying there is not permitted. There is many 3 stars hotels and guesthouses in Myiek situated around the dock or few streets away and NO five stars or any luxury hotels.