Page 109 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

Chaung Tha The DelTa anD wesTern MyanMar 107
G7 Bakery & Café 28 Min Gyi Rd T042 25467. This around K2000), plus cheap beer and Premier League footie
place brings a dash of big-city class to little old Pathein. on the TV. Daily 10am–11pm.
This calm and cool café serves a very good array of cakes, Shwe Zin Yaw Pagoda Rd. Cheery local café with a short
milkshakes, proper coffee, savoury snacks and light meals English menu, offering a range of so-so dishes (K1500–
of the fried rice variety. Cakes around K800, light meals 2000) including citrus, pennywort and grilled prawn
K2000–2500. Daily 9am–9.30pm. salads, Malay soup and various curries including duck,
Myo Restaurant Bwat Kyi Tan Rd. This scruffy local goat’s liver, mutton, catfish and sardine – although don’t
drinking hole doesn’t look like much but serves up a big expect all of this to be available at the same time. Daily 2
selection of surprisingly good (if rather oily) meat and 7am–9pm.
seafood mains in the usual Chinese-y style (most mains
shOPPInG
Bandoola Umbrella Shop Merchant St. A charmingly century – some of their earlier work can now be seen in
antiquated shop, and a good place to pick up a cut-price museums around the country. They make a mix of silk and
Pathein-style silk umbrella, which sell here for as little as cotton umbrellas, created using top-quality traditional
K2000–2500. Daily 8am–8pm. ingredients including persimmon glue and bamboo from
Shwe Sar Traditional Umbrella Workshop 653 the Rakhine mountain. The smallest umbrellas cost just
Tawyakyaung Rd T09 961 565 166, Emyanmar K2000, rising to K70,000 for the largest – way less than
hteeshwesar@gmail.com. This is Pathein’s best-known you’ll pay for the same umbrella elsewhere in the country.
umbrella workshop, run by the same family for more than a Daily 8am–6pm.
DIreCTOry
Banks The CB and AGD banks have ATMs; there’s also a moneychanger at the AGD Bank.

Chaung Tha

If you’re looking for a picture-postcard tropical beach with deserted sands,
unspoiled coastal scenery and nothing to break the silence save the sound of a
distant cocktail being discreetly mixed, then CHAUNG THA definitely isn’t the place
to come. The beach is none too clean, and despite its considerable size fills up
quickly (at weekends especially) with vast hordes of visiting Yangonites playing
football and chinlone, splashing around in inner tubes, and consuming astonishing
quantities of grilled seafood and beer. Opportunities for peaceful swimming,
sunbathing and contemplation of the waves are strictly limited, but as a place to
observe Myanmar’s middle classes at play, there’s probably nowhere better, and if
you take Chaung Tha for what it is – a kind of miniature Burmese Bognor Regis,
with a determinedly bucket-and-spade ambience – you might find the place
surprisingly enjoyable.
It’s situated on a promontory between the Bay of Bengal and the Chaung Tha River.
The main beach road runs roughly northwest to southeast for about 2.5km, passing
a burgeoning straggle of restaurants and hotels before terminating in Chaung Tha
village, where you’ll find the biggest concentration of guesthouses, cafés and souvenir
shops, catering to a determinedly local crowd and always lively after dark. The beach
itself is extremely wide, dotted with barbecue stalls, plastic chairs and parasols at its far
end. As you head away from the village it becomes quieter and emptier, and you’ll pass
a lumpy-looking pagoda built on top of a small limestone outcrop.

White Sand Island
• Boats to the island leave from the jetty in the village every hour or so (15–20min; K3000)
To escape the crowds your best bet is to head out to the tiny speck of land known as
White Sand Island (Thel Phyu), which is good for swimming and snorkelling (you can

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