Page 112 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

110 The DelTa anD wesTern MyanMar Ngwe SauNg
NGWE SAUNG TOURS AND ACTIVITIES
There’s plenty to keep you busy in Ngwe Saung should you tire of the beach. Bikes and
motorbikes for rent aren’t as easy to find as in some other places in Myanmar, but there are a
couple of places in the village and some hotels also rent them. Pretty much every hotel offers
the same combinations of tours listed here, though you’ll normally pay more booking through
them rather than going direct to the operators.
2 TOUR OPERATORS
Micheal Kyaw Village Opposite the Golden WSE Company Village Royal Flower restaurant
Myanmar Restaurant T09 250 118 008. Offers bike T09 454 545 505. Full range of local tours, including
rental (K5000p/d), motorbike rental (from K10,000p/d), snorkelling boat tours to Bird Island and Lover’s Island
tours and boat trips to Bird Island for snorkelling ($35 plus meals for overnight trip). Book through the
(K25,000) and full-day fishing trips (K150,000). Royal Flower restaurant.
WATERSPORTS
Myanmar Dive Centre Next to the Golden Ngwe Saung Yacht Club Watersports Center
Myanmar Restaurant T09 977 441 611, 6km south of the village T042 40100,
Emyanmardivecenter@gmail.com. Managed by a Wngwesaungyachtclub.com. With kitesurfing (6hr
PADI dive master with many years of experience, this for up to four; $200), stand-up paddleboarding (3hr;
place offers a Discover Scuba Diving course (from $60) $90), surfing (3hr; $90), bodyboarding (3hr; $50) and
and dive excursions to a variety of sites in the waters off windsurfing lessons (6hr; $140), as well as boat hire
Ngwe Saung (from $100). and more, this professional centre offers plenty of fun.

good budget places), hidden at discreet intervals among the endless palms. Ongoing
development is steadily changing the face of the area (and not generally for the better),
while road improvements mean the journey from Yangon can now be made in less than
five hours – putting the beach firmly on the map both of foreign tourists and wealthy
Burmese fleeing the congested capital. For now, at least, Ngwe Saung retains its
somnolent atmosphere and feeling of a place where the clock is stuck permanently at
four o’clock on a Sunday afternoon.
Towards the northern end of the beach, compact Ngwe Saung village is as lively as
things ever get hereabouts, stuffed with a good collection of restaurants, handicrafts
shops and stalls piled high with huge mounds of dried fish and – unfortunately – coral
and shell souvenirs. The coast north of the village has been mainly gobbled up by a
collection of generally lacklustre resorts enclosed within fortress-like walls, though the
peaceful beach south of the village remains attractive with its endless swathe of sand,
and it’s often deserted entirely.
Quietist and least developed of all is the beach around Lover’s Island (offshore roughly
opposite Shwe Hin Tha hotel, about 4km south of the village), which you can wade out
to at low tide. There’s a bit of snorkelling around here – you may be able to rent
equipment from Shwe Hin Tha hotel (see p.112).

Thazin and Sinma
/ • Count on around K10,000 for the trip to Thazin by motorcycle taxi, and slightly more to Sinma
Local excursions offered by Ngwe Saung’s tour operators (see box above) are to a
couple of fishing villages just along the coast. The village of THAZIN (the first village
you reach on the way to Chaung Tha, around half an hour away by motorbike)
offers the chance to see locals fishing off the beach using enormous nets. If you
arrive before about 8am, the local fleet of night-fishing boats returns to shore,
hauling in that day’s catch of tiger prawns, barracuda, squid, tuna and mackerel.
However, during the monsoon season, the fishing fleets are often grounded due
to high seas.

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