Page 115 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

Ngapali aNd arouNd The DelTa anD wesTern MyanMar 113
DIreCTOry
Banks There are ATMs outside some of the bigger resort Resort (K5000/day), though the lovely pool at the Eskala
hotels, but they’re often out of order so it’s safer to bring all resort (K7000/3hr) is another possibility. Myanmar Treasure
the cash you might need with you. Resort charges an eye-watering $10/hr, while the Aureum
Swimming pools Hotels in Ngwe Saung tend to charge Palace comes in at a whopping $15/day – but you do at
exorbitant rates for non-guests to use their pools. The most least get a fruit juice thrown in.
affordable is the medium-sized pool at the Bay of Bengal
2
Ngapali and around

Asked to vote for their favourite Burmese beach, nine out of ten travellers will most
likely plump for NGAPALI. Named, according to folklore, by a homesick Italian in
memory of his native city, Ngapali (pronounced “Napoli”) has just about everything
you’d expect of the perfect tropical getaway: kilometres of idyllic and fairly
undeveloped beach, with powder-fine white sands backdropped by swaying palms and
fringed with a discreet line of upmarket resorts. The perfect bolthole, it feels a long way
from anywhere but is easily accessible via a short flight from Yangon (although reaching
it overland remains a real slog). The only downside is the exorbitant cost of
accommodation here, even by (400m), (800m), Ngapali Water Sport Center (4km), (4km), Airport (6km) & (8km)
skyrocketing Myanmar standards – expect htein lin Thar Gallery
up to double the cost of similar places ngapali N
down the coast in Ngwe Saung. art Gallery LIN THAR
“Ngapali” is a rather loose umbrella term
used to cover several former fishing
villages, now all but linked up into a long
necklace of hotels and resorts. At the
north end of the beach, the area around M AIN ROAD
the airport is home to a burgeoning
number of large resorts, while south of DrInKInG
here the villages of Lin Thar and Mya Pyin Memento Resort 1 2 Oriental Ballooning
Yé Hlay Bar
(aka “Myabin”) are where you’ll find most aCCOMMODaTIOn
of Ngapali’s other hotels. Amara Ocean Resort 4
South of Mya Pyin (just past the Pleasant Amazing Ngapali 12 3
Amata Resort & Spa
View Resort), the larger village of Gyeiktaw Bay View Beach Resort 6
(aka Jade Taw) remains determinedly Kipling’s Bay 2 7
Lin Thar Oo Lodge
local, with lots of little thatched huts and Memento Resort 8 MYA PYIN
a pervasive smell of drying seafood Ngapali Bay Villas 10
Pleasant View Resort
15
– there’s a lively fish market here that’s Residence by Sandoway 13
Royal Beach Motel
14
best in the early morning (around Sandoway Resort 11
6–7am). The next village south is Lon Tha. Silver Beach Hotel 5 9
Thande Beach Hotel
A small hilltop temple here offers superb Yoma Cherry Lodge 1
views over the area. eaTInG
There’s nothing much to distract you Best One 4
from the beach here, although there are Excellence 2 1
Htay Htay's Kitchen
a few tours and water-based activities on Pleasant View 5 M A I N R O A D
Restaurant
offer (see box, p.116). For something Two Brothers 3 GYEIKTAW
more cultural, check out Ngapali Art
Gallery (Wngapaliartgallery.com) and
Htein Lin Thar Art Gallery, next door to
one another at the northern end of Lin
Thar village, which both display and sell nGaPalI 0 500
locally produced art. metres
Lon Tha (800m) & Gwa (130km)
098-137_Myanmar_B2_Ch2.indd 113 30/06/17 2:20 pm