Mandalay to Yangon - Night Bus

Our final travel in Myanmar required transport from Mandalay to Singapore. The cheapest way for us to do this was a night bus to Yangon then a flight to Singapore. Flying straight from Mandalay was not direct and pretty expensive.

We picked the latest bus possible from Mandalay with Elite Express at 10.30pm. This took around 8 hours and cost 20,200 kyat per person.

We arrived at Mandalay bus terminal around 10pm for checkin and soon boarded the VIP bus. Again we were the only foreigners on the bus however this didn't matter as we only had one stop, Yangon.

The bus itself was clean with big comfy chairs and blankets. You get given a little snack box, bottle of water and can of coca cola. The chairs also have screens to watch films or listen to music. Films ranged from Despicable Me 2 to Iron Man 3 whilst the music were greatest hit albums apart from 16 pages of songs dedicated to Westlife (didn't realise how many songs they had)! 

Plenty of room

The journey was smoother than other trips in Myanmar but it was still be very bumpy. We stopped once near the capital for a 30 minute break around half 1. My partner was very unwell on the bus being sick a few times but the staff were very helpful even though they only spoke limited English. They allowed us to pull over one more time for my partner to get off for a few minutes. 

Screens for everyone 

After this, we managed to sleep and rolled into Yangon at 5.45am, ahead of schedule. The Yangon bus station is very hectic with lots of taxis. Make sure you know how much your taxi trip should be in advance otherwise you'll get ripped off.

We jumped in a taxi to the airport for 6,000 kyat between us which took about 30 minutes.  Then only a 12 hour wait until our flight!

4 out of 5 

Bagan to Mandalay - Minibus

After a fantastic few days in Bagan exploring we decided to move onto our next stop, Mandalay. Our second two days in New Bagan we stayed at Arthawka Hotel which I can highly recommend, especially if you want a pool after a hot day of exploring the temples!

The hotel had minibus (19 seater) tickets available to Mandalay for 9,000 kyat per person. This seemed reasonable and included pick up from the hotel as the bus station is quite far out. The bus company is called Pyi Taw Aye Express. The only two times available were 5am or 9am and it takes 5 hours, we picked the latter with pick up at 8am.

Old 19 seater minibus

We were picked up on time by a pick up struck along with other backpackers and travellers. We then drove up to Old Bagan and across to Nyaung-U where we arrived at Pyi Taw Aye Express bus office. We had expected to depart from the new bus terminal which must just be used for when you arrive to make more money from you for taxis.

The bus itself was quite old and only had a boot big enough for three suitcases with most backpacks being put under seats inside the bus. We departed not long after picking up many locals on the way. The bus at times got very crammed with locals standing up and  aisle ways full of backpacks. This also meant the bus attendant had the door open for large parts of the journey which made it very hot!

Locals crammed on

The roads are quite poor on this journey and we were in for a very bumpy ride. At one point you drive along train tracks across a bridge as the roads aren't accessible.

No longer a bridge!

We stopped at another of their offices in Myingyan to pick up a few more locals and have a ten minute toilet break. After this we didn't stop until not long before 12 for lunch, we just nipped across to a small shop for a couple of snacks.

The last leg of the journey was a bit smoother  as you hit the newer highway. A few more pick ups and drop offs before you get into Mandalay. The bus drops you off at your hotel which is good however we had difficulty finding ours. Finally we managed to locate the hotel and we arrived not long after 2.

3.5 out of 5