Myanmar summary

Myanmar Jan2025 summary
Some final thoughts and what else I consider worth sharing.

For regular readers, the previous posts were in logical order. However for who comes later, they are inverse and should be read in this order:
https://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2025/03/myanmar-jan2025-general-observations.html
https://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2025/03/gay-massages-in-mandalay.html
https://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2025/03/gay-online-resources-for-myanmar.html
https://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2025/03/gay-massages-in-yangon.html
https://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2025/03/online-dating-in-myanmar.html
https://christianpfc.blogspot.com/2025/04/gay-activities-jan2025-myanmar.html

The earthquake of 28mar2025 put a stop to the economical development of Myanmar and tourism (currently airports of Mandalay and Naypyidaw not open for commercial flights and no tourist visas being issued since 3apr2025 Update: tourist visas resumed 22apr2025; trip.com offers flights to Mandalay, but according to flightradar24 no scheduled flight, checked 28apr2025). Exchange rate for MMK was not affected by the earthquake.

I checked online dating profiles of some of my encounters from Mandalay, I'm happy to report they are online, i.e. they are alive and there is sufficient electricity and mobile network. Massage shops closed for a few days after the earthquake, but now operating again.

I checked my notes from 2017-2019 and prices for massage and happy ending stayed the same or 50% rise. With exchange rate trebling in that time frame, that means the above services now cost less than half based on EUR or USD.

This applies to Balloons over Bagan as well. Before Covid, prices were up to 350 USD for a balloon ride, and the sky filled with 20-30 balloons. I got my ride for about 150 USD, and there were two balloons (each can carry up to 16 passengers, or rather has to carry 16 passengers to get the right weight and in my flight they took one staff in to get the correct weight).
 

I met only few other White tourists during my trip, and they all liked Myanmar and will be back.
 
Yangon bus station to town
Regular bus from Bagan, arrives at Aung Mingalar Highway bus station 19:21, all dark (sunset and no electricity, only stray light from cars and shops and people with flashlights). Local handlers approach all passengers, me in okay English. I have no idea where taxis or Grab pick up is, anyway it's dark and I don't know where I am, so I follow, about 100 m, he carries my suitcase. Initial asking price is 60k, but I get him down to 35k based on fare on Grab 30k8. We arrive where the taxis are, there discussion among locals, and finally get taxi assigned and price of 45k mentioned. I correct them, (handler and driver), they try for 40k, but I show them grab 30k8 and they accept 35k. I get the front seat and a lady in back seat as passenger (never had that before, except specifically shared taxi in Cambodia for longer distances). Driver speaks good English, I chat him up and he has a long rant about the handlers who cheat both the drivers and the passengers. They took 5k from him for assigning me. Drivers are not allowed to enter bus station. Taxi ride 19:29-20:15 to Chinatown.

Double pricing in hotels
My hotel in Yangon has double pricing, slightly disguised by quoting prices for foreigners in USD and for locals in MMK. My room is 25 USD or 90k (based on old exchange rate 1 USD = 3k6), whereas locals pay 60k or 13 USD (based on current exchange rate 1 USD = 4k5).

“Penthouse Suite with Pagoda View” balcony indeed has view of Shwedagon and Sule (after turning your view by 90 degree) at the same time. Shwedagon can be in a mist, depending on air pollution.

Haircut
In Myanmar I got my cheapest haircut ever (1k MMK = 8 THB or 0.22 EUR or USD). I'm speaking about open-air, or more fancy “alfresco” haircut, i.e. not a shop with walls and ceiling, but the hairdresser hangs his mirror and stuff on a wall or tree. You can get that kind of haircut for slightly less than 1 EUR in India and China, but in Thailand or Cambodia it would cost about 1.50 EUR.

Menus by QR code
I encountered two restaurants that have menus online by QR code. I dislike this practice in general, and here you have power outages and poor mobile data, which means it might not work.

Massage spree
In 26 days (including arrival and departure) in Myanmar, I had 12 massages (3 in Mandalay, 0 in Bagan, 9 in Mandalay), which is a record number for me. After a slow start in Mandalay, a gap in Bagan (for lack of gay massage and gay online dating), figuring out how things work in Yangon, I had a massage almost every day in Yangon. Normally, I would have less than 1 massage per month when I'm in Thailand. But I cannot life on massage alone, have to do some sightseeing and other stuff as well.

Prices and customer satisfaction are much better in Myanmar. I had up to 2 of the following: great body, great massage, great afters. The hunt for all three in one boy will continue, many more boys and massage shops to try out. Next time I will probably try 4 hands massage, leading to threesome. The limiting factor is finding someone (manager or one of the boys) who speaks good English and instructs the two boys.
 
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