One of the most common questions about Burma I get is about the food and/or the hotel or lodging quality. So let’s talk about our trip and our experience. First we went with a small group and with a very experienced travel agency: Insider Asia. They have been organizing custom trips to Asia for many years. While this trip to Burma was their first one, they did a lot of research and selected a very good local guide.
Both of those attributes made our trip amazing.
The lodging was always excellent as most hotels were 4-5 stars equivalent. My favorite hotel was the Myanmar Treasure Resort Inle.
My favorite hotel
Here is a couple images of what our room looked like. We had a patio with view of the lake, a cool private outdoor shower, and a fantastic bed.
High-end lodging in Burma
Room with a view
In Burma, they make their own beer called Myanmar, which is a light lager. The taste is sweet, very mild, crisp and clean. For serious beer drinkers, this is probably a very boring beer but it’s refreshing.
Myanmar local beer
My way of evaluating an hotel to know how high-end it is, is to ask for a cappuccino. In a very high-end hotel, you will get a very decent one. The hotel will have the right machine, coffee beans and the trained personnel to make one. In 3 out of 4 of our high-end hotels, I got decent ones.
Expresso in Burma
As for the food, Burmese cuisine is a mix of Indian, Thai and Chinese cuisine but we tried local pancakes in the market, noodles in shops, and doughnuts. There is a lot of food stands that will sell you amazing food. Like many south-east Asia countries, the base food is rice, so don’t expect to find pasta, pizza, and other western food items here. I had rice every day during this trip and it’s fine by me, I love rice.
If you want to get a western meal, your best bet is to find the nicest hotel in the area and the hotel restaurant will likely have what you are looking for.
Noodle shop in Burma
Homemade noodle
Burmese cuisine is a blend of Chinese, Thai and Indian cuisine.
Burmese pancakes at the market.
Add a bit of coconut shaving to the pancakes
Flip and eat while warm
Thai-inspired burmese food.
Food stand on the side of the road.
Local bar in Burma
Disclaimer: I have no food allergy and I’m willing to taste any food at least twice. So your mileage may vary depending on how a picky eater you are.
This is the 8th post about my trip to Burma.
- part 1: Burma/Myanmar – Shwedagon pagoda
- part 2: Burma/Myanmar – Sule Pagoda
- part 3: Burma/Myanmar – Kandawgyi Lake
- part 4: urma/Myanmar – Kyaukhtatgyi, Nga Htat Gyi and Botataung Pagodas
- part 5: Burma/Myanmar – Bagan pagodas and temples (Shwesandaw, Shwezigon and Sulamani
- part 6: Burma/Myanmar – Bagan monks
- part 7: Burma/Myanmar – Mandalay
All the images presented here are available for licensing or as fine art prints.